Think small this Christmas

Jeff Bezos will earn as much in a second as one of his warehouse workers will earn in five weeks. In four US states, Amazon tops the biggest 20 employers whose workers rely on food stamps. It makes the charitable activity of Amazon contradictory - pay more and enable workers to live properly. 

The values of Christmas seem at odds with big business. Warehouse workers monitored for every motion, delivery drivers paid pennies per drop off at your door, poor working conditions at source factories. We haven't even got into the environmental impact (who has received an Amazon box stuffed with paper for a single tooth brush? I'm embarrassed to say I have). 

Thinking small this Christmas, both on your local high street and online, will help businesses trying to recover from the devastating impact of the recent Coronavirus restrictions. It has been hugely unfair that independent shops have been forced to close due to being non-essential when supermarkets are able to sell the exact same products. 

So if you can, get books and cards from your local bookshop, get seasonal food from your local providers, and shop from independent websites. There may be the loss of the convenience factor, but with Paypal etc shopping on independent websites is a fraction slower that Amazon. Keep things varied, before it's too late!