Pillar

Boycott Amazon

Amazon's monopoly power depends on you not looking for alternatives. Here's where to look.

Read up on Amazon, and then scroll down for alternatives:

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

In Their Own Words: Why Sellers Are Fed Up With Amazon

Amazon Just Learned a $2.5 Billion Lesson About How Not to Treat Customers

Alternatives by Category

Where to Actually Go Instead

Local Bookstores

You may pay more at your local bookstore than if you buy from Amazon, but you also get much more – a community centers, book clubs, author talks, personalized recommendations and story hours for kids. Many independent bookstores now offer online shopping, with a larger selection than they carry in inventory. Check our listings of Twin Cities bookstores here. And if you can’t find the book you are looking for at your local bookstore, consider Bookshop.org , which splits sales with local bookstores.

EBooks and Audiobooks

You don’t have to buy your e-books from Amazon, and you don’t have to read them on a Kindle. Kobo, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Rakuten, offers millions of e-book titles, and a line of highly rated color and black-and-white e-book readers.
Project Gutenberg has over 75,000 e-books available to read online or download in EPUB format, and nearly 5.000 audio books. Librivox.org has over 20,000 audiobook recordings of books in the public domain, recorded by volunteers.

[Unverified suggestion — please confirm before relying on this] Consider Kobo, a longtime Kindle competitor with its own e-reader, or Libby, which lets you borrow ebooks free with a library card.

Streaming music and video services

Amazon Music isn’t the only game in town — and some alternatives actually pay artists fairly.

[Unverified suggestion — please confirm before relying on this] Libro.fm specifically splits proceeds with independent bookstores. Libby also covers audiobooks free with a library card.

Your Public Library

Most public library systems have a big selection of ebooks you can check out online for free – all you need is a library card.

[Unverified suggestion — please confirm before relying on this] Bandcamp pays artists a significantly larger share than major streaming platforms.

Getting Started

Four Steps to Actually Do This

Delete the app

Friction is your friend here. If it's not one tap away, you'll actually think about the purchase.

Cancel Prime (or don't renew it)

Once you're not chasing free shipping, the whole calculation changes.

Make a list of what you actually buy

Most people default to Amazon for maybe five categories of purchase. Find the alternative for each one, once.

Accept some friction

It won't always be one-click. That's kind of the point.

Ready to break the habit?

Pick one category from above and make the switch this week.

Suggest an Alternative