Imagining a Christmas Without Amazon
Why this is my year to break free from Amazon Prime
Two years ago, I’d seriously contemplated quitting Amazon Prime. It was January 2020 and I was decompressing from yet another holiday season delivered, quite literally, by the e-commerce behemoth.
Amazon had filled my stockings, created abundance beneath my tree, and saved my bacon when I couldn’t think of anything to buy my in-laws. Everything had arrived on time, packed in suitably oblique boxes stamped with the familiar smiling logo.
But once the gifts were unwrapped and put away, I’d felt deflated. The gift-buying experience had become so blandly anonymous that a week after Christmas, I could barely remember what I’d bought.
I’d expended so little effort in getting the gifts, they’d become meaningless. Adding to this feeling of pointless excess was the fact that I was still getting emails from Amazon and other retailers to buy more! Buy now! Buy the thing you want in the after-Christmas sale because it’s just so damn easy!
I had an out-of-body retail experience. I saw my consumption for what it was — primed by Prime. I’d become a mindless shopping machine. I decided that things needed to change. I was going to (gulp) cancel my Amazon Prime account.
