Shopping around

Given that I am trying to lead a more rounded life it has become important to me to shop independently where possible and not to shop with companies who have ethics which I find particularly dubious, retail deal breakers if you will, even or particularly when it inconveniences me. It's as simple as getting lunch from the independent sandwich shop ten minutes away from my office rather than the Starbucks over the road or as complicated as not shopping at Amazon.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that backlash happens. I remember how revolutionary Amazon used to be with it's feisty internet startup credibility and free shipping back when I was a teenager before it was the grocershoeshophomehobby monolith of today, I was thrilled to be able to find music that I would otherwise have to trawl endless record stores for and to purchase books that wouldn't be available in Britain for months. Over the years as they have expanded as a company they have either sacrificed some of their ethics or been shown to have never had them in the first place. The two incidents which lead to my current predicament are QueerFail and MacmillanFail, I suppose you could consider both of them to spring from the entitlement if you were so minded. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that, much like the rest of privileged culture, Amazon thought that they would be able to classify any LGBT literature as "adult" and remove them from their sales ranking system (whereas books which talk about heterosexual relationships and issues are of course just self help) but I was seriously disappointed. When they removed all of Macmillans titles because they refused to subsidize the Kindle format, and why should they, I was infuriated all over again. If you are going to be terribly libertarian about it then yes Amazon have a right to do whatever they want with their platform, they can decide that the lives of a minority are obscene because they conflict with a majority, they can cut out an entire publishing house and all their authors because they won't cut their profits to the bone for the privilege of selling through their shop. Amazon can in theory do any damn thing they please, but I don't have to buy from them and it is with great reluctance that I have ceased to do so.

For those of you who are curious I am currently using the Book Depository, the books may take a little longer to arrive but it's almost certainly good for me not to be able to have anything I could want straight away.