Beat the Amazon Prime Urge

Audit your spending, meet your neighbors, go to the library | By Kelly McGilvery

Amazon Prime is a juggernaut that has taken over multiple aspects of our everyday lives. Yet it is still possible to live well without entering the Amazon multiverse. 

It started innocently enough - as a website that aimed to make difficult-to-find books available to all those who wanted them. But as it expanded, the website slowly supplanted the corner store, hardware store, town square and auditorium, on its way to conquer the marketplace. Its free shipping for subscribers means that you can buy almost anything and have it delivered on your doorstep within the day. Its vast stores of streaming media offer a variety of entertainment at the click of a remote. Its downsides include its ubiquitous delivery fleet, seen in every neighborhood around the country, and its cardboard boxes, probably piling up in your foyer or recycling bin.

Find the convenience from other sources

If you really appreciate the convenience of home-delivered goods, are there regular purchases your household makes that could be automated to make your life easier? Maybe you’d appreciate a subscription to EcoGeek’s laundry and home cleaning supplies, so there’s one less thing to remember to bring home from the grocery store each week.

Let your spending do some work for the world

Sure, you may only be spending $13.99 on a monthly subscription to Amazon Prime, but are you happy with where your money is going? Rather than sending your $14 to Jeff Bezos every month, maybe you’d rather contribute to an effort to pioneer maternal health in Sierra Leone? Consider Building a Bundle with Good Store, knowing that the proceeds of your purchase will be donated to a charitable cause, like the Coral Reef Alliance, Partners in Health, or the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone.

Inexpensive yet valuable entertainment through other means

Amazon Prime isn’t the only source of streaming entertainment around. Wherever you live, there is likely a wealth of free content available to you through your public library. If you’re not sure where your nearest public library is, find it here. There are multiple great apps that public libraries use to make books and streaming media (television, movies, music and more!) available to their patrons: Hoopla Digital, Kanopy, and Libby are just a few of the best. Public broadcasting on radio and television are also great resources for entertainment and edification: check out PBS and NPR to get started.

Shop local, in person

If you want to counteract the effect that Amazon has on our society, one solid way is to reconnect with people in your neighborhood. Fight loneliness and build community by visiting your local attractions and shopping locally, in person. Rather than shopping being a solitary activity, take advantage of the opportunities to interact with fellow citizens at the farmer’s market or local shops on your town’s Main Street. Be a villager so you can enjoy the benefits of having a village.