In part one of this blog we shared some of the reasons to abandon Amazon.
If you’ve had enough of being part of their world-domination plans then follow these five steps to ditch Bezos for good – or at least give him less of your money.
Why does this even need a guide? Why not just… stop using Amazon? As we’ll see, Amazon’s grip on what we buy, browse, watch, read and hear, as well as its habit-forming selling practices, make this a little trickier than it might appear at first glance. But don’t worry, we’ve got this! Let’s get started.
Step 1: Break the habit of buying physical stuff from Amazon 🛒
There are a couple of possible approaches to take here depending on your current relationship with Amazon.
- Option 1: If you have Prime, start by cancelling that to help break the Amazon habit and get yourself out of the free next day delivery mindset.
- Option 2: Aim to go without using Amazon for a set period of time (2 weeks? 3 months? A year?!) and see how it feels
If you’re really struggling to resist Amazon’s lure, try these strategies.
- Turn off one-click purchasing take your card details off your Amazon account, and off your browser if you store them there too. Keep your card away from your sofa, desk, or wherever you find yourself browsing Amazon. Adding this extra layer of friction can be enough to make you pause before you purchase.
- Use a browser extension like Highlight or Hide. You can set it to exclude any website from your search results, which can be really helpful for breaking the Amazon habit. Download it for Chrome here and Firefox here.
- Use your a website blocking extension or phone’s usage limits, wellbeing controls, or a third party app like AppBlock or LockMeOut to block Amazon
Step 2: Find an alternative 💚
The internet is a big place so of course the list below is just a few ideas of pre-loved, ethical and independent options to get you started, not a comprehensive list, or a claim that any of the independents listed are themselves perfect…
👖Clothes: For pre-loved clothes check out eBay, Vinted, Thrift+, Beyond Retro, One Scoop Store, Shelter’s Online Shop, and WeAre. For ethical clothing Moral Fibres remains the ultimate guide.
🧼 Health, beauty and home cleaning: &Keep, Peace With The Wild, Veo, Big Green Smile and Bower Collective
📚 Books: World of Books (mostly preloved), Bookshop.org (new) and Hive (new)
⌚️ Electronics: Backmarket, Music Magpie and eBay
🪑Furniture and home: British Heart Foundation, Utility Brighton, Oxfam
🖨️ Office and stationery: Green Stationery Company, The Green Office
🎁 Gifts: Social Supermarket, Not On The Highstreet
👶 Kid stuff: Babipur, Baby Mori/ Kidly, Frugi, eBay, Myriad Toys, Conscious Craft
🐹 Pets: The Natural Pet Store
Step 3: Make a plan for your e-books and audio books 🎧
Do you buy kindle books? Or get your audio books via audible? Annoyingly, Amazon owns both.
Although non-Amazon ebooks are easy to read on a Fire Tablet or a smart phone, Kindles are, at least at first glance, locked into the Amazon ebook system. However, there are some workarounds, including making use of your kindle’s email address and a free bit of software called Calibre, which will let you read any format of ebook on there. Here’s a full guide to how to do this.
Libby and Scribd also do audiobooks, but some extra Audible alternatives include Libro.fm, Chirp and audiobooks.co.uk.
Finally, if you’re in the market for an ebook reader consider a preloved Kobo for ease of installing all formats of book.
Step 4: Work out where else you might we be using Amazon without realising it 🤔
- GoodReads is owned by Amazon, so if you use it to get book recommendations then consider switching to The Storygraph instead.
- IMDB is an Amazon product too, so consider switching to Letterboxd or TMBD for film recommendations.
- Ring: this one caught us out recently when we needed to up the security at our community centre after a break in – it turns out Amazon bought Ring a few years ago. However you don’t need an Amazon account to use Ring devices.
- Gift registries. If someone you know is getting married or having a baby you might be presented with an Amazon registry link. If you feel comfortable doing so, pick something off it and purchase it elsewhere, letting the couple know you’re doing this so no one else buys it off their Amazon registry.
- Amazon’s ‘donate as you shop’ programme closed early this year but lots of charities still have Amazon Wishlists where you can send them stuff they need directly. As with the registries, consider checking their list to see what they’re requesting and then buying it elsewhere, sending a polite note to explain why you’ve done this.
- Amazon Affiliates. Ever visited a lovely cookery, craft or gardening blog and found links to Amazon with a note that the author is an affiliate? Being a member of Amazon’s Associate Scheme is a way for bloggers and content creators to make money by directing their readers to purchase their recommendations via Amazon. This is such a tricky one as we all want to support people who share their skills but not necessarily by consuming stuff or supporting Amazon. Check if they have a Ko-fi or another kind of virtual tip jar and consider reaching out to them to suggest they set one up so you can support them that way.
- Secret Santa and gift buying. Many families and teams have shifted to doing a Secret Santa to reduce Christmas gift buying which is a fantastic idea. Annoyingly, some handy apps used to randomise Secret Santa are linked to Amazon wishlists, and however you manage gift giving among your family there’s a decent chance someone will want to buy you stuff off Amazon. Consider proposing a tool that’s not linked to Amazon.
- Whole Foods Market. With just stores in the UK these are easy to avoid but you’d never guess from looking at them that they’re owned by Amazon – the more you know etc etc!
One sticky area is AWS. Amazon Web Services provide cloud computing. It’s massive, it’s everywhere, and it’s super hard to avoid, which is annoying because it’s actually Amazon’s most lucrative product. Netflix uses it, the BBC uses it, WordPress.com, where our website is hosted, uses it. What a pain. So as consumers this is something we’re going to struggle to avoid, but if you happen to work in the tech industry in any capacity then you might be able to make some choices; while I’m obviously not a web developer a bit of searching did throw up people looking for and suggesting alternatives to AWS, and although persuading a company you work for to ditch AWS might be a hard sell you could potentially raise it in a ‘hey I know it’s not something we can change immediately but as an employee I’d like it if this was on our radar for the future to help us become a more ethical company’ sort of a way.
Step 5: Make it official 💔
Deleting your Amazon account is easy, even if the option to do it is a bit tucked away. Log in then click here. Don’t forget to check your inbox and click the confirmation email.
One word of caution! If you use Kindle or Audible then deleting your Amazon account will lose all your associated ebook/ audiobook content and de-register any devices linked to that account – see above! If you use Prime Video or Amazon Audio, you’ll also lose any purchases, playlists and so on, and if you use a fire stick it only works if connected to an Amazon account. The same is true for Alexa and Echo. Check here for a full list of what happens when you delete an amazon account.
Ex-Factor: Power up your Amazon break up! 💪
Our choices might feel like a drop in the ocean, but they’re actually pretty influential, and you have the power to help others escape this toxic relationship too.
The first step is to tell others about your decision! Focus on your personal experiences and values to help ensure no one else feels judged. Consider sharing on your socials and whatsapp groups as well as in person.
You could tell your workplace too; we’re an Amazon-free business and proud of it! I also like to make a gentle nuisance of myself by asking anyone offering Amazon vouchers as incentives or prizes to consider an alternative in the future, like an ecoswap gift card.
And while you’re at it, why not tell Amazon they’re dumped? To do this by email you’ll need to do it before closing your account, as you need to be signed in. Otherwise, to speak to a human, call 0800 496 1081 and press 5. This is an opportunity to politely explain why you’ve closed your account.
You did it!
We’re genuinely proud of you – it’s never easy to change our shopping habits, or go against the social current. Every time one of us says ‘no’ we’re taking away the social license for companies like Amazon to exploit, pollute, and manipulate us. And that feels good.
Looking for more opportunities to build a fairer future? We offer a range of virtual and in-person workshops, talks and coaching sessions for teams and groups. If you enjoyed this guide to breaking up with Amazon you might be interested in…
Buy Less, Feel Better: build shopping habits that are better for your pocket and for the planet
The 60 minute digital fix: shrink your online climate footprint in just one hour!
Greener At Work: Actionable steps to empower your team and make climate your business
Regarding audible there is a recent development causing a stir for authors using the platform, they are rolling out a new subscription model that actively skims money off authors royalties (which are already paltry). Look up the video titled “audible is broken” by Daniel Greene on Youtube for more details. I recently began the absolute task of trying to figure out how to get my audiobooks off of audible so that I can delete the app, its not easy! Libro FM is an audiobook provider I can highly recommend as an alternative (its also cheaper)