“I’m Hanna Kozlowska, an investigative reporter at Quartz. I like shopping. I love a great new outfit, or a new skincare hack. I have hobbies that require gear (ski socks, knitting needles). I like my home to look nice-ish and have all sorts of useful things in it. I buy way too many books. I de-stress by browsing through review websites like The Strategist, and I listen to podcasts that offer up a gazillion product recommendations per episode. Doing all of these things brings me joy or relief, but I don’t love the consumerism and waste it encourages. And what I particularly don’t appreciate is how Amazon—a company with many questionable business practices—has weaseled itself into my life, by making it so quick, cheap, and easy to do all these things I love, not to mention chores like buying shoelaces or heads for my electric toothbrush. With my guilt about supporting Amazon steadily fed by a stream of media reports about the company’s various sins, I decided over the summer that I’d quit my several-times-a-month Amazon habit, and document what I did instead. It turned out that it wasn’t that difficult to do, so for this Valentine’s Day—a consumerist holiday if there every was one—here are my suggestions for how to get out of a toxic relationship with the world’s biggest online retailer…”