I’ve been able to successfully degoogle, and recently came to terms that I need to deamazon too. It’s going to take quite a while. I’m a prime subscriber and use AWS.
I’m looking into Barnes and Nobel for future book purchases. I recently did a larger purchase online directly from the vendor instead of purchasing through Amazon. I plan to do more of that.
What’s been frustrating has been the small things. I needed a pill splitter, so I stopped at Walmart on the way home from work, dealt with some crowd and retraced my steps around the pharmacy a few times before I found it, then had to deal with self checkout. This would have been quicker and wasted less of my time to use Amazon. That’s going to be the hardest kind of benefit to give up.
AWS I’ll probably start migrating this summer. I’m planning to switch to Backblaze for cloud storage. I still need to look into an alternative registrar, and ideally very cheap static web hosting. I also need to find providers that have good ansible support since I use that for all my local and remote configuration.
It took years for me to get off Google. I worry it’s going to take even longer to give up Amazon, but yeah it’s time.
Amazon bought Barnes&Noble ages ago; buying from them at all is still benefiting Amazon — but there are lots of great alternatives online for books (physical and ebook formats), as well as visiting your local used book stores. I use Amazon for keyword searches basically just so I can maximize the number of results I get elsewhere. Getting off of major sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc. also puts you back in touch with the actual internet rather than the retail echo chamber we’re accustomed to.
I get way better deals that way as well, and pay vendors directly rather than through a middleman like Amazon.
I appreciate your feedback. Moving more local is definitely a goal. I buy a lot of specialized books which I can’t find at small bookshops so I tend to gravitate to larger companies.
All that being said, I’m going to downvote your comment because I can find no credible sources that supports your claim that Amazon owns Barnes & Nobel. I’d be happy to change my mind if you provide sources, but I dislike misinformation.
“Amazon bought Barnes&Noble ages ago;”
I think you’re thinking of Borders, Barnes & Noble’s long bankrupt competitor. Barnes & Noble got bought by a private buyer from the UK a few years ago when they started circling the drain. I wouldn’t recommend the Nook ereading platform, though. I’ve had three of the products since they first launched, and they are buggy. -Add to that the supporting the ereading platform has never been a high priority especially when the company was struggling, and their free ebook selection went from low-quality, low-selection to nonexistant.
Long story short I’ve been considering a Kobo ereader as my next ereader over another nook product for a while now.
It’s* time to disrupt
That fuck… I was so confused with the title for a second.
LOL, I’m boycotting Amazon since 2007, at least. Good luck!
Me too, 2010ish though. I wish I could figure out how to boycott AWS. As an aged developer with a little bit of influence, I’ve steered plenty of clients, employers, peers, and juniors away, but I still use the internet. There’s no detaching from that.
This is off topic, but as a new developer (about to graduate) I’m having a tough time envisioning places to work. Ideally once I get enough experience I can be more choosy (non profit work is my goal) in the meantime I need experience.
Based on what you can infer about me from being on Lemmy in this thread, do you have any advice for a new developer in regards to fun or ethical work?
Absolutely, and thanks for asking. Also, congrats! I’d recommend looking at credit unions (US/Canada) and higher ed. Both are non-profits and good stepping stones. Either can be a career if you don’t want a ‘stepping stone.’ Depending on how altruistic you want to be, you can find either that serve underserved communities. CUs pay better, but are more corporate and demanding. Higher ed doesn’t pay as well, but is more laid back if you can ignore politics, which there is a ridiculous amount of. I worked at a HBCU (US) for a long time, and it was pretty great. Depending on where you are, it’s usually pretty easy to find an open spot at either.
Thanks for taking the time to respond I appreciate it.
100% on board.
Would be better to plan this a little farther out but I am already on a permanent boycott so I support this obviously.
Hey I’m participating for a few years now and I didn’t even know it.
Remember to send them an email and let them know you’re boycotting them. They don’t have to know how long you’ve been doing it.
Already canceled my Prime subscription renewal due to Bezos’ prior shenanigans. Unfortunately, still have it until June. But, I don’t plan to use any of it.
Mine ended last month. Don’t miss it.
Yeah, I haven’t used it in a few weeks and haven’t missed it either. I had stopped watching any of their streaming once they started that ads bullshit.
Same, 1337x is right there, why would hand them extra revenue on top of everything I was already sending them? Now they get nothing and I still see the content
Nice. fuck bezos with his blue origin penis rocket
A whole 7 days??? Gosh gee willakers!!! You think people can uphold a boycott a whole 7 days???
Look. Boycotts are effective, but you gotta be stubborn. It’s gotta be “boycott from now on” with no end date.
Otherwise, it’ll just look like normal fluctuations in their business.
“Oh, this week was slightly down…ah, but then it stopped. We’re good!”
But if you boycott forever, then their numbers continuously go down. And if you get other people boycotting, those numbers go down faster.
THAT’S how you make an impact.
Okay, so start boycotting Amazon now and don’t stop.
How do you get people who can’t see themselves boycotting indefinitely? You get them used to it by getting them on board to boycott for a fixed length of time. Ideally, as they warm up to the idea, you get them to boycott for longer.
I have ordered from them line 5 or 6 times, subscribed for a year because I wanted to watch a series by terry Pratchett, and never again interacted with it in the past 8 years or so. You are not boycotting food or water or oxygen.
True, but 7 days isn’t enough time for that. I’ve gone weeks between purchasing the kinds of things Amazon delivers, so it’d just be normal. 2+ months is probably better. Especially if those months are Nov & Dec.
I have spent the 38 years I have accumulated without needing to buy a single thing from that particular company. WTF?
Some people can’t even handle a 1-day boycott. I think you’re overestimating the average person’s tolerance for discomfort.
I don’t even understand what people buy so often. I can easily go a month without buying a new physical item that’s not like, food
I really don’t get it either, how much shit do people need!?
Yeah but it lets people feel like they’ve boycotted. Which isn’t coddling/faux activism so much as it is starter-activism. We don’t want activism to seem hard… even though we know that effective activism pretty much requires meaningful changes to behaviour which often brings discomfort. People are really out of practice and our goal is getting people into the habit
Too late. If not buying unnecessary shit they don’t need from a particular retailer that could be replaced by any other during a previously delimited week seems revolutionary to them… I’m sorry but… They are a huge part of the problem.
In 1995 we boycotted Shell for environmental reasons and it worked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Spar
Towing of the platform to its final position began on 11 June. By this time, the call for a boycott of Shell products was being heeded across much of continental northern Europe, damaging Shell’s profitability as well as brand image. […]
On 20 June, Shell had decided that their position was no longer tenable, and withdrew their plan to sink the Brent Spar […]
So it needed bit more than a week of concerted boycott action to bring big business into trouble, but not unlimited boycott.
That boycott had a demand attached, to prevent the sinking of the Brent Spar buoy. Effectively “unlimited” boycott until Shell gave into the demand.
This and the last no shop Friday thing seem mostly pointless. I mean fuck Amazon for sure but shouldn’t there be some goal? “Boycott Amazon until X, Y, and Z” not “No buy from Amazon for a week but then we’ll be back so no worries!”
The implicit demand is to stop supporting fascists.
Implicit demands are for mob bosses and boat owners. If you’re threatening a corporation you need to be clear and direct.
Less
We are boycotting Amazon products until they stop be bad
More
We are boycotting Amazon products until they make another season of The Expanse
Or whatever. Clear, concrete, demands.
for a week
Lol, this is the first one that I’m mildly inconvenienced by participating in. Wheel of Time S3 comes out somewhere in there doesn’t it?
I can wait.
Fuck that show. Fuck the Halo show. Fuck each and every company that just buys a name and thus a built-in fan base and mutilates the original IP beyond recognition.
Just pirate it.
The thing is, I really don’t want them to cancel it. I’ve been signing up for it and then cancelling my subscription when it’s finished, and then pirating it anyway. I just want them to see it as valuable, so they don’t try to squeeze 14 books worth of content into one shitty finale because it’s not making them money.
Yes, I can see how you might not want to boycott a company if you’re worried about them not making money because of it.
Oh please, that’s not even close to what I said. I just don’t want them to cancel a show I like and you’re all acting like I’m swinging from Bezos’ dick. You’re all rabid.
The world is on fire and you’re worried about your favorite TV show? Come on dude. These boycotts will not work if we can’t even sacrifice the bare minimum. And yes, a TV show is the bare minimum.
No, you come on. You’re are misrepresenting what I actually said. If you actually read my post, you’ll see that I plan to participate in the boycott regardless. I made a throwaway comment about how it would be “mildly inconvenient” that I’d miss the opening, but also that I would do it regardless.
So what, I’m not even allowed to acknowledge that Prime has stuff I’m interested in? I have to boycott it, and deny that it holds any value whatsoever?
That’s bullshit. It’s entirely possible to both acknowledge that there are decent Amazon produced shows AND think that the company is evil as fuck and want to boycott them.
And here you’ve encountered first hand why these protests don’t work.
that is the wrong mindset for a boycott. no amazon period from now until forever. if shows go under so much the better. take your show business elsewhere.
Arrr matey. Its the breakdown of society ‘if the people running society aren’t following the rules, why should I?’ especially a giant corporation, and especially a giant corporation that sides with Trump. So yes, pirate it. Fuck 'em.
I already don’t use Amazon and I think I might actually have them at a net loss as I used to say things didn’t arrive back when they would do anything to make you happy.
Upvoted because everybody should stop using Amazon.
Nice. Yeah, I like to think I have had them at a loss since the early 2000s when they sent me a $600 DVD player/writer instead of the $300 DVD player that I ordered. I tried to do the honest thing and send it back (knew i had no legal obligation) but the process at the time was so annoying that i just kept it.
I boycott Amazon years ago already, when a warehouse of people died because employees were told that the government’s tornado warning was just hyperbole.
Amazon is an evil company that treats its workers like garbage, and practices some of the most vile anti-union practices.
I cancelled my Amazon Prime account and never bought a single item through Amazon anymore. I don’t buy anything from Temu either, by the way.
That warehouse disaster was horrible. Those poor souls. May they rest in peace.
I still can’t believe Amazon got away with it.
Its gut wrenching. No amount of lawsuit money could give true justice. Lives were taken. You can’t give those back.
Change is the only positive outcome, and money to the families sure. But to prevent that horrible atrocity and to give power back to the people. Where they aren’t in fear to go home for fear of losing their jobs or what ever the punishment was.
With a few exceptions, I haven’t bought from Amazon in more than a decade. I never buy from them unless I absolutely can’t find the thing I need anywhere else.
Just delete your account already.
Lol no, cuz then my option is Walmart and I ain’t doing that.
Definitely boycott Walmart. They’ve been horrible a lot longer than Amazon. I haven’t purchased from Walmart in a decade and a half and I see no reason to stop now.
Yep. I live in the middle of nowhere, I’m not gonna start shopping at Walmart to give up amazon. Walmart was absolute shit first
Target? I’ve moved a bunch of my shopping there, and they have pretty fast shipping as well.
I used to LOVE target but then they got rid of Mossimo, denim and flowers and anything else good they ever had and started carrying clothes for fucking Mennonites. Seriously, their clothes went from awesome to shit.
I believe they’re already under a 40 day boycott
Hmm, that’s about how often I shop there. Accidental boycott I guess?
Bad news about Target: they’ve cancelled their DEI initiatives to cater to the administration
Eh, still better than Amazon.
Can’t - they practically monopolized china reshipment and white labeling In US.
Best u can do - check qlibaba, temu, AliExpress first and order from there
I moved on from Amazon to local after the 28th.
Wtf do people even need from there that they can’t get from temu or elsewhere…
WTF are you buying from Temu? Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer actual products, not literal garbage.
Amazon stuff is totally not literal garbage