I can’t seem to get around it, afree spending the entire day at work I really don’t feel like going to the store. Between the free one day shipping, competitive pricing and most importantly the platform of recommendations and reviews it’s almost stupid not to. I just hope it doesn’t kill our economy/retail.
You're hoping Amazon doesn't kill our economy and retail? It already has. One of the things it did was partner with or open markets to Third World counterfeiters/pirates in Asia. So, not only are homegrown businesses getting pirated left and right on the platform, retail is forced to compete with thousands of more competitors from overseas, who, via IP theft, are pumping out exact duplicates of the products they're making.
Amazon has also completely redefined the rules of business to where you can literally lose billions a dollar a year in profit and still remain in business, while businesses playing by the rules go under. Amazon the store has to this day NEVER turned a profit. Ever. The store is kept afloat by Amazon's cloud computing service. So, the store is a shell company being propped up by another venture. Imagine if, say, I started a hamburger company called "Atomic Burgers" to compete with McDonald's and then undercut prices to such an extent that I lose $5B a year. BUT at the same time I buy a whole bunch of highly profitable food apps that earn $100B a year. I then take $5B of profit from my food apps to cover the losses for Atomic Burgers but then take an extra $5B to further undercut McDonald's by 20%. That is how Amazon does business.
Also, retail has shed tens of thousands of jobs since Amazon's inception. This is a disaster. I used to work in retail and for all its flaws, the one saving grace is that it was the only sector where anyone could find work, regardless of background or education. Every holiday season major stores would mass hire people for a few weeks, so everyone from college students fresh out of school and high school dropouts to stay at home moms to retirees could walk into a store without much work experience or education and be able to get some income and/or build their resumes.
If this job sector is destroyed, the economy is completely fucked because retail was the last hope for either people starting out or needing supplementary income.
Why is it so hard to believe? This is not a hidden thing. It's an open secret and has been for years. It's how all of these Big Tech companies make money. They create a "shell" business and convince investors and Wall Street to keep pouring money into it because it's a "sure thing." They then take the money of investors given to the "sure thing" to buy out profitable companies and start up a profitable side venture. Next, they combine the shell business + acquisitions + side venture to make it look as though the entire "company" is doing gangbusters. But no. The acquisitions + side venture is doing gangbusters. The "shell business"--the one that the Big Tech company used to entice investors in the first place--is losing money hand and over fist.
The only reason why I use Amazon is that I don't have any other option when comes to buying new music. Thanks to Apple and iTunes, we no longer have any record chains or online alternatives where people can browse and discover new albums.
i personally don't really buy anything (i'm basically an anti-materialist zero-impact type, though not a hippie in the least), so i don't spend any time shopping on amazon or any other retailer.
but i absolutely think the rise of internet retailers has in the main been a great gift to consumers, in pricing & competitiveness & convenience. it's carried some costs - any innovation will, but i think when you look at the results in aggregate, it's been a benefit, even a blessing.
small example: one of the podcasters i follow was relaying a story recently of being at home with an infant and a toddler who was quite ill while his wife was out of town. he realized at 2 in the morning that he was out of diapers - he briefly considered running to the store in the middle of the night with his baby & sick kid, but instead went online, placed an order with amazon, & the diapers were on his doorstep by 6am.
there are costs that come with these innovations, no question. but that option is the kind of thing that makes lives better than they used to be, & i'm all for it.
Anytime businesses compete for your dollar, you win.
generally speaking, absolutely.
it's absolutely the case that things like this are disruptive, can make some kinds of jobs disappear, make entire industries disappear, and there's a cost to that.
but almost certainly the biggest cost of all would be trying to prevent the innovations from happening. the consumers would lose all the benefit, & you'd have to...what? impose all kinds of onerous regulations & laws or taxes to stop businesses from doing what consumers would like them to do, i guess. which would impose costs far in excess of the ones that come from simply letting the innovations proceed & letting the market operate & consumers decide on winners and losers.
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That or propping up things that should die. Some have formulated a bizarre claim based on a non-existent right to keep things as they are -- but things change, they evolve. Any employee or business owner should know that. And the rate of change keeps increasing, so being fast on your feet, as well as adopting a lifetime learning habit, is a prerequisite. Tantruming against change is a poor strategy.
oh, let me guess.
a certain movie-chatter is posting about how amazon or e-commerce is the worst thing that's ever happened, and now everything is terrible and people are stupid for using them.
am i close?
i blocked a certain person recently because i found that individual needlessly pissy and antagonistic and perpetually aggrieved, and those are things that i generally prefer to avoid.
Actually, I wasn't thinking of that person although it most certainly applies. She's blocked me and others who parse out her logic and point to its flaws. But she's not alone in that kind of thinking, where how things have been done in their past should be written in stone and applied without exception until they die. With those types, finding a flaw or lacking with the person in the mirror is a non-starter.
i just took a second to look up the canadian employment stats this century, & saw that jobs classified under retail trade have increased since 2000 :
2.2 million retail jobs in canada in 2019, out of 19.06 million total jobs - 11.56% of all jobs
compare that to:
1.75 million retail jobs in canada in 2000, out of 14.760 million total jobs - 11.88% of all jobs.
so there's been a slight decline in retail as a %, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the case that online shopping has decimated the retail labour force as of yet, at least in canada.
i'll see if i can find u.s. stats. perhaps those numbers will be a little different, since my impression is that the online retail market is much more developed there.
I like to look at and touch what Im buying. I only shop on-line when it's something I can't find at retail. I especially hate getting a gift that has been purchased on-line because I only have two options if I don't like, want, or need it and that is tell the person who gave it to me that I would like to return it, (awkward), or give it to Goodwill.
That's a problem that needs to be addressed. Isn't there a way for the gifter to mark it as a gift and some kind of return card sent to the giftee? If not, there should be.
Well some members of my family only shop on line and never include any way to return the gift. I finally told one of them if they continued to give me something I couldn't use it was going to Goodwill. I have this big problem with adult gift giving at Christmas and they know my feelings but they insist on buying my husband and myself presents - his adult children, not mine. Long ago my son and I stopped the gift giving and we are both much happier.
It's okay if some people only shop online, but if they're giving gifts, like with Amazon, there should be an easy way for the recipient to return the item if they don't like it for some reason, and get a credit or something. You'd think Amazon would address this.
I have a deal with my best friend similar to the one you have with your son. We're very close and I adore her. But neither of us even know when the other's birthday is, so there's no birthday presents or greetings. Christmas either, unless we happen to find something we think the other will truly love. And it may come in January, so only a sort of Christmas present. Basically we give one another presents rarely, and only if we really think it's something we already know the other person will like, or needs. No strings, ever.
My son and I go out for a really nice dinner to celebrate holidays - like Capital Grille, Morton's, etc. We have a great time together and split the bill.