Alternatives to Amazon

Amazon works well, and that's part of the problem. The convenience of one-click ordering, fast shipping, and prices that are hard to beat conceals a range of costs that never appear in your cart total: warehouse working conditions that are extensively documented alongside aggressive anti-union campaigns, systematic tax avoidance across Europe (including the UK), the destruction of small businesses that can't compete with a giant that routinely operates at a loss, the removal of LGBTQ+ and racial equity protections from its own corporate policies, and deceptive Prime subscription practices that cost the company $2.5 billion in fines.

It's not just a privacy issue. Amazon collects data on every purchase you make, on what you search for without buying, on how long you spend on each product page — and uses that data to optimise its own offers at the expense of the third-party sellers it hosts on the same platform. The European Commission has opened proceedings for abuse of dominant position precisely because of this.

The alternatives we suggest don't all match Amazon's convenience. Some are specialised (books, refurbished electronics, handmade goods), and none covers everything Amazon does. But that's exactly the point: shopping more deliberately, spreading purchases across different businesses instead of funnelling them all through a single monopolist. When possible, the local shop down the street remains the first and best alternative.