Avoiding Amazon

Sometime early last year (probably around the time that all the calls for "buy local" went out from local business) I realized just how much I was buying from Amazon.  After this dawned on me I started making a conscious choice to avoid Amazon wherever possible. 

I did this for a couple reasons. First, there is just something gratifying about knowing that my purchase is going to help a real brick-and-morter store that makes my community more lively and interesting. Second, the news reports about COVID-19 outbreaks among workers at Amazon warehouses make me uncomfortable. I have the sense that the lower classes are putting their lives on the lives to subsidize the convenience of the creative class and civil servants who can work and live comfortably at home.

Anyways, I made my choice and I haven't looked back.

Yes it comes with minor inconveniences, like no free shipping. In those cases I  choose the "curb-side" pickup option, meaning I go to the store to pick up my purchase. Fortunately, that's still an option right now, notwithstanding Ontario's current lockdown.

This is what I did this past weekend when I ordered a couple of books for Margot and me from Books on Beechwood, a cute bookstore in the east end of the city. It took a little while for the books to arrive at the store after I ordered them but that was OK as it made receiving our books all the sweeter. 

A happy customer

It's probably impossible now to ditch Amazon completely. They just have too much stuff. But I do hope that more people in the future will start to think more sustainably and ethically about what they are doing when they shop online.