So you’ve really never bought anything from Amazon?
There was one time, way back when I was in grad school. I needed this specific accounting textbook that literally wasn’t available anywhere else. That was nearly two and a half decades ago and is the one and only time I bought anything on Amazon. After that, any time I ever went back to Amazon, all they recommended for me were accounting things—books, T-shirts, tools. I have absolutely no interest in accounting. It was a required class for business school. So this is a machine that obviously knows nothing about me and doesn’t understand my interests. It’s not going to provide me with a wonderful experience. I decided then and there I would never use it again.
Sounds like that left a really bad taste in your mouth…
I’m a second-generation bookstore owner, so I saw the negative impact of Amazon immediately. Back when they first started, and maybe even today, Amazon may be known for books. But they don’t care about books. At Bookshop Santa Cruz, books are our passion. For that alone, I knew I would never shop at Amazon again.
You’re a mom. How does your family feel about it?
My kids are teenagers and they don’t use Amazon either. We are an Amazon-free family. No Alexa. No Prime Video. Our view is that avoiding Amazon is an enhancement to our lives, not a sacrifice.
Is that ever hard?
We’re a big sports family. My son’s biggest challenge is having Thursday Night Football exclusively on Prime, especially when the 49ers are playing. That is super frustrating. But then we can go down to Woodstock’s Pizza to watch a game and be around other people. But in general, my kids understand that our family’s livelihood and the livelihood of all their friends and their families depends on more people realizing that Amazon is a threat to this local community.
How does Amazon pose such a big threat?
You can see it here in Santa Cruz and everywhere throughout the nation. Amazon’s business practices are incredibly destructive to local businesses. We’re like this tiny ship trying to stay afloat in the middle of this huge Amazon ocean. For people who are living the experience of competing with Amazon every single day it’s really, really hard. They have the resources to shave prices to the bone. They’re making billions of dollars in profits, using robots and drones for fulfillment, while our local businesses, with real humans, fight daily for survival.
And then there is this notion of prioritizing competition over community…
Exactly! Amazon is all take and no give. Consider this: when my kids were in school, we’d get notes coming home saying buy your books on Amazon and the school will get money back through the Amazon Smile program. I asked the school how much money they were actually getting back from Amazon and it was about $45. By comparison, Bookshop alone recently raised $12,000 to give free books to the local public libraries. Thankfully, the schools realized promoting Amazon wasn’t actually helping the community and they dropped the program.
It would be one thing if they were fostering healthy competition…
But they absolutely are not! When e-books first arrived on the scene, Kindles were proprietary to Amazon only. So you couldn’t buy an e-book from Bookshop Santa Cruz and put it on your Kindle. Every other platform allowed you to buy from whoever you wanted and then put the e-book on your device. But all they want to do is lock you into their ecosystem and the only one who truly benefits is Amazon.
That proprietary ecosystem extends to their Information Technology (IT) systems, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), which enables companies to do business in the cloud. Do you try to avoid that as well?
We do. Amazon now controls all these servers. So when Bookshop is looking for IT solutions we have to make sure it’s another platform and not using Amazon underneath. They make it very challenging all around.
How do you shop instead?
If I see a product online and the site links to Amazon first, I try to figure out who the original seller is and order directly. I also check to see if it’s on Etsy or Faire. I don’t think it’s a small business anymore, but I also like Uncommon Goods. I’ll sometimes go there for gift ideas, then try to buy that item or something similar locally. Santa Cruz has the best local toyshops, so there is never a need to buy a toy elsewhere. I may use Target online if there is that one Halloween costume my kid absolutely must have and literally nowhere else around to get it.
What about when you are on social media and get served an ad for that “it will change your life” must-have item? How do you resist the buy now impulse?
There’s definitely a reason why Instagram is super popular. They know what we like. If I see something I really want, I take a screenshot and try to find it locally or go directly to the seller. I keep a little file on my phone of all the photos that I’ve taken of things that I’m interested in.
What would you tell folks for whom all this sounds like a lot of effort?
Here’s the thing: there is nobody more dedicated to this community than these downtown Santa Cruz retailers. They make their stores interesting, fun and exciting because of that dedication.The fact is, they would not have survived otherwise. They are offering the most innovative and exciting shopping experiences you will find anywhere. These stores really want to make it work for the community. They care about downtown. They care about their employees. They want a vibrant, thriving cultural and economic center where people can gather. People may want to talk about the stores that have closed, but there is a reason why the retailers who remain are still here.
