How do I avoid Amazon when orders from other sites get fulfilled by Amazon?

Knitwear@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 101 points –

No one is on Lemmy because they like shitty corps so I need your help

I'm at a loss. Increasingly whenever I order New on eBay or wherever, the order gets fulfilled by Amazon.

When I complain to the site I bought it from they shrug.

I'm regularly paying more for items and still funding an undeniably awful company

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Depending on where you live, just order less. Try to pick up the stuff you order or go to shops directly (or sometimes question if you really need it). Its not all or nothing, every single product less bought with them is a step in the right direction

This is how I've been shopping for years, but not to be woe is me, I'm a wheelchair user with a variety of medical nonsense that keeps me in the house. Trying to shop ethically online used to be feasible, but it's increasingly impossible

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism (never has been), and while it might make you feel a bit less shit for an instant, this effort you're making isn't going to have any actual impact (the companies don't care about you, or their workers, they care about profit. All of them. And your personal spending is insignificant to them in that sense) and a much better use of your fight energy (which, as a fellow wheelchair user I know is probably already spread extremely thin) would be on addressing the system itself, not the symptoms of it which are pretty identical across the industry.. Other curriers treat their staff just as poorly, they're just not a big name so it's not in the news.

Give yourself a break, pick your battles (E: much easier said than done, I know, but you still must, for your own wellbeing)

And I’d address the “system itself” how exactly? My choice is typically between a capitalist Democrat, or a batshit insane Republican, or maaaybe a batshit insane third party candidate. Not a single politician who has a chance of winning wants to undo our “system” as they all benefit from it.

Act local for sure. Trying to make changes on the national level is needed, but it will take time. At the local level you're more likely to see results sooner.

We also have things like makerspaces, opensource, community coops, mutual aid, community centers, food banks, etc as places to get involved to help get power in the hands of people and make a difference today.

And the system goes deeper. One could write a book for instance and influence the philosophy of those around them. That’s part of the system too. Malnutrition messing up people’s decision making is part of the system. You can push in so many places. Even your friends and family are part of the system so if you help them out things will improve.

The fact that I never once mentioned electoral politics, yet that's the only solution you can think of, says it all really.. Try expanding your views, fruitycoder gave you plenty of good places to start.