The key is 100% boycotting all services provided by a company. Wikipedia’s list of Amazon product/services as reference (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_products_and_services).
Incidentally, I know entire neighborhoods that don’t have other grocery stores besides Target/Whole Foods, not to mention that AWS is the cloud computing industry standard… As a personal example, my vet-prescribed cat foods are manufactured by Purina, a subsidary of Nestlé (needless to say, a separate but also extremely evil large corporation)
I’ve spent years now trying not to consume products from companies I consider immoral. There are a lot of them and, realistically, you won’t make a big dent or bring the company down. The average person is, by definition, average, so a boycott based on people doing the good thing at the expense of some personal discomfort will always fail.
But that doesn’t mean it’s pointless. Companies like Amazon are almost impossible to compete with because of their size. The most important impact you can have as a consumer is not that the lack of your personal revenue is going to keep the likes of Jeff Bezos up at night. It’s that you’re providing revenue and a user base to alternative businesses that are struggling to exist in a world where most people just use Amazon.
You can make a real difference this way! Focus on growing competitors rather than hoping the bad company will go away because of your abstention. Kind of like using Lemmy instead of Reddit.
“The most important impact you can have as a consumer is not that the lack of your personal revenue is going to keep the likes of Jeff Bezos up at night. It’s that you’re providing revenue and a user base to alternative businesses that are struggling to exist in a world where most people just use Amazon.”
I agree! I think we should frame boycotts this way, I can’t stand companies abusing their chokehold on the market. It’s also a more feasible and tangible goal.
Even if all end users boycott Amazon, they’ll still make billions from AWS.
Being poor and living on the edge paycheck to paycheck taught me that there are a whole lot of things you can live without that you didn’t think you could.
You can literally cut all subscriptions out of your life and eat nothing but groceries you buy cheap at a food co-op and you’d be surprised how ok you are.
There’s a LOT of fat you can cut out of your life. And it makes things simpler and simple is peaceful.
The most plausible way is a short-term boycott for like 2 weeks at the end of their fiscal reporting period. You want the rebound not to be reflected in the quarterly report so it fucks with the share prices.
Its only vialble if there’s a organized critical mass of people doing it.
It’s not. Not spending money is not a very effective direct action. Like companies can’t just borrow money or be bailed out until people get tired.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Alternatively, the best action is the one that gets done.
Amazon doesn’t make anything. There’s very little on Amazon that can’t be purchased somewhere else.
Boycott is the wrong word.
Permanently change your spending habits. A temporary change a company can ignore, but permanent change in spending will affect them.
You can’t avoid everything 100% of the time but simply closing your Amazon account and not ordering their trash EVER AGAIN will make a difference.
Every one of us needs to change permanently to not empower this oligarchs any more.
