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.
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!