A Decade Without Amazon: How and Why I Boycott Amazon

I recently celebrated my 10-year anniversary of boycotting Amazon! 

It’s been so long, I don’t even remember the final trigger point that started the boycott. I remember reading about Amazon's work culture and business practices and thinking,“um, that sounds terrible.” (A recent article Inside the Brutal Business Practices of Amazon details some of these issues). While their actions weren’t technically illegal, they definitely clashed with my values. 

Believing in "be the change," I decided to stop supporting them financially. I never expected it to last, but year after year, my stubborn self stuck with it. Amazon is such a part of everyday life, sometimes it feels like I am in a very, very small club.

3 Things I Sort Of, Kind Of, Not Really Miss

• Convenience: Amazon is great for one-stop shopping. Finding alternatives can be time-consuming, and some small businesses only sell on Amazon.
  
  
• Streaming Shows: There were a few sci-fi shows that only aired on Amazon Prime. But with other streaming services offering tons of content, I consider this a “high-income-country problem” and it doesn’t bother me. To be honest, I tend to forgot about the shows over time. As I’m writing this, I can’t even remember the name of a single shows I missed out on. So clearly it hasn’t affected my life deeply.
  
  
• Whole Foods: When Amazon acquired Whole Foods, I stopped shopping there. While not a regular customer, I did miss some specialty items from my local store—conveniently located 3 blocks from my home!

And… well, that’s about it. Missing the speciality items at Whole Foods is probably the biggest deal. But it’s already been about 5 years since they were bought out, so at this point I rarely even think about it.

An Unexpected Perk

Last year, I learned Goodreads was taken over by Amazon. (It happened earlier, I just was late to find out.) I am an avid audiobook listener, and love keeping track of the books I’ve read.

I didn’t have to search long for an amazing alternative: StoryGraph. It has more features than Goodreads and plenty of pretty eye-candy graphs and collages. I love this app, and if you are a fellow bibliophile, I can’t recommend it enough! I’ll write more about Storygraph in a later post, but in the meantime, if you are on StoryGraph, feel free to send me a friend request especially if you’re into SciFi (as you can see from my last 2 and a half months, I 👽 SciFi!)

3 Gray Areas

• Kickstarter Early in my boycott, I funded Kickstarter projects, so technically I did give Amazon money. At the time, Kickstarter used Amazon Pay to process backer pledges. I wasn’t happy about Amazon collecting payment fees, but I wanted to support the creators. Thankfully, Kickstarter switched processors, and now I can happily fund nerdy games, creative art projects and whatever else I’d like without feeling like I’m somehow compromising my soul.
  
  
• Affiliate Link: Up until a few years ago, I actively promoted my Amazon affiliate link. You probably know how affiliate links work: when someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase within a certain timeframe, the affiliate earns a small amount—typically anywhere from 3 cents to a couple dollars, depending upon the items purchased—per order.
  
  I joked that I was selling my soul by continuing to earn money from sharing Amazon links, though I confess I got a bit of smug satisfaction out of the fact that I earned more money from Amazon than I gave them. But it still didn’t sit right with me. Every single business person I talked to told me to keep promoting my link, that people were going to shop at Amazon anyway, so I may as well make a few bucks. And yes, that’s a smart, capitalistic business move, I get it. Eventually, though, I knew I couldn’t keep profiting from something that went against my values. (Did I already mention I can be stubborn?) So I stopped sharing my link. Occasionally people still find old links, so in the interest of full disclosure, I do still earn about $50/year from Amazon.
  
  
• Gift Certificates: Sometimes, I receive Amazon gift certificates from loved ones. I’ll be damned if I’m just going to let the company have $25 for absolutely nothing! So I accept the gift certificates with gratitude and make the most of them.

The Power of Aligned Spending

Looking back, my Amazon boycott has been more than just avoiding a company. It's been about aligning my spending with my values. It's encouraged me to be resourceful and appreciate the satisfaction of supporting local stores and small businesses that care about the same things I do.

Over the years I've met a few Amazon employees, or former employees, and I always ask them what they think of the company. Let's just say their experiences haven't made me reconsider my boycott.

Curious about how you can ditch Amazon? Check out my next post, "5 Tips To Help You Boycott Amazon," for inspiration and ideas on how to embark on your own conscious shopping journey!