On Seeking Conscious Consumerism

AKA Amazon can go f*ck itself

I’ll tell ya, probably like a lot of people, that US election shook me to my core. I know we’ve all been witness to the clown show once before, but something feels different about this go around.

Sure, I don’t live in America but I’m a neighbour to the North and it’s all a little too close for comfort. It’s easy to throw our hands up and feel we can’t do anything. So, I’ve decided to take small steps towards change where I can.

One of the ways I’ve decided to do that is through my purchasing decisions. Where we put our money matters.

I have really come to be quite annoyed by my own reliance on Amazon. When Bezos pulled the Washington Post’s endorsement of Kamala, that was the final straw for me.

I had resisted getting an Amazon account for the longest time. Then, when I was setting up Studio Bangs, it was just easy to get things there and enjoy that next day free delivery. Before I knew it, I was hooked on it - buying everything from there without even bothering to look for alternative options.

I asked on Threads if there’s a Canadian version of Amazon and my replies were flooded with suggestions. There were plenty of people saying ‘just go to local shops!’ which at first, irritated me - I was looking for a like-for-like alternative. The convenience of being able to buy a bunch of different things from one online source.

But then I sat with that feeling for a bit. And I realised, they’ve got us exactly where they want us; hooked on convenience, blindly clicking ‘add to cart’ without a second thought. The thought of having to source things locally, to actually have to leave my house (what is this? The 1900s?!), it just all seemed so…inconvenient.

And that’s when I concluded; maybe things need to go back to being more inconvenient for a while. I’ve decided I don’t really want to purchase American products at all (a personal choice and I know it won’t be possible for everything). I want to only buy from Canadian businesses. Maybe I’ll have to look around for, ya know, like 30 more seconds, to find what I want. Big deal.

Maybe I should experience the ‘inconvenience’ of going to local stores, getting to know the businesses in my area, supporting the people who are of this community and helping the economy here grow, rather than lining the pockets of an asshole, politically-bankrupt-almost-trillionaire who certainly doesn’t need any money from me.

So, I’ve cancelled my Amazon Prime membership, unsubscribed from all their emails and am building a list of Canadian resources to buy from.

Will it be ever-so-slightly inconvenient sometimes? Sure. Will it be more expensive sometimes? Yup. But I figure a few things come out of this for me;

1. I get to support Canadian businesses and thus, be consciously contributing to the economy here.

2. I will now be more considered in my purchases and may find that actually, whatever I was looking for, is something that I don’t need at all - and I feel this is a positive step because Lordy, we’re all hooked on needless consumerism.

3. I feel this decision will naturally lead to me making more ethically and environmentally conscious purchasing decisions, which feels good.

So, if you’ve been feeling unsettled about recent events and are wondering what you can do, may I suggest thinking about your purchasing decisions in this way, buying locally where you can, letting yourself be inconvenienced a bit? We’ve gotta start somewhere, right?

Coming up to Holiday season, I could spend an hour clicking all over Amazon and get all my gifts purchased in one go. But you know what? There’s a lovely gift shop down the road from me with all Canadian products and I know the woman who owns that store will be much more grateful for my business than Amazon ever would be.

Something to think about, at least.