Totally valid tbh — I just looked it up and it looks like I conflated being outperformed with being acquired so that’s on me lol — I’d delete my comment but I like the other responses to it so I’ll just eat being wrong in public hahaha

Amazon bought Barnes&Noble ages ago; buying from them at all is still benefiting Amazon — but there are lots of great alternatives online for books (physical and ebook formats), as well as visiting your local used book stores. I use Amazon for keyword searches basically just so I can maximize the number of results I get elsewhere. Getting off of major sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc. also puts you back in touch with the actual internet rather than the retail echo chamber we’re accustomed to.

I get way better deals that way as well, and pay vendors directly rather than through a middleman like Amazon.