Cancelling Amazon

If we are making suggestions, I like Not On Amazon. It was set up by a hippy chap who was against both the domination of the market by Bezos and the way small businesses are charged by companies such as Amazon and Etsy.

It's basically a marketplace for handmade goods and sellers are not charged a percentage of their take. It is far fairer than Etsy, and they are careful not to allow mass-produced items for sale. I'm not sure exactly how it works financially, but it is very ethical and fair to the artisans. I have bought Christmas presents from them and some fabulous original art. Prices vary hugely, but you are not paying an extra percentage on every purchase to an American billionaire.

It will never replace Amazon as it tiny by comparison and deals in hand-made items, but it's well worth a look.

notonamazon.org

Please use OnBuy. Www.onbuy.com. It is a British alternative to Amazon. Yes, it may take a day or two longer than Amazon but it’s worth it. I did have one OnBuy order fulfilled by Amazon for some reason but only one.
I’m a Canadian living in the UK and I am doing my very best to buy British, including British made clothes from Community Clothing, David Napier.
I haven’t yet dumped Facebook but I have downloaded BlueSky and hope that it turns out to be okay.

Yes. It's terrible.
Change and save all settings and it still pops back up a few weeks later.

I must ask my son about blocking it somehow....

NotSpaghetti

I hate Yahoo too, Allira

I thought it was just me! It's like bindweed, you think you've got rid of it and there it is again, taking over every time you go on the PC.

I hate Yahoo too, Allira

JennyCee

Cossy, re: Costa: I have double checked and afraid you might be wrong about Costa. It’s British, one of the few British coffee
Outlets selling today. Apologies if I’m wrong.

Costa was British, it still has headquarters in Dunstable, but it is entirely owned by Coca Cola since 2019

Re Amazon, liv in a small seaside town, all useful shops shut, except for gift shops for tourists. Like many in my 80’s caring for my three lovely adults with DS. I no longer drive, daren’t take son on a bus due to seizures. I feel guilty using Amazon. My three love it especially as Mum pays! 🫢 Sorry I will have to continue using it!

Cossy, re: Costa: I have double checked and afraid you might be wrong about Costa. It’s British, one of the few British coffee
Outlets selling today. Apologies if I’m wrong.

Milest0ne

AuntieE

I rarely buy anything that is made in the US, but I shall manage to do without Heinz Baked Beans from now on.

My smartphone is not an American make, but the real problem is Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Office can be replaced by a European office program, but Google?

Do any of you know of a replacement for Google or Firefox, or Google Maps?

The official mapping authority in UK is Ordnance Survey. Far superior maps IMO. You can download maps onto your phone or tablet for when you are out and. about and design your own route for however you get about Thus speaks a mapaholic

Does Ordinance Survey supply realtime directions from A to B? That's what I need on any journey, up to the minute traffic conditions and route advice. When "Maps" advises me of a road closure ahead and suggests an alternative route I'm grateful!

AuntieE

I rarely buy anything that is made in the US, but I shall manage to do without Heinz Baked Beans from now on.

My smartphone is not an American make, but the real problem is Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Office can be replaced by a European office program, but Google?

Do any of you know of a replacement for Google or Firefox, or Google Maps?

The official mapping authority in UK is Ordnance Survey. Far superior maps IMO. You can download maps onto your phone or tablet for when you are out and. about and design your own route for however you get about Thus speaks a mapaholic

I can't shop for myself, but went off Amazon yonks ago.
I was tired of Amazon trying to make me pay for Prime!

I find lots of things are cheaper on Ebay UK and often free delivery too. Things I can't ask a shopper to get for me, but I can choose there.
Books, wall thermometer, plant food, this week.

Milest0ne

I hope we can avoid buying Chlorine washed chickens and antibiotic filled beef. We should concentrate on UK and EU food regulations about place of origin and not where something is processed. I will continue to use local butchers and greengrocers. Flour for my bread maker is grown and milled in UK. I would be dubious about fruit from US as I have read that they are sprayed with chemicals
I am doing my best avoid US and Chinese goods. Difficult at times.

American beef and chickens are the least of the food chain problem.

One of the German chemical companies have been banned from selling their pesticides in the eu.
So now they are selling them all around the world. The damage they are doing to the environmental is incalculable.

The uk and the eu import a lot of food from Kenya. They are using theses poisons on our food. And btw, killing the bee population.

Too many countries to mention here but one that has jumped out is Japan. Lots of supermarkets stock Japanese rice. The rice crop is sprayed with these poisons. And, btw killing butterflies and dragonflies in the process.

How many of us still buy fruit and veggies from Spain. All collected by slave Labour in the polytunnels.

theecologist.org/2020/jan/30/bayer-and-neonicotinoids-japan#:~:text=In%20Japan%2C%20as%20in%20rice,by%20German%20chemical%20company%20Bayer.

I was looking for specific wool to knit a toy for my grandson. Amazon would not send it to my NI address but I found a great UK company who would. I had it within days. I’m fed up with Amazon.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I hope we can avoid buying Chlorine washed chickens and antibiotic filled beef. We should concentrate on UK and EU food regulations about place of origin and not where something is processed. I will continue to use local butchers and greengrocers. Flour for my bread maker is grown and milled in UK. I would be dubious about fruit from US as I have read that they are sprayed with chemicals
I am doing my best avoid US and Chinese goods. Difficult at times.

Have always said the idea of special relationship was a total sham and never supported american stuff . So am happy that Trump has at last said something that has galvanised people into doing something. His idea of diplomacy is at the level of a two year old in a temper tantrum. You cannot trust a word he says and he thinks the world will change on whatever whim suits him on a specific day. Relying on him for anything , apart from knowing his total attitude is to grab everything he can without any intention of paying for it, is not worth thinking about. So great , let him carry on making enemies and hopefully they will get rid of him.

We'll all have our own individual cut off points. I subscribe to Amazon Prime having renewed at the start of the year so will carry on using it, especially for the occasional sports coverage on Prime video. I avoid Chinese made goods where practicable and will avoid as much American made stuff as I can. I won't necessarily avoid all American outlets since they are providing employment for UK people. karmalady I don't understand the comment about Amazon not employing British people. Everybody that works for them in the warehouses to the delivery vans is resident in the UK. They might be a tough employer (I wish they paid better and had better working practices) but enough people are glad of the opportunity for gainful employment.

I have all Apple products, laptop, iPad, iPhone because I love that they synchronise without me doing a thing. I can't see me changing any time soon, mostly because I keep my things going for years and don't update at every new model.

As long as we're comfortable with our own response that is what matters. I love football and will avidly watch tons of it. I watched not one second of the last World Cup because I disagreed with the venue and I heartedly despised those football pundits of ours that went out to take the tainted money. It made not one iota of difference to those harmed by the building of the stadia, Qatar or the likes of Gary Linekar but I felt better abiding by my individual principles. I suspect that my not using Google would have about as much impact.

Amazon UK provides lots of jobs for people all over the country. If everyone stopped buying from them enough to make a difference they would just leave the country taking the jobs away making a lot of people unemployed.

.

Isn't he just doing things to price offshore companies out of the market and thus persuade Americans to buy American products and therefore create more jobs?

Maybe we should take a lead out of his book.

All very fine to block Amazon but what about when you want a new car, washing machine or dishwasher? Many sold under European and U.K. names as being made there but are actually assembled in the U.S.
.

I use Google, but I’m not signed up to it, so their search engines don’t give me personalised recommendations based on my previous searches. The only time it’s a pain is on YouTube, because it doesn’t always show the latest posts of my favoured posters.

Thanks Allira. I’ll be looking up the alternatives.

Yahoo UK is a subsidiary of Yahoo which is an American company.

Founding and History: Yahoo! was founded in January 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, who were electrical engineering graduates at Stanford University.
Headquarters: The company's headquarters are in New York City, New York, USA.
Ownership: Yahoo! Inc. is a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management.
Global Presence: While Yahoo! has a global presence, its core operations and origins remain firmly rooted in the United States.

I’ve always used Yahoo, thought everyone else did too. An interesting, useful thread.

I can't recommend Yahoo. DH uses it and I checked his emails for him on my PC and since then it keeps taking over, can't get rid of it no matter what I do.

Replace Google with :-

DuckDuckGo, Bing, Ecosia, Startpage, Qwant, Swisscows, Brave Search, or Yahoo

However, haven’t looked to check their origins