Yeah this is the current shanty in Blairstown I'm working in 🤣
James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
Amazon
I hesitate to post this at all because it dips into the political realm at some level. But recently I've found myself wanting to support Amazon less and less. I've bagged both Audible & Kindle Unlimited recently, and I'm starting to get things at local shops as opposed to one-clicking my way with ease. As an example, I've bought the filters for my pour over from Amazon for quite a while. When I went to Black River the other day, I asked myself why I was doing that and not supporting the local shop. Also, some odds & ends that I can get at the hardware store 1/2 mile down the road. I've been dialing back the Prime purchases, as well as trying to buy less overall with the economy going to shit right now.
I'm also having a mental block with both Facebook & Instagram and wondering if I want to keep supporting them. Basically, I hate the reality that these brutally rich people continue to get brutally richer and not give 2 shits about the people supporting them. I don't really like what they stand for, and the only real way to make any difference right now is to vote, and to spend my money where I think it makes sense.
That said, it's really hard to move completely off Prime. While I want to support small & local, I'm also not a charity. We have 2 kids in college and all that jazz. So we do have to be smart about where we spend our money. As for FB/IG, it's like 12 or 15 years of pictures and memories. It's hard to just shut that down. But of course I can just use it less.
I don't know what the answer is.
I have no pictures today so here's a dog from Xmas week.
I hesitate to post this at all because it dips into the political realm at some level. But recently I've found myself wanting to support Amazon less and less. I've bagged both Audible & Kindle Unlimited recently, and I'm starting to get things at local shops as opposed to one-clicking my way with ease. As an example, I've bought the filters for my pour over from Amazon for quite a while. When I went to Black River the other day, I asked myself why I was doing that and not supporting the local shop. Also, some odds & ends that I can get at the hardware store 1/2 mile down the road. I've been dialing back the Prime purchases, as well as trying to buy less overall with the economy going to shit right now.
I'm also having a mental block with both Facebook & Instagram and wondering if I want to keep supporting them. Basically, I hate the reality that these brutally rich people continue to get brutally richer and not give 2 shits about the people supporting them. I don't really like what they stand for, and the only real way to make any difference right now is to vote, and to spend my money where I think it makes sense.
That said, it's really hard to move completely off Prime. While I want to support small & local, I'm also not a charity. We have 2 kids in college and all that jazz. So we do have to be smart about where we spend our money. As for FB/IG, it's like 12 or 15 years of pictures and memories. It's hard to just shut that down. But of course I can just use it less.
I don't know what the answer is.
I have no pictures today so here's a dog from Xmas week.
It takes a while to remove the default... Go to Amazon.
I've slowly whittled it down. Amazon is mostly good for cheap Chinese produced crap which can also be sourced on eBay. Once in a while Amazon is the only option but it's pretty rare. I've actually saved money by going to the manufacturer's website a few times too.
I've slowly whittled it down. Amazon is mostly good for cheap Chinese produced crap which can also be sourced on eBay. Once in a while Amazon is the only option but it's pretty rare. I've actually saved money by going to the manufacturer's website a few times too.
Cole
Well-Known Member
It has been getting bad... Having to scroll through no name brands before finding something decent has turned me away from them a bit. But it's always the easy button for some stuff.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
This is good to hear. I only use Amazon as a last resort. Many online purchases are directly from the mfg as @Cassinonorth mentions. I have experienced 1 occasion when Amazon was cheaper than the mfg. Called the mfg and asked about price matching and they said no.Amazon
I hesitate to post this at all because it dips into the political realm at some level. But recently I've found myself wanting to support Amazon less and less. I've bagged both Audible & Kindle Unlimited recently, and I'm starting to get things at local shops as opposed to one-clicking my way with ease. As an example, I've bought the filters for my pour over from Amazon for quite a while. When I went to Black River the other day, I asked myself why I was doing that and not supporting the local shop. Also, some odds & ends that I can get at the hardware store 1/2 mile down the road. I've been dialing back the Prime purchases, as well as trying to buy less overall with the economy going to shit right now.
I'm also having a mental block with both Facebook & Instagram and wondering if I want to keep supporting them. Basically, I hate the reality that these brutally rich people continue to get brutally richer and not give 2 shits about the people supporting them. I don't really like what they stand for, and the only real way to make any difference right now is to vote, and to spend my money where I think it makes sense.
That said, it's really hard to move completely off Prime. While I want to support small & local, I'm also not a charity. We have 2 kids in college and all that jazz. So we do have to be smart about where we spend our money. As for FB/IG, it's like 12 or 15 years of pictures and memories. It's hard to just shut that down. But of course I can just use it less.
I don't know what the answer is.
I have no pictures today so here's a dog from Xmas week.
I told my wife that some of this stuff is dollar store quality for $6, but hey, it shows ip tomorrow, so it is better, right?
It is hard to upset the ease of purchasing.
Cole
Well-Known Member
Yea. I need instant gratification, so having it next day is nice.... This conversation did make me go buy Skratch from their site and not Amazon....
Last edited:
rlb
Well-Known Member
I try my best to steer clear of the garbage no-name stuff on Amazon, but we are captive to a lot of subscribe and save items. TBH it’s probably not even cheaper anymore, but the fact that toothpaste, razors, vitamins, etc. show up regularly without having to think about them is make it hard to separate from that model. Especially when there’s no independent alternative.
I’m still bitter that Whole Foods is an Amazon company.
I’m still bitter that Whole Foods is an Amazon company.
^^this. I am now shopping at my local, micro-chain store (they have 4 stores total in Westchester County) but its $$
As you know @Norm I canceled Prime and am trying harder to shop locally or directly from the manufacturer like others have said. Sometimes those are slower, but I am actually liking the slow down, think and plan approach - it seems more mindful. The Adultchild is upset that Prime TV is no longer, but she still has access to Netflix, Hulu and Max so I think she will make it. Good call on canceling Audible, although walking away from 38 book credits will hurt. I debated whether I would be able to do a book a day for 39 days to burn through what I already spent - but hey 🙂 THAT SAID - I re-joined my local library, and they have an app called Libby where you can rent audiobooks for free. Let's see how that goes.
You just need to "buy" 38 book then cancel. You'll still have the books to listen to, which will take like 20 years probably. 🙂
We use Libby all the time. Both for audiobooks and (sigh) Kindle books. I assume the library has to pay Amazon to let their books be read on the app. But there is no other way to read them for most books. Note that some Libby books are not licensed to be read on Kindle, so you can use the Libby reader for them.
RE: Subscribe and save
I have a few S&S items for the cat because it just works better. The stores don't carry the litter or food I want. I need a lot because of Franklin's health issues. And they deliver without some high minimum purchase amount.
And before someone suggests chewy or something similar, I've tried but it just never works with cat litter.
As for the other stuff (like toiletries), I'll still buy from a bigger store name but at least it's "local"
What cat litter do you use?
Dr. Elseys with a little FelinePine mixed in
the problem with chewy is that they require a minimum purchase amount... which means i would need to order 3 bags of 40lbs of cat litter at a time and that never goes well.
Steve gonna be Steve. It happens.
Mindfulness
Good topic. Kinda thought this would be like hair cutting. There ya go.
Alex brings up mindfulness and I do think this brings up the greater topic of ease of living. I really believe that life has gotten a bit too easy for many of us. And that ease of living gives us way, way too much time to sit on the couch and doom scroll, or drink beer and watch Fox News or CNN or what-have-you. In a very real way, we've taken the harder lifestyle of yesteryear and built up our lives and lifestyles around the convenience factor. When you have small kids, this is great. And then they are less small and it's really hard to not want to keep that convenience. So, the whole subscribe-to-save lifestyle is really easy to roll with.
At a certain point, you also need to ask yourself this. What do you do with your time that it's more important for Amazon to deliver the coffee filters than it is for you to go to that free-standing coffee shop and buy them yourself? In addition to supporting the local business that you don't want to see fail, you might just have a conversation or an interaction that makes your day a little bit better. In fact, when I went to Black River last week, I had 2 such encounters in my visit. It was quite nice.
And I'll roll this into the retirement discussion again. When you have all day to do whatever you want, what's the meaning of saving time ordering everything through Prime? Hasn't it been shown over and over that people with strong social circles and human interactions live longer? I cannot imagine a future where I stay at home and rarely leave the house. This sounds dreadful. It's entirely healthy for both you and the community to get out of the house.
Anyway, I got the Pivot ready to ride this afternoon. It was lovely outside.
Good topic. Kinda thought this would be like hair cutting. There ya go.
Alex brings up mindfulness and I do think this brings up the greater topic of ease of living. I really believe that life has gotten a bit too easy for many of us. And that ease of living gives us way, way too much time to sit on the couch and doom scroll, or drink beer and watch Fox News or CNN or what-have-you. In a very real way, we've taken the harder lifestyle of yesteryear and built up our lives and lifestyles around the convenience factor. When you have small kids, this is great. And then they are less small and it's really hard to not want to keep that convenience. So, the whole subscribe-to-save lifestyle is really easy to roll with.
At a certain point, you also need to ask yourself this. What do you do with your time that it's more important for Amazon to deliver the coffee filters than it is for you to go to that free-standing coffee shop and buy them yourself? In addition to supporting the local business that you don't want to see fail, you might just have a conversation or an interaction that makes your day a little bit better. In fact, when I went to Black River last week, I had 2 such encounters in my visit. It was quite nice.
And I'll roll this into the retirement discussion again. When you have all day to do whatever you want, what's the meaning of saving time ordering everything through Prime? Hasn't it been shown over and over that people with strong social circles and human interactions live longer? I cannot imagine a future where I stay at home and rarely leave the house. This sounds dreadful. It's entirely healthy for both you and the community to get out of the house.
Anyway, I got the Pivot ready to ride this afternoon. It was lovely outside.
You are correct in what you are saying but coffee is an easy example. It is kinda fun to go to the coffee shop, but it isnt that fun going to target to buy toilet paper. I also get beans from starbucks, which you probably think is worse than amazon, but i do go to the actual store. It is 100’ from a local coffee shop, but i dont really like their beans and their vibe is off. I did interact with wheelie kids that hang downtown. so that was fun.
Last edited:
Agreed. Plus, I don't think Target is any better than Amazon, for the most part. Some things don't lend themselves to mom & pop stores and I think TP is 1 of them. I suppose you could make an argument for Costco on this one but I don't think it's much cheaper there. Anyway, I digress.
My thinking is that Amazon is just one store among many. If it offers something no other store has, or is considerably cheaper, I'll use it. I'm just trying to avoid using it as my first choice, all day, every day.
For those of you who want TP delivered, want to do good things, support a small business, be eco-friendly etc might I suggest WHO GIVES A CRAP. I have been using them since the pandemic, and I am a fan. Link below.
Toilet Paper
Toilet Paper
rjr44
Well-Known Member
that's top-notch branding right there folks
