Trying to not buy anything American!

[PinaColada24]

This is a personal choice. I’m trying to not buy anything imported from American. Is anyone else doing the same? Any ideas?

Interestingly (well, too me) is that within a couple of times of ignoring Amazon suggestions and looking at local/non American suppliers, the Amazon links are falling down the list of options. I can easily buy the same or similar item without a cent dropping into Bezos's bulging pockets. Result!

@Eyesopenwideawake we need new window stays fir 1 room and DH automatically went to Amazon. I found the ones we want on a hardware co site and the total order was£1.50 less. Proved what I keep telling him that Amazon is often not the best place to buy (Ive proved it many times but this time he is more likely to hear the message).

You should get off the internet then. AWS runs most of it but I suspect you won’t do that…

Bezos hasn’t been CEO for years at Amazon. Maybe read up on stuff before virtue signalling

It’s really difficult as American companies have bought out so many UK companies.

And even if you boycott McDonalds you are actually probably boycotting a British owner as they are franchises. And they employ so many people. And they source their products and ingredients locally as well.

DS works for an American/Canadian company so that’s even trickier!

I am reducing my Amazon use though.

He is still however its largest shareholder

Plus it’s not about boycotting bezos it’s about boycotting the US

I stopped using amazon but there are lots of English companies selling on there so it makes no sense.

I think it is the big ticket items like cars, white goods, holidays and education. No way people I know will go there any more and they've priced themselves out of the competition for the rest. Everyone is far more aware of the lack of freedom of speech over there now, and choice for women.

Definitely made a decision to avoid purchasing new American products. So no Netflix, no Cadbury Easter Eggs or chocolate, no using Boots or Morrisons or Walkers crisps.

Those are the immediate change we have made. No Starbucks either. Still identifying other products we buy that we can make swops!

we will not eat out at any of US restaurants.

Don't just think about not buying American goods, but also consider not using American owned supermarkets, such as Asda and Morrisons and use British/European supermarkets instead such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Aldi, Lidl etc. Also consider switching internet/computer suppliers away from US owned companies and towards European or Far Eastern firms instead.

But lots of Amazon sellers are UK based businesses too, who use Amazon's "fulfilled by Amazon" service for warehousing and distribution, which use British staff. Like McDonald's franchises, thing aren't as easy as they seem.

Often suppliers on Amazon have a link to their website on the listing. Use Amazon to browse then buy direct from the supplier.

Changes like this can really make an impact.

Just adding Copella to my list as it’s a Pepsi brand 🙄

In terms of drinks SO many are US brands: Tropicana, Copella, Naked smoothies, Innocent, Coke, Pepsi, Appletizer, Fanta, Sprite, Mountain Dew, 7UP, Gatorade, Smartwater.

Not that I drink much of that crap but I’m thinking of when you go into a cafe or a Supermarket Food-to-Go and nearly ALL the drinks are these above.

That's not correct - TDR Capital owns the controlling share of ASDA after buying Zuber Issa's holding. Mohsin Issa retained his stake.

Yes, we've been avoiding US brands/US-owned companies since Trump got in power. It gives me great satisfaction.

@taxguru - very true. It’s definitely not easy and a complete minefield. I suppose what I’m trying to do is not go for the easy option of just ordering from Amazon automatically. For instance we are having a moth issue and instead of just ordering stuff from Amazon I went to Robert Dyas and bought what I needed.

It's going to be impossible to eliminate US goods and services but reducing/swapping where possible will cumulatively have a big impact even though each individuals change is small.

Where is gets tricky is that American owned doesn't mean American made.

By avoiding American owned eg Apple, we end up penalising countries like India and Vietnam who are already hit with large tariffs.

I'm conflicted.

I never buy American food. It's ultra processed crap.

Why can you not give up Amazon? Just buy direct from non-US merchants.

Weetabix instead of crunchy nut cornflakes.

@ZigZagJigsaw re GPs, more than half of England's GP surgeries use software from EMIS which was bought by Optum (an American healthcare company) in 2023 who themselves are owned by UnitedHealthcare the one whose CEO was shot dead last year. So that might be a bit bigger than asking for non-US pharmaceuticals. Not trying to be arsey just showing how deep we are in a global market.

I agree that it would be hard to boycott tech, but would prefer to avoid US companies where I can. I mostly try to avoid UPF as much as possible, so food wise it’s not too bad and I’ve just checked Unilever and it looks like they are Dutch/UK owned so I’m good with Helmans Mayo & Ben & Jerry’s as exceptions, along with most cleaning products.

Where I’m struggling is toothpaste. Does anyone know a good total toothpaste alternative to Colgate? As in one that’s effective.

Also you can often get cash back via Top Cash Back or Kidstart if you do this, whereas Amazon opted out of that. I do this with expensive items if I remember.