I gave birth last February. My husband and I thought we were ready for our first child, but nope, we weren’t. Even in the hospital we knew we needed more stuff we hadn’t realized before and ordered from Amazon and set up an Amazon Prime account. As first time parents with very little community, we kind of relied on Amazon, Instacart, GrubHub, etc. as a 3rd parent/community.
That has all ended this year. We’re making more meals at home (canceled GrubHub and DoorDash), we’re taking our son out every weekend to the grocery store (canceled Instacart), and we made a list of places to go to get baby clothes, supplies, books, food, etc. (we canceled Amazon on 3/9/25).
I know a lot of people think they can’t NOT shop on Amazon because they live in a rural area or they need the help/discounted stuff like we did, but it’s easier to do than I originally thought. eBay and Etsy are still online stores. The weather is getting warmer and we plan to got the garage sales more this year.
As first time parents, we thought we needed everything; but that’s just capitalism at work and how Amazon stays in business. They make you believe you aren’t enough, you can’t do this on your own, you need them to survive and they have everything you “need” in order to be happy, fulfilled, the perfect parents, etc. Turns out that if you don’t believe their big lie, then they don’t really have any power over you or control your wallet. You’ll cancel your membership with ease and feel free because you know you are no longer imprisoned by the thought that Amazon is your only option.
Originally Posted By u/LudoMama At 2025-03-10 10:53:03 AM | Source
The other day I was making a comment about computer hardware and almost linked to a product on Amazon because that’s the reflex, right?
So I went and found the manufacturer’s site, where the exact same product was listed for a dollar more.
Spend the extra few seconds if you’re shopping Amazon reflexively, see if there’s a good alternative for what you need.