I hope we're not as screwed as it looks like we are.

Yes, Amazon is not a good company. No, there aren't any good alternatives.

If I got on my high horse and started boycotting Amazon, where would I buy all my household goods instead? Wal-mart? Target? Home Depot? Lowes?

Those companies aren't even 1% better.

And don't talk about a strip of mom-and-pop stores "downtown". Shall I take the bus to get there? Perhaps get a malt at the Five-and-Dime? I don't have a time-travelling DeLorean, phone booth, or TARDIS to take me back to the 1950's. Countless mom-and-pop shops are long gone, and even more shut down recently because of the COVID scam. This is the reality in 2020. Back in the day, rural Americans got countless "Amazon.com" type stuff from the Sears catalog. But again, here in 2020 mail-order is dead. Online is the new mail-order.

The small town closest to me (pop. 1000) doesn't even have a small grocery store anymore. They had one for decades. But it didn't get enough support -- most people drove out of town to the nearest Wal-mart or H-E-B instead.

And might I point out that Catholic famlies -- usually with more than 2 or 3 kids -- don't have the extra A) time or B) money to pursue an Amazon.com boycott. Trying to find everything at small stores would take WAY more time than I have, and it would cost who-knows-how much more for the same stuff. I'm going to have to politely decline.

Maybe some retired old folks who remember "the way things used to be" can hang on with hands and fingernails to supporting small businesses -- the travel, shop time, and effort required is basically a full-time job in itself. But don't expect young families to have the time/money for this.

God doesn't expect the impossible.

Brick and mortar will not return to normal until store owners allow us to remove our masks.  The reason is that browsing is a huge factor in everyday profit.  Any kind of retail store -- grocery, gifts, hardware (yes), etc.  I was once a huge browser, and I would say that browsing accounted for at least 50% of my purchases.  This may be more true of women than of men, but we women shop more and shop longer than men do, anyway -- except for cars, lol.  

If you think most people -- male or female -- really want to hang out in a store with a paper or cloth diaper over their faces, for an extended period (not counting transportation, parking, walking there, waiting in the checkout line), then you (store owner or policy maker) are pretty naive.  I observe that most people now run in and run out.  They do their business; they cut short their store time, even when they're not doing so out of courtesy for those shoppers waiting outside to get in.  I now "shop like a man"  -- reluctantly, purposefully, and with no lingering.

Prolong the mask mania and watch even more businesses permanently close.

Simple.  I buy from eBay.  The seller is nearly always a tiny business just selling stuff on line.  And it is normally cheaper than Amazon

Yes, eBay is the way to purchase many particular items.  But one can’t do a month’s worth of grocery shopping on it, and for certain items, it’s probably prohibitively expensive.  One can also check Craig’s List, but if the item isn’t nearby or very large, the price of packing, delivery, etc. is just too high.