I actually get a lot more out of thinking about how my purchase is benefiting whatever smaller/more local/more family run store (semi materially since they are so much smaller) than about trying to actually hurt Amazon (even if we spend a couple thousand per year… it’s a drop in the bucket). Plus it alleviates guilts if/when I can’t find the thing locally.
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Okay here’s one: electronic/techy stuff? I need to replace my earphones (I refuse to get airpods, so I use the corded kind). I’m not married to the Apple brand, but this is the kind of thing I’d typically get at Amazon or Target. Anyone know of any retailers for this kind of thing who are… less evil? Obvs this is not a huge purchase so if I need to get it from The Empire I won’t be too broken up about it.
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For a lot of techy stuff you can order direct from the brand website (eg https://www.skullcandy.com/products/set or Philips, Bose if you’re fancy, etc)
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While they are not without issue, BH Photo Video can fill a lot of Amazon gaps in the tech space.
Surprisingly enough as others have mentioned, Costco has a respectable-ish tech inventory - a bit hit or miss but worth checking (their Apple laptops are a much better deal than from Apple direct, and include 1 year addl. warranty for example)
As Galliver also recommended - buying direct is usually within a ~20% price variance and has worked well for me. The tradeoff being that I get on a TON of mailing lists that I have to unsub from each time I order (stares daggers at auto-subscribe companies), which is where B&H can have an advantage from a triage standpoint). I could setup filters/order from a different inbox but it hasn’t been horrendous, and in that particular way, I’m lazy.
If they pull the “give us your email for a discount code” gimmick, use a 10 minute mail service to snag the discount codes & checkout as guest whenever possible. My personal rule is not to do business twice with companies that auto-create accounts, but I seem to be paddling upstream without a paddle on that one.
Stopped using Amazon a while ago, now I just reference old order history as needed and then proceed with the above. It’s been far less painful than I’d imagined, and my wallet is much happier.
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Thank you! I can deal with getting on a mailing list… I just have to go on an unsubscribe blitz once in a while!
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As a mini-checkin, how are folks doing with boycotts?
I feel like we’ve been doing okay so far – haven’t purchased anything from Amazon or Target, which feels mildly impressive given our previous baby gear acquisition habits (Walmart was never a ~thing for us and so it’s easy to continue avoiding that). However, we have not yet weaned ourselves off Prime Video, and while I’ve moved all my data over to Story Graph I haven’t actually deleted my Goodreads account yet because I’m Emotional™ about the damn thing after 18 years on the site.
We’ve mostly just either found a different source for stuff we want or I’ve just… not bought something because it actually wasn’t very important. I’m really enjoying the frugality win of the latter, especially when it offsets increased cost of the former.
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I haven’t officially dumped Prime, but it’s more because we use Alexa for music and news. And I know it’s spying on us but we’re so boring.
I’m sure there a way to configure this, but I haven’t worked it out.
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You mean to configure Alexa to not spy on you? I don’t think there is with any of the home assistants, because they have to always be listening in order to respond to a command.
That being said I don’t have one because they creep me out 
so my knowledge of the configurations is rather incomplete.
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You can turn off storage of the recordings.
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I feel like I’m doing the boycott on easy mode because moving is basically an automatic spending freeze. Except hardware stores, and we did stop at Lowe’s one time (because I hadn’t tried to get Spouse on board besides Target /Amazon and it wasn’t the time to try).
I would like to try and get new-apt stuff from elsewhere (Ace maybe). We need a shower rod, curtain liner, maybe curtain? And a shelf/caddy for the shower. And a part to fix my dresser.
We will also, at some point, go thrifting for barstools and maybe an outdoor table?
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Not anymore… Amazon smart speakers disable a privacy setting that allowed local storage of voice recordings : NPR
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Doing okay here, had a random Amazon gift card that took care of the things I needed for upcoming outreach projects plus an advance gift for upcoming nephling birthday since the latest in-town board game store has disappeared…I think there’s about $1 left on it which seems like an acceptable balance as far as not spending more money there but not letting them make more money off what was already spent. And then Target and Walmart aren’t on my list normally, although the food-produced-by ones are the ones where I have the hardest time because I don’t buy that much processed food in general, but what I do buy is pretty specific.
I do need to get flights for an international trip in October (so not an immediate need even if not currently a boycott target) and I’m wondering which country is going to be least-annoyed with the US for transit through, though, because I have a feeling that that’s going to be a consideration.
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No, I’m not sure that Alexa works without an Amazon account. In fact I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. I would have to buy a radio! An alarm clock! Turn on my light by myself!
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I think that they just changed that and now you can’t.
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Oh yeah I can’t imagine it would work without one.
We are doing good! I had to place one Amazon order in February because Nemo outgrew his orchestra pants and shirt and didn’t notify me until two days before the concert.
Overall, our shopping spend has REALLY dropped since January. We were averaging around $300 on stuff from Amazon/Target/other and now we’re down to around $100. It’s almost like they’re designed to trick you into spending more than you need…
Some of that spend is probably captured in our grocery/Costco/Aldi spend now, but a lot of it has just reduced. I’m thrilled!
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Doing okay! I do most of my grocery shopping at Winco (employee-owned) and did make a couple purchases recently of non-food items, but one was from a brand I respect (Tomboyx) and one was from a consignment store.
Trying to buy less in general is working for me.
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So far, it’s going well. (context: Canadian, so trying to avoid American owned companies).
Unexpectedly, I’m having the hardest time breaking my Home Depot habit because it’s the closest hardware store to my house. The local hardware stores are just far enough away that it feels like a big errand that I need to schedule. I did save money by going to the local place this past weekend (they sell single nuts and bolts! I only spent 40 cents!), so I need to remember that.
I’m currently being tempted by ear plugs that are only available on amazon and I just need to get out to some stores and see what is out there. It really all comes down to convenience, doesn’t it.
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We were doing really well but went to Rona yesterday. For a single screw. The other mix up was buying tortillas from a local restaurant and they were US made. I don’f know where my tortillas are usually made but my gf eating is important.
If they keep being out of cola zero G will rebel and buy coke but 
. He’s generally been on board.
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alas, terms and conditions can be changed at any time, making your purchase less usable, even if it is a physical product
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