Amazon – Cold Turkey for Christmas

noamazonI use Amazon a lot – for Kindle books, for CDs and DVDs, for gadgets; and sometimes even for unexpected stuff like really excellent flour from Welsh watermills. But lately I have been thinking that Amazon isn’t so deserving of my business; from its employment practices to its well-documented tax avoidance.

Margaret Hodge, MP and chair of the public accounts committee, makes a good case that consumer action forced Starbucks to pay tax in UK, and that the same kind of action could force Amazon’s hand.

Often, when you see a worthy cause raised, it is an easy thing to lend your support; but I won’t deny this one will be difficult for me. But I think a shot in the arm over Christmas might get the message home to Amazon that its customers aren’t happy with its business practices, and won’t be taken for granted.

Or perhaps I will simply be one of many lonely voices howling at the wind, and the ease of online shopping will win out for the majority.

Anyway, for me, no more Amazon orders until 2015, at least. As it happens, I have something like 50 books unread on my Kindle (and even more real books on the shelf), so my reading isn’t going to suffer. Even so, I plan to make a greater effort to explore other more ethical sources of ebooks. As for the impulse buys that I seem to make on a weekly basis – no more.

One Comment

  1. Lissa Allcock
    November 25, 2014
    Reply

    Good luck! Do also be a bit cautious with alternate suppliers – for example ABEbooks and The Book Depository are both owned by Amazon I believe.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *