For years, Amazon has been my go-to for books, electronics and media. I did switch to play.com while they were a thing, but they closed down many years ago (and I never even got round to redeeming my loyalty points!), so I switched back to Amazon as my default, although I have always done a fair bit of shopping on eBay. Now you might have noticed I’ve been referring to Amazon as Scamazon for a number of years, but this is unrelated to my recent motivations to avoid them. The thing is, Amazon is convenient. You get a wide range of products, all delivered to your home, and returns are easy, and free if the product is faulty. Plus with lockdown, online shopping is the only way to get some items, and you get the convenience of buying everything you need from one website.

However, these days, I’m trying to avoid Amazon wherever possible. We know that Amazon treats its workers poorly, avoids paying tax and is taking away sales from independent bookshops, but it was only recently that I found out how badly they treat their own customers too — and by customers, I mean third-party sellers who use Amazon as a selling-platform.

A company called Pirate Trading was selling its own design of tripods on Amazon Marketplace, and were selling really well. Amazon saw that success, realised that was money that could be going exclusively into their coffers instead, and stole the design, using the exact same supply chains, and sold their rip-off of an independent company’s designs under their AmazonBasics label, then banned Pirate Trading from the Marketplace.

This is not okay.

And it’s not the only example of Amazon’s dirty dealings. One day, Amazon noticed that a nappy supplier startup, diapers.com, was doing really well. Again, they decided that was money that should be going into their coffers. They offered to buy the company. The company said no. So Amazon went on the warpath. They started selling nappies as a loss-leader, to the point where they took a large enough share of the nappy market to make diapers.com’s value fall. The startup’s parent company, Quidsi, losing such a large chunk of its sales to Amazon, in the end had no choice but to sell, and diapers.com was eventually acquired by Amazon at a much lower price. Seven years later, Amazon shut Quidsi down.

As long as people continue to shop with Amazon, examples of these dirty dealings will keep piling up. Imagine this continuing, where every quality brand has its products stolen, then undercut, by Amazon, to the point where they’re driven out the market, and Amazon gets the monopoly on that product. And the quality will go down, and the price will go up. Is this the world you want to live in?

At the end of the day, Amazon can only get away with this because we pay them to do so. So if this is not what you want the future of retail to look like, vote with your wallet, and avoid Amazon when you can.

Be aware that Scamazon owns other companies, like Twitch, IMDb, Wholefoods Market and goodreads, among others.

Where you can shop instead

When we’re allowed to go shopping again, check out your local high street. You’ll be helping these businesses to recover, and helping people keep jobs. eBay is great as long as you check seller ratings. Try Freecycle to get rid of old things, and find new things for free. Join your local nextdoor group for second-hand and unwanted things. Charity shops are brilliant, too, and will help you do your bit to avoid waste and unnecessary production. For books, use the bookshop website. When it comes to second-hand books, I’m sorry to say, Amazon Marketplace is often the best place to get specific out-of-print titles, but do always double-check on eBay. By using Marketplace, you are still supporting independent sellers, but Scamazon will obviously still get a commission. See if the seller has their own website you can buy from directly. Sometimes, Amazon might be the only place to buy a specific thing, but every time you’re able to make that choice to shop elsewhere, you’re doing a good thing. And of course, as with every boycott, letting the company know why you’re boycotting them makes your actions more effective.

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Here are some links if you want to learn more:

• Getting Started Boycotting Amazon
• boycottamazon.org (archive link as the page isn’t working for me)

One of the funny things I’ve noticed while researching this, is that the Trumpanzees hate Amazon as much as the left-wingers! I wonder how much it would annoy them if they knew?