My dalliance with Amazon started around 2014. Even though I worked in ecommerce at the time,I didn’t do much online shopping. But 2014 was the year I got a Kindle-and the Amazon account that went along with it.

I got Prime, I tried Kindle Unlimited, and all was grand for four years or so. But on a trip to Seattle, a flyer on a telephone pole caught my eye. It described horrible working conditions at Amazon—conditions that I’d been unaware of up until then.

My husband and I looked at the flyer, then at each other.

“We should use Amazon less,” we said.

Admittedly we didn’t pull the plug straight away, cold-turkey style. It was a gradual process, elongated by the pandemic. We canceled Prime, we canceled our Amazon credit card, and I got a different e-reader.

In 2021, I deleted my personal Amazon account. And in 2024, I deleted my business account, too. Today, I have no Amazon account, and I haven’t purchased anything on that site or app in over a year.

This isn’t to say that I only buy from perfect companies. I will get things at the Walmart, CVS Pharmacy, and Marshalls stores near my house. None of those companies are great—but I can’t get everything at the grocery store.

But getting out of the Amazon cycle has made me shop less as a whole. When I have to get in the car or pay for shipping,it gives me a pause. I do both of those things but I’m more likely to consolidate trips and orders.I’ve learned to stop and say “do I actually want to get this?”

As for how I’ve replaced Amazon, I’ve focused more on in-person shopping again. I use a Barnes & Noble Nook Glowlight e-reader. I buy secondhand

on Mercari and Thriftbooks. I’ve been using Etsy and eBay more, too, but you do have to watch for drop shippers—some of whom ship directly from Amazon.

I know there are some folks in circumstances where the fast delivery of so much provided by Amazon is the main or only way they can get essential goods. But if you have the ability to use a go to other stores, and you’re older than 30-ish, remember: you’ve done this before! You’ve shopped and lived in a world without Amazon Prime.

And you can do it again if you want to. I built a free tool to help you do it: just visit tiredof.tech and tap “Amazon” to get started.