Technology

I figured out my new Ubiquity firewall can block Amazon and Amazon video with a few clicks. Added bonus that the tv was sending GBs of data that way, without us using the app.

Yeah i stopped using amazon years ago. So I can't really join. Plus amazon makes so much money from orime sub aand truly absence amounts from aws.

I used to buy a ton of Amazon stuff. Mostly art supplies, pet supplies, clothes, novelties I didn't need.

One day, I was browsing Reddit and I was like-- "what is this boycott thing all about?" and then I started by not ordering for one whole day!

Then one whole week!

Then one whole month!

Anyway, I ended up cancelling my Prime subscription, deleting my Amazon account completely, and cancelling my Prime Store credit card.

Then at work, for Valentine's Day, we each received a $200 dollar Amazon gift card as an employee appreciation gift.

I spoke up and said that I would prefer to receive cash or nothing at all because my values did not align with Amazon-- which caused many of my coworkers to decline theirs as well.

It was so perplexing to leadership, that they decided that going forward they are just going to give us a $200 cash bonus on our paychecks

So anyways, that's the impact one of these "pointless" boycott posts had on me.

It's very hard to avoid buying stuff on Amazon even if we hate them. This provides a bit of extra motivation.

The problem with boycotts like this, is they do essentially nothing... A single day, week, or even a full month of boycotts can only be successful if a critical mass of people do it at once. And frankly, they're not going to get that.

The people most likely to boycott Amazon and the like are people whom already don't purchase things from Amazon, or lightly do it. Amazon if fine with that, because eventually people go back to buying. So what, they're gonna post one bad quarter? Small price to pay for doing business.

You can't boycott evil businesses. You have to stop using them entirely. Forever. And most people simply aren't willing to.

One day boycotts will never have any impact. A lot of their money comes from prime. Prime cancelling is what they care about.

Because only five people care

Couldn't boycott it for the moral reasons? Like, are you saying you'd still support the height of shitty companies destroying their industries if they just had good UI and better deals?

Yep. Half their products feel cheaper in quality than Temu. I cancelled Amazon years ago when I realized they let ANYONE sell on there. Pair that with the corporate monopoly they and others hold, I passed on supporting it.

It sends a message - this is a warning shot. If things don't change, another extended boycott can be organised. These people think quarterly, 7 days isn't insignificant on that time horizon.

What are you doing?

The first day is the hardest. You NEED that thing that Amazon has made easy for you to get with just a click from your couch. You drag yourself off the couch grumbling and get on the bus/on the bike/in your car (if you have to) and go out and buy something just as good (if not better), from the local store. You repeat this a few times. By day 7, you realise...you can buy the stuff locally, not supporting a knee-bending billionaire, and the world hasn't ended. Even if you still buy things you just can't find from Amazon after the 7 day boycott, you find many things you can buy locally without funding Nazis. Your total sales goes down, and you're more inclined to shut down Amazon Prime. Eventually, you are only using Amazon as a last resort.

And that's how you go from a 7 day boycott to changing your life. ;)

haven't bought anything from Amazon in years.