Amazon Prime - kicking the habit

[Anonymous]

Oh wow - I didn't know this was a thing. I just asked a similar question about Amazon Prime Video on another thread. So glad that others are dialing down or kicking the habit. That company needs to feel some consequences.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been at this for awhile and the two things that have helped me the most are reviewing my orders over the last year, and staying ahead of my calendar.

I organized my purchases into categories of
-stuff I bought because I needed it quickly
-stuff I didn’t want to think about buying (subscribe & save)
-stuff we didn’t really need/want

Most of the need quickly things are things I used to plan ahead for, but Amazon has trained me to go, “Oh, heck! Next week is St. Patrick’s Day and kid needs shirt ASAP. With my older children, I planned ahead. So I’m back to that.

I’m an xcel girl, so I keep a spreadsheet for the year, and I check ahead. I’ve also added stores and suppliers I like. I also organized a group of parents to ask the school to try to give us at least two weeks notice on spirit days and the like that might require a purchase.

Subscribe & Save I replaced with a quarterly Costco run.

I’m spending less and after the initial planning, I’m not having to think that much. I also don’t spend nearly as much time opening boxes and dealing with packaging.

It feels good. I don’t feel like I’m doing without or working harder. This is how I used to do things and I’d forgotten how orderly it felt. Amazon dependence actually made me feel more chaotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow - I didn't know this was a thing. I just asked a similar question about Amazon Prime Video on another thread. So glad that others are dialing down or kicking the habit. That company needs to feel some consequences.

I believe in living your values, but the reality is they could lose a ton of regular buyers and barely feel it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been at this for awhile and the two things that have helped me the most are reviewing my orders over the last year, and staying ahead of my calendar.

I organized my purchases into categories of
-stuff I bought because I needed it quickly
-stuff I didn’t want to think about buying (subscribe & save)
-stuff we didn’t really need/want

Most of the need quickly things are things I used to plan ahead for, but Amazon has trained me to go, “Oh, heck! Next week is St. Patrick’s Day and kid needs shirt ASAP. With my older children, I planned ahead. So I’m back to that.

I’m an xcel girl, so I keep a spreadsheet for the year, and I check ahead. I’ve also added stores and suppliers I like. I also organized a group of parents to ask the school to try to give us at least two weeks notice on spirit days and the like that might require a purchase.

Subscribe & Save I replaced with a quarterly Costco run.

I’m spending less and after the initial planning, I’m not having to think that much. I also don’t spend nearly as much time opening boxes and dealing with packaging.

It feels good. I don’t feel like I’m doing without or working harder. This is how I used to do things and I’d forgotten how orderly it felt. Amazon dependence actually made me feel more chaotic.

+1 I am a planner too, and you end up buying much less.
Although I have a "we don't buy anything for spirit days" policy - they wear what they have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am very dependent on the convenience of using Amazon. Everything I need gets shipped to me on a regular cadence. This helps because it’s one less thing I need to remember when running low on supplies.

I just paused my subscription so it will not renew in July. I found a few products directly through the manufacturer who also provide subscription shipping for cheaper. I still need to break my habit and find other vendors who carry my products. I hate being inside brick and mortar stores.

How have you been able to kick your Amazon habit?

What are you smoking?

Love Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walmart has very fast shipping and a lot of the same stuff

+1
And you can also do curbside pickup for a lot.

[Anonymous]

Costco orders/delivery and we get money back every year plus some percent back using their credit card.
Walmart, including pharmacy; they also deliver and do curbside.
Local hardware stores and markets.
Hulu and Max instead of Prime. Everything I want to watch on Prime costs extra, often quite a lot! They have a huge library but it's just ridiculous how expensive it really is.
I get all my books, ebooks and audio books through my library.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow - I didn't know this was a thing. I just asked a similar question about Amazon Prime Video on another thread. So glad that others are dialing down or kicking the habit. That company needs to feel some consequences.

I believe in living your values, but the reality is they could lose a ton of regular buyers and barely feel it.

Why do you feel the need to dissuade people from quitting Amazon? It’s like you want to make sure they won’t feel it. And some people just want to stop for other reasons of simplifying, spending less, etc. Why argue?

Notice how every thread about not feeding the oligarchs becomes flooded with people telling you not to try, you’re powerless. If it were true, they wouldn’t try to interfere.

[Anonymous]

Not gonna lie, I’m not sure what to do about Amazon. I don’t just use it because it’s convenient; the two main reasons I use it are to research ratings/reviews on products before purchasing (and yes, I know a lot of reviews are fake, but when a product has thousands of ratings, I’ve got to assume there’s some truth there), and to get my hands on items that are not widely available — things I’m not going to find in a brick and mortar store near me. I don’t want my purchases to be limited to the 4-5 brands I can find in stores and I don’t want to make purchases blindly and hope for the best.

However, I don’t like making Bezos even richer and more powerful. I may just cut back on Amazon purchases where it’s easy to do so, but still keep Prime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been at this for awhile and the two things that have helped me the most are reviewing my orders over the last year, and staying ahead of my calendar.

I organized my purchases into categories of
-stuff I bought because I needed it quickly
-stuff I didn’t want to think about buying (subscribe & save)
-stuff we didn’t really need/want

Most of the need quickly things are things I used to plan ahead for, but Amazon has trained me to go, “Oh, heck! Next week is St. Patrick’s Day and kid needs shirt ASAP. With my older children, I planned ahead. So I’m back to that.

I’m an xcel girl, so I keep a spreadsheet for the year, and I check ahead. I’ve also added stores and suppliers I like. I also organized a group of parents to ask the school to try to give us at least two weeks notice on spirit days and the like that might require a purchase.

Subscribe & Save I replaced with a quarterly Costco run.

I’m spending less and after the initial planning, I’m not having to think that much. I also don’t spend nearly as much time opening boxes and dealing with packaging.

It feels good. I don’t feel like I’m doing without or working harder. This is how I used to do things and I’d forgotten how orderly it felt. Amazon dependence actually made me feel more chaotic.

+1 I am a planner too, and you end up buying much less.
Although I have a "we don't buy anything for spirit days" policy - they wear what they have.

One of the best things about DD going to college is that I never have to deal with spirit weeks again!! Hate them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not gonna lie, I’m not sure what to do about Amazon. I don’t just use it because it’s convenient; the two main reasons I use it are to research ratings/reviews on products before purchasing (and yes, I know a lot of reviews are fake, but when a product has thousands of ratings, I’ve got to assume there’s some truth there), and to get my hands on items that are not widely available — things I’m not going to find in a brick and mortar store near me. I don’t want my purchases to be limited to the 4-5 brands I can find in stores and I don’t want to make purchases blindly and hope for the best.

However, I don’t like making Bezos even richer and more powerful. I may just cut back on Amazon purchases where it’s easy to do so, but still keep Prime.

This is what I’m doing. I am a single mom and work out of the house. I value quality time with the kids over running errands all weekend. I cut Target out completely this month and have been more mindful about Amazon.
And I’m raising my kids to be good, decent human beings. I think that’s the best I can do right now.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all the helpful tips. Frankly, I don’t care whether Amazon “feels” it. That’s not the point. As someone else said, I want to live my values in ways that I can. I know I can’t completely avoid unwittingly using questionable vendors but I’m going to try and people trying to dissuade me are weird. Why do they care? It’s my money and my life. So strange. Anyways, I know I will save a ton cutting back impulse purchasing. I think this will be a win in so many ways. Life existed before Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walmart has very fast shipping and a lot of the same stuff

+1
And you can also do curbside pickup for a lot.

I've never done curbside, but agree Walmart is very convenient. I have the actual membership and get groceries delivered and things shipped. Another poster mentioned it was also a trash company, but at least they're employing people in the stores in the community.

[Anonymous]

I cancelled Amazon a few years ago and haven’t missed it at all. If you’re in a metropolitan area anything you could possibly need is nearby. Support your local hardware store, bookstores, pharmacies, toy stores, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walmart has very fast shipping and a lot of the same stuff

Walmart is also a trash corporation so I don't really think that solves for concern wrt Amazon.

+1 it’s crazy when we think ordering from Walmart is an act of conscientious objection.

The original in, "drive all local retail" out of business, undercut hours to avoid offering benefits and provide trainings on how to access government welfare programs. Walmart is terrible too.