Depending on where you live, just order less. Try to pick up the stuff you order or go to shops directly (or sometimes question if you really need it). Its not all or nothing, every single product less bought with them is a step in the right direction
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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This is how I've been shopping for years, but not to be woe is me, I'm a wheelchair user with a variety of medical nonsense that keeps me in the house. Trying to shop ethically online used to be feasible, but it's increasingly impossible
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism (never has been), and while it might make you feel a bit less shit for an instant, this effort you're making isn't going to have any actual impact (the companies don't care about you, or their workers, they care about profit. All of them. And your personal spending is insignificant to them in that sense) and a much better use of your fight energy (which, as a fellow wheelchair user I know is probably already spread extremely thin) would be on addressing the system itself, not the symptoms of it which are pretty identical across the industry.. Other curriers treat their staff just as poorly, they're just not a big name so it's not in the news.
Give yourself a break, pick your battles (E: much easier said than done, I know, but you still must, for your own wellbeing)
And I’d address the “system itself” how exactly? My choice is typically between a capitalist Democrat, or a batshit insane Republican, or maaaybe a batshit insane third party candidate. Not a single politician who has a chance of winning wants to undo our “system” as they all benefit from it.
Act local for sure. Trying to make changes on the national level is needed, but it will take time. At the local level you're more likely to see results sooner.
We also have things like makerspaces, opensource, community coops, mutual aid, community centers, food banks, etc as places to get involved to help get power in the hands of people and make a difference today.
And the system goes deeper. One could write a book for instance and influence the philosophy of those around them. That’s part of the system too. Malnutrition messing up people’s decision making is part of the system. You can push in so many places. Even your friends and family are part of the system so if you help them out things will improve.
The fact that I never once mentioned electoral politics, yet that's the only solution you can think of, says it all really.. Try expanding your views, fruitycoder gave you plenty of good places to start.
Welcome to life bud
Retail is drop in bucket for Amazon. Their main revenue comes from AWS. How do you plan to avoid that?
This was my thought a well. Just using the internet at all guarantees that we’re supporting Amazon, Google, and Microsoft because they host most of the content.
This conundrum points back to our need to have agency, and something OP will/should address. One way to lower anxiety is to understand where we have personal agency and where we don’t. No matter how hard or how long I beat on a brick wall with my bare hands I will not damage it, only tire and damage myself. This isn’t limited to man made/capitalism. I also cannot swim across an ocean. Recognizing when I can make a difference and accepting my personal limits allows me to focus my goals around things where I will succeed or produce results. They may be (globally) small, but they affect me and my community in a meaningful way. I might even use that brick wall to provide a brace for leverage or the water in the ocean for salt or brackish irrigation. Expending energy that I know will not affect change only lets them beat me twice.
I used to believe this stat too, then I looked it up. AWS is about 12.5% of their income. Online retail is about 50%. Your point still stands though, you can't easily avoid Amazon's revenue stream.
AWS is about 12.5% of their income.
I mentioned revenue, not income. The income from AWS is low because much of the revenue is reinvested in expansion of AWS.
Then we're both wrong. A deeper dive into newer numbers shows AWS REVENUE is 16% (12.5% is a year or two old). online stores REVENUE is 50%. The thing is that online stores recently started losing money so AWS INCOME is currently Amazon's bread winner. (Edit: swipe type spelling mistakes)
What’s the difference?
Revenue represents sales, whereas income represents profits.
Why not just say profit then?
Profit would be income - expenses.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cloud-firewall/
But honestly I don't AWS is as bad as their retail side to there employees.
Vendors fulfil through Amazon because they handle returns.
Even big stores utilize them for this.
Suffice to say, it is difficult unless you're outside the US.
I have the exact same issue. I thought buying directly from the manufacturer's site would fix it, but I still get Amazon boxes from some of them. I don't buy from them again, but it still sucks. I have ended up buying even less, and I wasn't buying much before.
I try to buy things used, but sometimes that's just not possible. If it has to be new I try different sites until I find one that doesn't go through them. You can even call customer service for some smaller sites and find out ahead of time.
I don't agree with the "don't bother" hopelessness in this thread. Trying to do the least bad thing is still worthwhile, even if you can't do something perfectly ethical. I'm proud of you for doing your best.
I don’t agree with the “don’t bother” hopelessness in this thread. Trying to do the least bad thing is still worthwhile, even if you can’t do something perfectly ethical. I’m proud of you for doing your best.
Yup. Don't let others choose your ethical views and decisions for you. I know boycotting big companies makes life more complicated (and sometimes more expensive) but I'm still doing it myself.
If you don't want to support a cause because of whatever, go for it and look for an alternative. Enough asking around and studying the Internet should bring out more options eventually, if you got the resources for this study.
It is shitty corporations all the way down to the turtle my kind dude.
You accept that you live in the most late stage capitalist country of all time that's very pro monopoly.
And then you move I guess. No one believes USA will ever change for the better.
Move to Czechia! Amazon's presence is negligible here, we have our own local alternatives (Alza.cz being the biggest one, but we also have a plethora of e-commerce sites in general).
Germany also has plenty other websites like Otto and Kaufland. And they all your favourite random letter brands you can find in amazon.
In Switzerland we don't even have Amazon. We can order from one of the neighbourhing countries' Amazon, but they don't always ship here. There are a lot of alternatives though.
Really it’s the internet that enables these monopolies. It nullifies space for information. Like a little pizza place can only have so much reach. But if the product is teleported, then that little pizza operation can just keep growing and growing smoothly and taking more of the market. And it can happen really fast.
You can't avoid Amazon entirely but your order is still a drop in the bucket that tips the scales in the right direction.
For small brands trying to establish a presence, the first thing retail buyers and distributers ask is how their Amazon sales numbers look. Having an Amazon presence is not optional for small brands that are trying to grow.
If 90% of orders come from amazon and only 10% come from their own website, it frequently doesn't make sense to both pay for Amazon distribution and keep their own warehousing and distribution capabilities. But if more people like you and I convince people to order directly and 40% came from direct orders, that math starts to bias more heavily in favor of setting up their own fulfillment.
So find some comfort in that you are playing a small part in paving the way to a better future for these companies even if they are beholden to the Amazon monopoly currently.
Why not create a logistics company to compete with amazon? It’s not the outsourcing of logistics that’s the problem — it’s outsourcing it to Amazon specifically because of their specific culture and nature as a company.
Clearly that's much easier said than done.
However, this recent news feels very relevant.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/14/24038042/fedex-fdx-e-commerce-platform-amazon-rival-shoprunner
I don't know enough about FedEx culture to know if this is a good thing, but any serious competition is probably an improvement at this point.
I buy from online stores (eg, clothing, jewelry, beauty) who don't use amazon, and fortunately I've never seen evidence of amazon involved in those purchases. I admire your efforts to find alternatives from that awful company
eBay is just as filthy of a corp as Amazon. Who are you fooling?
Agreed. But then what?
Don’t consume anything.
I advise that you just don't give a fuck if the order is coming through Amazon or not. Who's to say whether they're more evil than some other company that might fulfill your order. The thing you're buying was probably made with exploitative labour practices from unethically sourced materials anyway. Simply shipping it to you is probably dependent on a global logistics network of fossil fuels and colonialism.
Just don't think about it. There's no way to buy things in this world and "do good" at the same time.
But then what
Do good in other ways