I feel guilty and dirty for buying from Amazon

[ownyourfuture]

I worked what was called a 4-4 continuous schedule.

Start days on Monday 6 am to 6 pm. Work Mon Tue Wed & Thurs
Have Fri Sat Sun & Mon off. Our weeks were considered cycles.

The next week/cycle would be to work 6 AM to 6 PM Tuesday through Friday.
Have Saturday Sunday Monday & Tuesday off.

Following week work Wednesday through Saturday. You get the idea.
Once you got to the 7th cycle, (when you work Sunday through Wednesday)
This meant it was the last week/cycle of days.

The following week you would report to work at 6 PM & work till 6 AM
Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Words can't describe how much I hated the night shift.
But not for the reason a lot of you would guess. I could sleep fine, although some days I'd have to wear earplugs.

The problem for me, was that I couldn't switch back to sleeping at night on my days off. So for 56 days, I was up all night, & slept from around 9 AM to 4 PM.

Luckily for me I started at age 23, and because the company offers a defined benefit pension plan, I was able to retire after 30 years at age 53.

So as far as the Amazon hours, I say if you don't like it, tough !@#$

As for stealing tips from the drivers, that's a legitimate gripe.

 

[Nick12]

Jeff Bezos is laughing all the way to the bank. He's worth currently $196 Billion.

 

[Walt34]

Jeff Bezos is laughing all the way to the bank. He's worth currently $196 Billion.

So what? He came up with a good idea, ran with it, and was successful. I fail to see the problem.

 

[Montecfo]

I wonder what Amazon charges these companies? We love a smallish family resort in Playa ...one year we booked a really cheap package at Expedia. Since we were regulars at that resort at checkout they mentioned if we found a cheap price at EX we should email and they would match it. I think they said EX kept back 20% of the room price as cost of doing business. Plus the resort would be way more generous with their cancellation policy.

Very smart on their part to do this for selected customers.

 

[Amethyst]

You name the shift; I've probably worked it. 12-on-12-off rotating days-mids-swings, 8-on-8-off rotating days-mids-swings, several others whose nicknames I've forgotten. Rotating shifts are incredibly hard on the body. We used to say it took the "f" out of "shiftwork."

All part of a DoD career, and often it was the most interesting work, too. The same probably cannot be said about shift in a warehouse...

I worked what was called a 4-4 continuous schedule.

Start days on Monday 6 am to 6 pm. Work Mon Tue Wed & Thurs
Have Fri Sat Sun & Mon off. Our weeks were considered cycles.

The next week/cycle would be to work 6 AM to 6 PM Tuesday through Friday.
Have Saturday Sunday Monday & Tuesday off.

Following week work Wednesday through Saturday. You get the idea.
Once you got to the 7th cycle, (when you work Sunday through Wednesday)
This meant it was the last week/cycle of days.

The following week you would report to work at 6 PM & work till 6 AM
Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Words can't describe how much I hated the night shift.
But not for the reason a lot of you would guess. I could sleep fine, although some days I'd have to wear earplugs.

The problem for me, was that I couldn't switch back to sleeping at night on my days off. So for 56 days, I was up all night, & slept from around 9 AM to 4 PM.

e.

 

[Montecfo]

This thread does an excellent job of ferreting out the nuance around an issue. Workers complain about hours and working conditions. But they still work there. Why? Ultimately they like the pay and full package of the job if viewed as a complete picture. And guess what, millions that are out of work want those jobs. Context is important.

Amazon facilitates third party sellers and their businesses grow massively. Now companies are going out and buying those third party sellers and growing them even more. Jobs and commerce.

Not a fan of Bezos as I think these business oligarchs have far too much influence outside the businesses. But the company is an American success story. Would we prefer Alibaba to be reshaping American retail?

Big picture.

 

[ls99]

So what? He came up with a good idea, ran with it, and was successful. I fail to see the problem.

While I buy nothing from amzon, I agree. We are all free to vote with our $.

Many bad mouth Goodwill as well, it is a genius idea. Get merchandise free and delivered at no cost to your door, and sell it.

 

[Koolau]

Amazon will also remove you (seller) from their platform if they disagree with you on some social cause, etc...

Yeah, from the "what it means to me" department, I'm more concerned about the owner being able to buy into "the Media." Most of the employee stuff (bad as it may seem) will eventually work itself out, legally. I won't stray any further afield as YMMV.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I just ran some Amazon order history reports. For 2020, I ordered close to $5K in goods (and that was after discounts).

Earlier this year when Amazon yanked AWS for a certain twitter alternative. I am a fierce believer in free speech and didn't like their ability to simply shut off whomever and whenever they felt like it. (I'm not here to debate whether they have that right - only my right to use my purchasing power how I deem.) [I would be equally unhappy had the twitter alternative closed down been on the opposite side of the political spectrum, and I was not a user of said twitter alternative.]

So far in 2021, I am under $75, and most of that was in early January. I've cancelled several dozen subscribe and save items (still have more to go as I have to cancel them one at a time).

The good news is a lot less clutter of boxes coming to the house, and perhaps I can be a better consumer for local merchants (as well as other non-Amazon Internet sellers).

 

[Nick12]

So what? He came up with a good idea, ran with it, and was successful. I fail to see the problem.

So what? I'm pointing out a fact that he is a success story and by millions that continue to buy, just puts him in that wealth category. There is no issue in that.

 

[MichaelB]

So what? He came up with a good idea, ran with it, and was successful. I fail to see the problem.

Right. What I find funny is so many forum members talk about the years of long hours they put into work and their jobs as a critical ingredient to their success.

Low skilled employment sucks. A few years back Wal-Mart was heavily criticized for giving their hourly employees irregular hours with no consistency over time and many last minute changes. This made it difficult to manage second jobs and child care. I see 4 x 10 hour shifts as an improvement over that.

 

[HI Bill]

loved when i was doing 4x10's.

I did 4x10s for 17 years. The first six years weren't by choice; the remaining 11 years were my choice, and I loved having three-day weekends every week. One less commute day, and another day to dive! Yes, they can be brutal, but worth it IMHO, depending on the job.

 

[Koolau]

I did 4x10s for 17 years. The first six years weren't by choice; the remaining 11 years were my choice, and I loved having three-day weekends every week. One less commute day, and another day to dive! Yes, they can be brutal, but worth it IMHO, depending on the job.

My Megacorp tried 4x10s for a while. Megacorp prided itself on not using time clocks. Turned out employees found it easy to abuse the 4x10s because immediate supervision could not keep track. Eventually, 4x10s went the way of the dodo but time clocks never appeared, so there's that. YMMV

 

[CardsFan]

My Megacorp tried 4x10s for a while. Megacorp prided itself on not using time clocks. Turned out employees found it easy to abuse the 4x10s because immediate supervision could not keep track. Eventually, 4x10s went the way of the dodo but time clocks never appeared, so there's that. YMMV

I suspect many here (like myself) worked for a MC that expected 5-10's (or more) with on call on weekends. Salary. No paid OT.

It was a part of the job that I accepted.

 

[24601NoMore]

loved when i was doing 4x10's. Then went to every other Friday off, it also was nice!!!

4x10s? Wow..I was working 7x16s before I bailed (basically, to save my life).

Would have loved to sign up for 4x10s! Sounds like a great gig!

 

[Nick12]

I did 4x10s for 17 years. The first six years weren't by choice; the remaining 11 years were my choice, and I loved having three-day weekends every week. One less commute day, and another day to dive! Yes, they can be brutal, but worth it IMHO, depending on the job.

I have friends and family that are RNs. They love their schedule. 3 days on, 4 days off.

 

[RetireeRobert]

To my mind they really are the Evil Empire

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gk3w/amazon-is-forcing-its-warehouse-workers-into-brutal-megacycle-shifts

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7mq5m/amazon-will-pay-gig-workers-dollar617-million-for-stealing-tips



I am not going to shop on their website unless I cannot buy the item anywhere else.
I will use their website for my purposes and discard it like trash when I don't need it.

.

I Agree with you.

I myself have made a conscious choice to shop direct from a seller's website whenever possible. And to buy local from local merchants if that is possible.

Thing I most often buy online is used books. Used to just look at Amazon, but have actually found "better" prices and "better" shipping terms (like "free"), and usually just as good or better availability and choice of book options at thriftbooks.com

https://www.thriftbooks.com/

 

[Rambler]

I’m just gonna throw this out there...

Think about all the people who would still be un- or under- employed without Amazon over this past year.

Like my grandpappy used to say: “any job is a good job until you get a better one.”

 

[flyingaway]

I buy most things from real stores, unless they are unavailable.

 

[RetiredAtThirty-eight]

To my mind they really are the Evil Empire

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gk3w/amazon-is-forcing-its-warehouse-workers-into-brutal-megacycle-shifts

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7mq5m/amazon-will-pay-gig-workers-dollar617-million-for-stealing-tips



I am not going to shop on their website unless I cannot buy the item anywhere else.
I will use their website for my purposes and discard it like trash when I don't need it.

.

Thanks for that - I didn't even know I could tip the drivers!

How do I do this?

I resisted buying Amazon (the stock) for over two decades because it was "over-priced". However, I recently acquired some and it has been performing admirably so there are plenty of profits left for some nice tips to the drivers.

I never really liked Jeff Bezos but he's stepping down from his CEO role so maybe things will improve? In any case, I find Amazon works best for around 60% of my on-line shopping needs. Like you, I will let them go in a heartbeat if they ever fail to meet my needs.

 

[Ready]

I tend to disregard articles like these. If I stopped buying products from any company that had a negative review about something I’d have no place to buy anything. You can always find something wrong with any company if you look hard enough. If Amazon is not a good place to work go work someplace else.

 

[Koolau]

I suspect many here (like myself) worked for a MC that expected 5-10's (or more) with on call on weekends. Salary. No paid OT.

It was a part of the job that I accepted.

Absolutely true for so-called exempt (or "professional" or "salaried") folks like myself. My boss told me about 4x10s and I just laughed. I asked him if this meant I never had to come in on Saturday again. Then he laughed, knowingly.

BUT for hourly folks, even though we were non-union, we dotted every i and crossed every t that was in favor of an hourly w*rker. If an hourly w*rker had to stick their head in the door for 2 seconds after hours to check something, that was a 3-hour "call in." But not all hourly w*orkers returned the favor. I had a direct hourly report who, once I retired, abused the system routinely (my spies told me - but not her new boss.) She never got away with it when I was empl*yed (well, not often anyway) because, as you suggest, I was always there. Yet one more reason to be glad for FIRE. No more 10X5s or more and no more cheating reports to deal with or worry about. YMMV

 

[jazz4cash]

Most of the deliveries are completed though contract delivery services. Not the "flex" program some are familiar with, but instead through the AMZN DSP program. Whether it is good or bad...that is your decision to make. I do know it has been pretty successful for AMZN to boost their delivery model which has been much of their success.

One of our neighbors own a DSP company and has been very successful with it and has 28 employees that he has scaled over a period of just a year.

Around here we have a large Amazon distribution facility on property that was an auto assembly plant for 70 yrs. I know a young couple with 2 kids that work there and seem to think Amazon is a decent employer. I had a conversation about the DSP program and they have intention to pursue it. I see the startup cost is $10k plus proof of assets =$30k. I think they lease the vehicles on behalf of the participants. A local real estate investor I met told me he attended a meeting where the DSP prospectus was presented and he thought it was high risk to have a bunch of delivery vans driving around in city traffic with valuable easily pilfered cargo. Now I think he wishes he’d gone for it.

 

[RobbieB]

If you don't like your job find another one. Move on. Stop whining. Go away.

 

[pb4uski]

+1 I frequently buy from Amazon and will continue to do so because of their variety, availability, good prices and incredible customer service.

On the first article, I don't care... Amazon should have the ability to restructure their operations as they see fit, In this case they decided to close a facility and offered workers at the closing facility other jobs in Amazon. Would the authors of the article preferred that Amazon lay off those workers? This happens all the time in Corporate America... if they don't like it they can find work elsewhere.