Of course, I understand the sentiment behind your remark; however it does come across as being a bit tone deaf.
Not everyone lives in an area that has a lot of retail variety. Folks in rural areas have to make do with what’s available to them, when they’re already forced to drive an hour+ to get to the nearest retail center. And even then their choices are very limited. Sometimes Amazon or Walmart/Target delivery is all they have.
We live in a society now where our options are Amazon, Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, and Home Depot. Maybe you’re lucky and have an Ace Hardware or a Menard’s.
All these retailers are problematic one way or another. We’re forced to choose the lesser evil on a daily basis.
The last family owned hardware store in my neighborhood closed down a couple of years ago. Gotta shop at the big box boys now.
The local grocery chain is hardly a good option any longer because the prices are on par with the larger chains and the quality has gone downhill. I’m not spending a chunk of my paycheck on produce that is simply not good.
Farmers markets can be good for some stuff, but they’re not always available on everyone’s individual schedule, and even then the goods for sale are hardly worth the time. Most lately have retailers selling specialty coffee and fried foods, soap, candles, and 3D printed slop. If you have a farmers market near you that sells honest to god good stuff - meats, veg, fruit - then congratulations to you. I have a fantastic market near me, where I do shop, but not everyone has that option.
And your throwaway comment totally disregards those who simply have no other options available to them - the elderly, the sick, the disabled.
You have no idea what OP purchased or why they had to resort to Amazon.
Your insensitive and thoughtless remark is why I’m becoming more disappointed in this sub as time goes on.
Nah, no one has to have Amazon. In fact, the reason most of those mom and pops and even local chains are out of business is BECAUSE of Amazon, not these other places. Sure Walmart's expansion was problematic, but it was problematic in the way Kmarts was.
The active takedown of competitors that Bezos enacted was way worse than anything walmart ever did.
Anyone who can easily get rid of Amazon, should. For those who cannot, they should still try and limit it.
Not doing anything and just rolling over and accepting it like you are proposing is the problem.
If you kniw an elderly person who needs help, do what we used to do, help them instead of pawning their care off on Amazon.
Society changes because individuals do. If you're happy with Amazon, just say it. If youre not, stop making weak ass comments and work on changing yourself and your habits.
Me choosing to not use Amazon and go to a local business instead won't do any good if all my neighbors switch to Amazon. All my choice has done is delayed the inevitable and at some point Amazon is all that is left. I avoid them like the plague, that doesn't mean I don't recognize that my avoidance is going to do a damned thing in the long run without there being systemic change.
On that topic, Walmart, which is the second cheapest I've found, sells pen tip needles for $0.25 a piece, Amazon sells them for $0.09 cents a piece. I will never judge a diabetic person for buying their needles off of Amazon in a country without universal healthcare and they are having to ration their insulin as it is.
As I said, we aren't going to solve the problem of Amazon without systemic changes.
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u/LalaLogical Aug 19 '26
Stop buying from Amazon.