Boycotting Amazon Hurts Small Businesses

Look, we at Fanny McFart get it—we're angry and we feel powerless, so we're using our pocketbooks to hit certain company's where It hurts most. We don't care for Jeff Bezos, as he's done more than his fair share of union-busting, tax-dodging, and monopolizing. “Enough is enough,” we're crying, while promising to boycott. But here’s the problem: a lot of us—small business owners, independent creators, and liberal entrepreneurs—depend on Amazon to survive. Boycotting it doesn’t just hurt the big guy; it hurts folks like us. It hurts us more.

Take my author friend C.I. Jerez, for example. A hardworking, talented writer whose book At the Island’s Edge drops on March 18, 2025. Like countless authors, Jerez relies on Amazon because, let’s be real, there's only so much space on Barnes & Noble bookshelves. For many writers, Amazon is the main avenue to get their work into readers’ hands. Without it, their voices—our voices—are drowned out.

And then there’s Lee Ann Ward, a USA Today bestselling author and the real Fanny McFart’s editor (yes, you read that right—there's a real person behind the name Fanny McFart). Lee Ann is a phenomenal editor who helps shape incredible manuscripts. My manuscript! But guess what? Royalties of books she's authored are tied to Amazon sales, too. If we cut off Amazon, we cut off part of her paycheck. And she’s not alone. Many independent authors, editors, and small publishers would see their incomes nosedive if Amazon sales suddenly disappeared.

Let’s be honest—most of us aren’t walking into indie bookstores and dropping a hundred bucks every week on books. We love them, we support them when we can, but they don’t always carry the books we’re looking for. Amazon is the platform that gives them a fighting chance.

By all means, hold Amazon accountable. Push for better labor practices, support unions, and shop local when you can. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Those most hurt by a full-scale Amazon boycott won’t be the billionaires—it’ll be the small business owners, the authors, the editors, the creatives. People like us.

Fanny's recommendation is to buy from private stores within Amazon's umbrella. If you want to support the little guy, maybe start by pre-ordering C.I. Jerez’s book before the boycott. Because at the end of the day, the real power isn’t in tearing something down—it’s in lifting each other up.

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