minoanmiss | Leaving the Evil River

I kind of hesitated to write this because I don't want to be scolded, but. Allegedly I am an adult. So.

I need to figure out somewhere to move my online shopping to from Amazon.

The problem is that I find online shopping congenial for so many reasons, ranging from time convenience to not getting sideyed by suspicious clerks to how fast my stumpy little legs tire out. I especially love Subscription options. I don't have to remember to buy X Y or Z because a computer sends them to me every month! And Amazon, which sells a wide range of things, is especially convenient in this regard.

However this convenience leads me to spend a fair amount of money ultimately financing the plutocracy.

REalistically I am one small person, a drop in a big bucket. But enough drops fill the bucket. So, if you have any ideas or suggestions for me (besides "spend your lunch hour walking around stores, you lazy lump") I would really appreciate them.

Current Mood: nervous

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

flamingsword

I have iHerb for my vitamins, protein and fiber powders, slave free chocolate, self care goo for my face, and all the taking-care-of-body things. I don’t use the auto ship/subscription option but they do have one. It can be adjusted for wanting one of a product every 1, 2, 3, or 4 months.

From:

mific

I get almost all my stuff (including groceries) online as well, partly for convenience but also, these days, as I can't walk far without lower back pain and other joints acting up. They even courier plants! I feel kind of bad about all the fossil fuel involved in getting it to me, but then if I went shopping it'd be me burning petrol instead. I manage without Amazon as it's not based here so things take longer and involve even more enviro-unfriendly transport like planes. I do a duck duck go search for whatever I want and find it from a local supplier in NZ. Pharmacies and natural foods companies (for ingredients, supplements etc.) are good for the subscriber thing. When I'm running out of something and want to reorder it I can never recall where I got it, but I just search my emails, and hey presto. You definitely shouldn't feel bad about not being able to walk too far around supermarkets and big box stores etc. There are lots of us in that boat.

From:

dine

no scolding at all - sometimes one can't stick to high principles. amazon makes it extremely easy to purchase all sorts of things, most often at a decent price, and it doesn't require travelling all over to find them. I know I purchase lots from the site - and I do wish I could stop it, but at this time there's no way. maybe if I find a couple of good replacement sites, I'll make the change, but it's not going to be this week - even if I know I *should* stop now

From:

rydra_wong

FWIW: several years back, I started doing a thing where any time I was going to buy something off Amazon, I'd find the thing I wanted, then Google it and see if I could buy it elsewhere. And if I could (without significant extra cost/inconvenience), I did, and if I couldn't, I bought it off Amazon without guilt.

I ended up finding various websites that it was convenient for me to order a lot of the things I order regularly from (e.g. a site for vitamins/supplements, a site for ebooks, etc.) and that made it more convenient because I wasn't having to search each time and only had to shift to a handful of new sites/accounts to use regularly.

In my case, I ended up being able to quit Amazon completely (which may well not be possible for everyone; everyone's got different needs and different regional options, no guilt), but I didn't set that as the initial goal. It just happened gradually over time. So it's felt sustainable and not more than a very minor incovenience.

From:

elainegrey

Thanks for this idea.

From:

anna_wing

I don't know what your city is like, but can you sort out what (a) must be bought online (e.g. large, heavy, sporadic purchases ) and (b) can be bought in small quantities in person every day on your way home or at lunch hour, etc?

Things in category (a) can then be bought from specific websites, as mentioned above, and things in (b) will let you support your local shops and, if that's relevant to you, reduce impulse spending and increase daily exercise.

From:

rachelkg

I would invert those two categories, because it's easier to assign category A purchases to one of the drivers (me or WD), who would definitely do it but might need a few days' notice. Mm works from home, any brick-and-mortar shopping is its own trip rather than "on the way".

From:

conuly

If it makes you feel better, nearly all Amazon's profits come from Amazon Web Services. Unfortunately, divesting from that is even harder.

From:

darkmarcy

Best of luck! Other commenters have good suggestions and ideas, and finding even some alternatives is better! I am proud of you, it is difficult to uproot from huge megacorps *cries in trying to untangle from Meta*

From:

darkmarcy

+ I remembered this series of articles, which may be interesting (hopefully not disheartening!)

https://gizmodo.com/life-without-the-tech-giants-1830258056

Part 1: Amazon
Part 2: Facebook
Part 3: Google
Part 4: Microsoft
Part 5: Apple

From:

minoanmiss

ZOMG brighteyes thank you so much!

From:

cmcmck

Problem of living in a small town as we doi is that not all the shops think to stock what one may need and the likes of amazon do.

While we support our local independent bookshop and love the owners, we read across four languages between us and they only stock one, so........

From:

rydra_wong

While we support our local independent bookshop and love the owners, we read across four languages between us and they only stock one, so........

Am I right in remembering that you're in the UK? If so, Bookshop.org is a wonderful thing (purchases through it support independent bookshops, and you can either select a specific shop -- your local, if it's on there -- or have your purchase benefit the pool):

https://uk.bookshop.org/

I don't know how good they are for non-English-language stuff, though.

From:

cmcmck

We are!

We use several online bookshops around Europe- mostly Italy, France and Germany.

From:

kore

And now they have ebooks!! I am EXCITE

From:

gingicat

Who owns Instacart these days? There's a Market Basket within their range of you if I recall their options correctly. And the Waltham Market Basket has nearly as many international food options as the Everett one.

I wish grocery scooters came with a vision booster for you!

From:

jadelennox

stop and shop's delivery does an excellent job and is packed and delivered by union employees.

From:

gingicat

Cool! I believe that Market Basket has excellent employee contracts, possibly not-officially-union collective bargaining.

From:

sabotabby

It's quite hard, actually, as Amazon has driven most competitors out of business. It's the only place I can get the cat food that Sabot likes, for example.

From:

princessofgeeks

It's very hard and if you are not able to walk around much, you should not be scolded for that!!!

In my city all the grocery stores now do home delivery now, a holdover from the pandemic.

For other stuff I think it's a toss up if Amazon is worse than Walmart!

For clothing one can go to the individual brands' own websites.

Good luck! Even if you can just buy fewer items from them, it's a victory.

I still use them for some things that I can't get locally any more plus I still want to watch Wheel of Time and NFL on their Prime channel.

From:

rydra_wong

Good luck! Even if you can just buy fewer items from them, it's a victory.

This! Think in terms of reducing how much you spend via Amazon and finding convenient alternatives for things. Then that might ultimately lead to being able to quit it completely (or it might not), but even if it doesn't, the reducing is a good thing.

From:

jadelennox

looks through receipts email folder

I do most of my shopping online, and I haven't touched amazon in many years. I often go straight to the vendor, or see if a local business has a decent online store (eg. porter square books, marathon sports for shoes). Stop and Shop does excellent grocery delivery and the packing and delivering is by union employees, and they don't mess up. I've used target.com and they're okay, though their packing could improve. NewEgg for tech. Torrid, Macy's, Kohl's, Bare Necessities, Menards, if not straight from the vendor (Honeywell, Nature's Path, Levi's -- which has plus sizes now that you can't find in stores, Otterbox, Dr. Bronners.). Many online stores do have subscription options. Gardeners.com for gardening things. Hope Depot does a surprisingly good job, honestly, and I think they have subscriptions.

It's been my experience that if only Amazon has something in stock, then the thing I'll get is either a fake or a slightly damaged or mislabeled return.

ETA: (stop and shop's website and mobile apps suck balls, tho.)

Edited Date: 2025-02-19 03:07 pm (UTC)

From:

adrian_turtle

For local grocery delivery, I use Wegmans via Instacard. Everything Wegmans sells has a very clear picture of both sides of the label, so I can zoom in and read all the ingredients. It makes it easier to avoid migraine triggers than with CVS. Shaws is mostly ok with food except sometimes when they aren't. And when I shop in person I have a terrible time reading labels because I am still trying to swap back and forth between reading and distance glasses.

Target recently canceled their DEI policies to make sure they would be in compliance with Trump's executive order. People who object are trying to shop elsewhere, but it's hard. I'm trying to use Home Depot for some of the Target purchases like Command hooks and laundry detergent and little shelving units, but I honestly don't know if HD has done something objectionable (yet?)

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

From:

mdlbear

See my most recent post for information about how and why to download all your Kindle e-books before next Wednesday to avoid having them get stuck up the river without a way to back them up.

From:

ceo

I have for several years gone to significant effort to avoid doing business with Amazon. It's not always possible, but I have noticed that if it is available elsewhere, it's almost never particularly more expensive than from Amazon. Of course, my employer's main product runs on Amazon Web Services (as well as other cloud storage providers), so there's that.

But I've never bought so much as a candy bar from Wal-Mart, so that's worth some lefty consumer virtuosity points right there.

From:

pameladean

I would never urge you to walk around a store. I didn't like it when I was doing it myself (something about fluorescent lights, I think), and I have not done so since March of 2020.

A number of other places you can order from do also offer subscriptions. Unfortunately, the only one I can remember offhand is the various suppliers of cat food and other necessary feline items, and you don't need that.

I have not yet quit Amazon, I just periodically remove something from my list there and get it somewhere else. I still use them if I'm in a hurry. I'm currently dismayed by the necessity of ceasing to support Target, which is where I went for a lot of things formerly bought from Amazon, and I'm in some disarray.

There really is no ethical consumption under capitalism. But one can try to support the lesser evil, and I applaud your intentions.

P.

From:

elainegrey

I grew up with the Sears catalog, with LLBean and Lands End. We did lots of catalog shopping. I still use the same mail order tea company i started using in the early 1990s, before the Green Card Lawyers heralded the end of the internet (OK, i exaggerate). I understand the value of buying things not in bricks-and-mortar. There's shopping for quality: i can buy well made things from specific vendors (often on Amazon) or choose from three inexpensive and cheap sources at the big box hardware store. So many trade offs.

My most disappointing story of trying to leave amazon was some years back when i was trying to get a clothes drying rack sent to our then new to us home while we moved across country. Ebay had what i needed, so i ordered from there. When it arrived shortly after we arrived, it was in an Amazon box.

From:

rachelkg

I can do a brick-and-mortar shopping trip for you once a week; that doesn't take the place of all online shopping, but if you give me a list I will get the things.

From:

minoanmiss

hugs you tightly

From:

petra

I was afraid, backreading my subscription list, that this was a "I am no longer in de Nile about VERY BAD HEALTH CRAP" title rather than divesting from Amazon. Whoops, wrong evil river.

*hugs* I am glad you are trying to consume more ethically, difficult though it is, and I wish you good health outcomes, both.

From:

cellio

I'm looking for alternatives too, so thank you for posting this. I have some credits to burn off there (employer "rewards" program was mostly junk but I could convert points to Amazon gift cards, so...), and aside from that I want to reduce my shopping there. Especially with the crap move they're pulling with Kindle books!

From:

lokifan

Good luck! It's a good thing to do.

Unfortunately I don't know that I can rec much from the UK. I like Who Gives A Crap for loo roll and E-surgery for medicine, hopefully they're international? And for books, bookshop.org is great and it does e-books too in the US.