"Escape the Amazon"

Is it a heist movie or a Whatsapp group? It's both! Let's take £100k off Bezos and use it to build better things...?

If we set up a Whatsapp group* to pledge off Amazon (for a year?) and instead share tips on how we’re finding alternatives to spend the money to create better things...would you join? Scroll to the bottom if so! 👇

Websites to do this are already out there, but isn’t us all sitting on our own doing these things separately part of the problem?

How about doing it together and sharing practical tips to make it work in your life?

Like how do you go back to buying books when they don’t arrive the next day? Or where do you buy birthday presents when you’ve…forgotten to order them in time..

…and building some community around it whilst we go?

Here are some of the great project we’ve featured that benefit when we spend more of our money locally.

Recent statista data shows the average UK household seems to spend between £600 and £1200 a year on Amazon (and that’s before you get to Audible, Prime TV, Twitch, Wholefoods etc). There are over 300 people subscribed to this newsletter. If 1/3rd of us pledged to swear off Amazon for a year, we could shift around £100k out of a future that ends in (‘oxygen scarce’) Space, to a future that could reimagine what we have here on (oxygen rich) earth. 

As precedent, short stints of Amazon escaping have been happening in the states, but this is about making it possible permanently.

Incase you need any reminding of the motivation: Jeff Bezos thinks his 1.5 million workers should exist in a perpetual state of terror to enrich him, presumably so he can reclaim the title of richest man on earth from Elon Musk, and beat him in the race to have us all live in 1 mile long pods in space. And every pound / dollar / breadcrumb we give him fuels this vision.

This is a 1 mile long space pod - which is where Jeff wants us to live. Jeff - please report to my office - I AM NOT DOWN WITH THIS!

More than the money we’d take off Besoz (he’ll barely notice) - it’s’ about the good that would come from the money that’s put into other things.

Imagine if we put £100k into buying presents from local shops, buying books from actual retailers where we can get to know the staff, and buying electronics from places that pay their taxes?

What could that £100k a year do to create a more positive, less “spacey” and more “let’s live here on earth where it’s beautiful and full of great people” world?

This isn’t about being perfect, and we know there are some things for price, medical or other reasons that some of us might find impossible to shift. There is no shame in imperfection. This is more about asking the question 👇

What world could we help build more of with the money we’d otherwise bung to Bezos?

Plus it’ll give us all tips to share with others who’re curious if they can do this too.

Want in? Scan the QR code below or click the link here to join. (Or click button to tell us you’d rather we used Signal)

* NOTE: I’m aware of the irony of using Whatsapp to escape Amazon. If there’s a preference for Signal we will switch to there. Fewer people use Signal as their daily driver though - so we’re prepared to embrace the irony unless you tell us you’d rather we didn’t in enough numbers 👍