Can I buy Amazon offsets?

November 25, 2019 6:37 PM

Amazon has problems with their labour practices, with their strong arming of local governments for subsidies, their tax dodging, and so much more. I don't feel good about buying from them. Unfortunatel, they also sometimes have products that are hard to find locally, or that are wildly overpriced locally. What charities are there that help fight Amazon or improve the things they make bad?

I know that political charities are likely to be a good fit here, but please suggest other options as well, especially since I can't fund US political charities. In particular, I'm interested in Canadian charities if possible.

posted by Homeboy Trouble to Shopping (11 answers total)

The best offset is to pay the “wildly exaggerated” local price (which likely reflects a more realistic price). If the item isn’t available locally, can you find it from another retailer?

For charities: how about a local small business association?
posted by bluedaisy at 6:54 PM on November 25, 2019

Charity Navigator lists five organizations fighting for workers' rights
posted by soelo at 8:11 PM on November 25, 2019

I don't know of a silver bullet Amazon offset, but I try to be conscious when I buy from them, and spend money in my local community small businesses when it is practical to do so.

The local prices sometimes are crazy high for reasons which have nothing to do with real cost. (In Hong Kong for instance, I have no interest in paying the landlord a 40% premium for shoes and clothes to cover the turnover rent.) I get being frustrated about that. And I don't think that's unreasonable of you. However, I don't buy (for instance) pet supplies from Amazon to here because there are enough small HK online businesses which are better for the local economy. But more or less, most of the big global retailers use Amazon-like tactics, only less effectively.

I would find small charities in your community and donate there. It isn't explicitly anti-Amazon, but it is part of being part of a local community as well as participating in the global economy.
posted by frumiousb at 8:14 PM on November 25, 2019

Yes, I'm not sure if it is exactly an offset, but Jobs With Justice is an excellent choice (on the list seolo linked to). They do important, community-based organizing for workers' rights.
posted by cushie at 8:34 PM on November 25, 2019

Have you considered just not shopping?

I have juuuust enough latent guilt about this that if amazon is wildly cheaper than anyplace else I end up asking myself repeatedly if I really need the thing, and most of the time I just . . . actually don't.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:58 PM on November 25, 2019

You could support programs that help people change careers, or recover from tough life situations (youth crisis, domestic violence, etc). This would be very indirect, but Bad Jobs can only exist if there are desperate people. Reducing the supply of desperate people is therefore a step against poor labor practices. It’s also a kind thing to do.

You could accept the one-off purchases on Amazon, but improve the quality of your recurring purchases so that more of your overall spend is aligned with your goals. For example, maybe one of your local grocers is much more labor friendly than the others. And the same with your go-to eateries or your favorite brands. Surely the management varies widely, and it’s likely you can improve those choices.

You could be a bit patient with the one-off purchases and attempt to find them used on eBay or similar.

You could dispose of some of your no longer needed things at a local thrift or consignment shop, providing a benefit to your neighborhood and helping to keep somebody else from buying at Amazon.
posted by whisk(e)y neat at 11:48 PM on November 25, 2019

I explicitly chose to omit “buy it locally at the high price” because labor practices are often quite terrible at small businesses so you won’t necessarily get the improvement in the world that you’re hoping for. You’d need to do some digging to get confidence in that specific shop.
posted by whisk(e)y neat at 12:10 AM on November 26, 2019

Here's a large list of organizations actively fighting Amazon.
posted by cushie at 4:52 AM on November 26, 2019

...because labor practices are often quite terrible at small businesses so you won’t necessarily get the improvement in the world that you’re hoping for.

True, but buying locally keeps the money circulating in the community. This old Time article was the first one I found that presented this and refers to research by the New Economics Foundation. So other factors being equal it is still better to buy local.
posted by Botanizer at 12:31 PM on November 26, 2019

Honestly, for a lot of the stuff on Amazon, much of the questionable labor practices already went into it by the time it gets to a warehouse/retailer.

I quit buying from Amazon and buy some hard-to-find things as part of my job, and I have consistently found as-good or almost-as-good prices from other web retailers. Web searches have a "shopping" search feature that can help ID vendors. Since my objections to Amazon are more about their burgeoning monopoly and that they're both a vendor and run the platform (allowing them to take advantage of the other vendors on their platform), this works for me. That smaller businesses are not able to exploit their warehouse workers and tax loopholes as severely is a bonus.

For personal purchases, I've been putting more effort into buying used to offset somewhat higher local prices. I also just find myself figuring out alternatives and buying less stuff, which is nice.
posted by momus_window at 3:33 PM on November 26, 2019

Thanks for the ideas, everybody!

I already minimize my purchasing and try to buy locally; this particular item (a replacement for a broken laptop charger) wasn't available at the local computer store I usually use, and I don't feel like Best Buy or Staples are so much better than Amazon as to be worth a 50% premium. (This was my second Amazon purchase in 2019.)

Charity wise, last week my local small business association nearly got transit pass prices tripled for people in the deepest poverty levels, so they could get yet another tax cut. So, buyer beware on small business associations. I didn't directly use any of the charities mentioned, but googling around some of the concepts and names led me to Ecojustice, who are not really doing anything specifically Amazon-related, but are sure suing a lot of the right people.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 4:19 PM on December 3, 2019