I will also say that there have been untold articles written about this. Many of them are really good. I bet you can find them with ease.
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To add to everything everyone else added, I live in a city with a large Amazon presence and they (as a company, who knows about the employees) fund so much $$$ into the politics here to try and influence things to ensure nothing cuts into their profit margin (even if it means providing basic services for people who really need them) that it feels like an attempt to override the will of the people.
In the last election where this was a big thing, the non-Amazon candidates won in all but one race, despite being outspent by $$$ in the attempt, so that was nice, but I imagine they’ll keep trying and I resent that. And they still pay hardly ANY taxes.
Highly recommend the “Not Today, Amazon” thread for alternatives.
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I’ve seen quite a few, but often they seemed to point out stuff the competitors of Amazon were guilty or guiltier of (or that’s how I remember it). But this thread is hitting me with a desire to change more than those articles.
Edit: I’m following the Not Today thread to help build on that desire, also should change my primary credit card (currently use the Amazon Chase one), probably to the Costco card.
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Huh, interesting! The DC for our area is currently a couple counties away, but there’s supposed to be a long empty warehouse converted into a DC just a couple miles down the street from me.
In our case, I live near a headquarters. I’m not sure if they’re as active in distribution center areas, or if it would matter as much. A lot of effort is being put into fighting both how much tax amazon would pay as well as how much tax is paid by their very highly compensated headquarters staff.
But either way, so many reasons to avoid amazon and there are so many good ideas in that thread.
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I often do product research on Amazon and then try to purchase directly from the manufacturer if they sell their products at an online storefront. This often results in slightly longer shipping times and I do have to pay for shipping sometimes. But, like anomalily said, Amazon’s free/fast shipping and distribution model is cutting into her profits. I don’t feel like I can say I’m against Amazon and then begrudge a company passing through shipping costs to me.
I’m definitely not perfect here though! I do better some months and then others (like Oct) I end up purchasing way more things on Amazon.
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Yeah I didn’t realize how shitty a deal Amazon fulfillment was for sellers. No wonder they shove it down everyone’s throats.
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I’ll also say for a lot of the things I previously bought on Amazon (I still buy plenty on amazon, I try to buy elsewhere first though), I often find they jack up their amazon price a ton to compensate for huge cut that amazon takes. Like I was buying stand up bags for product packaging, and I got upset about the $11 in shipping I was going to have to pay from the supplier.
So, I went to look on amazon, and because the prices were so much higher on amazon, they ended up offsetting the difference in shipping 
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Amazon pays zero tax in Canada, and undercuts Canadian retailers. It’s not a level playing field because of the tax thing. This is a problem with our government and tax law, not specifically Amazon, but I try to be aware that every time I by from them I’m actively complicit in hurting my country’s economy.
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I’ve seen things for the same price on a company website and on Amazon so I’ve emailed to ask the company for free shipping. They have almost always been happy to oblige.
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My friend (woman, african american, advanced degrees) worked in a remote customer service type role. Many promises made to her went unfulfilled. There were a number of crappy things she experienced, but the worst was being let go a month before being vested (I believe it was a stock program).
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Ick. Vesting programs are especially icky. I know so many stories of people getting fired “coincidentally” before something vested.
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Gaby Dunn has a podcast episode about Amazon I like discussing many of the above issues, plus the more abstract damage that large monopolies can cause to an economy generally.
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I also can’t fully quit Amazon, but I’ll often do product research and comparison on Amazon, then go directly to the manufacturer’s website and buy directly, if possible.
Kind of the reverse of window shopping at a local store in person, then turning around and buying off of Amazon.
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I would probably be sticking with them if this were still true. Unfortunately, I haven’t found it to be the case. I really, really struggled to talk to a human being a few months ago when I had an issue that didn’t fit into any of their predetermined categories. (It’s possible I would have struggled less if I’d been willing to go phone instead of chat but come on.)
They also used to have somewhat decent support for indie authors (not as good as what they used to have for customers) but that’s gone down the drain as well, and the changes to Kindle Unlimited and other aspects of KDP have been squeezing indie authors as well.
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Amazon Advantage should die in the fiery pits of hell. It’s the worst most confusing system as an indie publisher.
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