Ran across this video randomly, and It got me so angry I was literally seeing red:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9stcDzLHE
TL;DR, Amazon hired an ex Federal prosecutor, who got his friends in the US Attorney office to charge a real estate developer who specializes in data center real estate development with federal crimes. They did everything they usually do, including asset forfeiture. Fighting these charges cost this family their cars, their house, their retirement savings.
I cancelled my Prime membership years ago, but have still bought things on Amazon. That stops right fucking now.
If you boycotted every time a corp committed a crime, you would quickly find yourself using no products or services at all.
You should cancel prime because it's not a good deal, and if you want chinese crap order it straight from china on aliexpress instead of giving Bezos a 150% markup.
You say that like it would be a bad thing.
Don't be an idiot and start boycotting all at once, but it's an incredibly good idea to try and boycott as much as possible while being as independent as possible.
Remember, nothing is hated more than people who don't need what the establishment has (or rather, claims to has) to offer. Can you boycott everyone? Probably not. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to better yourself by cutting these cancers borne out of a misguided sense of convenience out of your life. There's no reason to give up on bettering your circumstances just because you might not be able to make it to some idealistic hypothetical.
Also, I doubt OP has much issue with companies committing "crimes", broadly speaking, and more cares about what types of immoral/unethical actions they've undertaken. There's a big difference between a company fudging their tax numbers and a company utilising state powers against people to leave said targets financially ruined. Really pales in comparison to one another.
#2 reason I quit using Amazon. It just plain sucks now. No, I don't want "LONGDONG real PC game mouse" that is $1 on AliExpress, I want the typical branded crap.
#1 is they hit me with fraudulent transactions on an account with all the security features on, having never triggered any of them, and their customer service for fraud is as shit as the contents of Biden's diaper. I have to get all the way to #3 to consider politics.
I've gotten where I target quality and repairability where I can and I just buy from the manufacturer's website when I need random boxed crap. It's a tiny bit more, but for example I just bought a Moccamaster single cup coffee machine, holy shit that thing is in a different world than the Chinese plastic k-cup things that will break in two years. I also buy less random boxed crap, didn't need it anyway,
We need to bring back physical stores. Cut this online crap. Yes it requires effort but it's better to talk to someone and feel the physical product and there's something special if the store has a good atmosphere online sellers can't beat.
I've seen the same thing. I've wondered how much of it is Amazon just preferring the Chinese garbage and how much it's the major brand companies want you to just use their own websites and avoid the "Amazon tax"
Same with Walmart+
With the massive growth of small companies selling online and shipping, now is the best time to seek alternatives. Ever since I cancelled Prime and stopped ordering stuff off Amazon, I've been able to find alternatives to every single thing I've purchased. You just have to do a few minutes of research per product.
And use something other than Google to do the search.
Brave is decent, even though it still uses some Google algorithm search results. For conspiracy theory and ((())) related stuff, use Yandex.
I think the only thing Amazon has going for them at this point are their delivery lockers. If smaller online retailers could get together and start putting lockers out there I'd start using them more.
Meh, I'm willing to endure a lot more pain when it comes to shipping if I know the company and items I'm purchasing are worth it. Next day shipping? I don't care if it's Chinesium garbage. I'm White and can plan ahead, so I'm even fine with 2-3 month shipping for a good product.
Amazon has Elderberry which is the only cough medicine that doesn't make me have weird side effects but regular stores it's hit and miss so we have Prime just for that to get next day delivery. We don't live in a big city where there is 20 different stores though even when I was little there were better designed stores.
God I miss Circuit City when it actually worked!
"But I NEED my slop!"
There are decades upon decades of media to choose from and experience. You don't need to watch Endgame for the 10th time.
I'm talking about things like food, water, internet access, electronics, petroleum products, medicine, household goods - look into any company that produces any physical thing at scale and you'll find some abhorrent activity.
I have never seen endgame and I was considering amazon prime from the "free" shipping perspective. All the streaming services are a bad deal compared to a vpn + bittorrent.