I feel guilty and dirty for buying from Amazon

Amazon has given me access to huge variety of products at very reasonable prices. They are delivered to my door extremely rapidly. If I have to return something, I take it to the UPS store down the street and drop it off. It has been a savior while the state of California has kept me locked down for almost a year.

All of my transactions with them are completely voluntary.

What could I possibly have to complain about?
 
i love seeing the amazon delivery truck. the products i buy are top of the line. if i don't like it, it's a 5 minute drive to return it. they have a good business model it seems. i happy with them.
 
There are porch pirates in my area driving around looking for unattended packages in front of homes and looking to make a five finger discount
 
Nick12 said:
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.
Click to expand...

I think effectively you are both on the same page.
Personally, I have no issues buying on Amazon.
 
I do the majority of my shopping at Amazon. I also shop on ebay and occasionally big box store mail order (Target, Walmart, Home Depot).

I don't feel guilty or dirty shopping from Amazon. But if I found a place that makes the shopping experience more convenient and better priced, as I shopper, I'd consider defecting. But at least for now, Amazon still the king of the hill as Amazon makes several things so convenient for the shopper.

Will be interesting to see if anything changes now with a new sheriff in town with Bezos stepping to the side.
 
I think folks needs to put things in perspective, Starbucks, FANG companies are some of the most progressive companies in the world. But they are not perfect. While I think it's good mistakes are highlighted by news organizations which are doing their job in our society, as a citizenry we need to make sure we don't overreact, keep things in perspective and consider intent.

Given Amazon's track record for paying above min-wage wages, health insurance, education stipends etc, I'm willing to give them a bit of leeway on this. We should reserve our true distain for companies more worthy of it IMO.
 
For grins I just checked the starting hourly wage at a nearby Amazon warehouse. It's $15/hr plus bennies. That's not terrible for someone off the street with no skills. Lots of places around here are paying $12 or less and don't want to hire full-time to avoid having to pay benefits.

Surely, Amazon has found a means to extract every available calorie of energy out of its warehouse workforce, but that's nothing new. Ask your dad (or your sibling) how tired he was at the end of his factory shift.
 
Mr._Graybeard said:
For grins I just checked the starting hourly wage at a nearby Amazon warehouse. It's $15/hr plus bennies. That's not terrible for someone off the street with no skills. Lots of places around here are paying $12 or less and don't want to hire full-time to avoid having to pay benefits.

Surely, Amazon has found a means to extract every available calorie of energy out of its warehouse workforce, but that's nothing new. Ask your dad (or your sibling) how tired he was at the end of his factory shift.
Click to expand...

I'm late to this thread, so I haven't read all the pros and cons listed, but I tend to agree with MrGreybeard. I don't have a problem with Amazon. They are very good at what they do and generally, I'm very satisfied with their services. I also agree that based on what I have seen, Amazon's wages and benefits are VERY competitive. They probably do run a tight ship, but so what.
 
euro said:
I'm late to this thread, so I haven't read all the pros and cons listed, but I tend to agree with MrGreybeard. I don't have a problem with Amazon. They are very good at what they do and generally, I'm very satisfied with their services. I also agree that based on what I have seen, Amazon's wages and benefits are VERY competitive. They probably do run a tight ship, but so what.
Click to expand...

We have a Target warehouse nearby that starts at $19 an hour, so pass that along if any of you know any Amazon fulfillment specialists.
 
I think in the future we'll look back at some of the currently accepted practices and shake our heads. I read an article today about how those bargain $5 roasted chickens from Costco are raised and it saddened me. The article pointed out that if you abused a single chicken in your backyard you'd be arrested, but do it to a million at a time and you are in agribusiness.
 
We don't buy from Amazon, we can get most of what we need locally and prefer to support local business as much as possible.

Sure they have a good business model, but their faults and the faults of their owner don't make up for that.
 
This kind of sounds like the time I said I was only going to buy American and all I could find for sale that was made in the USA was a toilet handle.
 
I do buy from Amazon, but I feel ambivalent about it.

I read from a variety of sources (not including the one OP posted) about the 10 hour shift thing. The issue with the 10 hour shift is not the 10 hours. It is the specific hours covered which are pretty bad. Working overnight has a bad health effects on people and this is worse in a lot of ways. I don't begrudge Amazon its success or Bezos his money. However, I really do feel that treat employees very badly. For years I avoided Walmart and only bought there when necessary. Amazon is more difficult for me because of Prime Delivery, breadth of products, etc. I buy all my books as Kindle books and have for years so that would be very difficult to give up. But, I do find myself wanting to use it less where it isn't providing a clear advantage in time of delivery even more than price.
 
I shop around and compare what serves me best. Most of the time Ebay does a better job.
 
travelover said:
I think in the future we'll look back at some of the currently accepted practices and shake our heads. I read an article today about how those bargain $5 roasted chickens from Costco are raised and it saddened me. The article pointed out that if you abused a single chicken in your backyard you'd be arrested, but do it to a million at a time and you are in agribusiness.
Click to expand...

Regarding the chickens: How are you going to feed 8 billion people on the planet?

Regarding Amazon, the Amazon 'on demand' business model does seem better for the environment and reducing the effects of climate change than the old ship it and let it sit process.
 
timo2 said:
Regarding the chickens: How are you going to feed 8 billion people on the planet?



Regarding Amazon, the Amazon 'on demand' business model does seem better for the environment and reducing the effects of climate change than the old ship it and let it sit process.
Click to expand...


I sure like those cheap chickens. Every time I go to Costco I buy one. I read where Costco actually loses a little money on each one they sell. Well, I love buying stuff that causes other people to lose money I guess. I can’t resist it. DW sometimes wonders why I’m bringing home yet another rotisserie chicken.
 
Fermion said:
This kind of sounds like the time I said I was only going to buy American and all I could find for sale that was made in the USA was a toilet handle.
Click to expand...

Yeah, have you tried to buy a USA flag, that was actually made in the USA?

I accept the global economy. I even benefited from it while working (though we were selling over there, not importing).


To OP:
BUT, boycotting a company over their employment practices just blows me away.

Can you honestly say you have looked at the practices of every company you have done business with? of course you have not. BUT read an on-line blurb, and it MUST be true.

As for me, I do not like Bezos, for a variety of reasons. I don't use Amazon a lot, but I DO use it when it makes sense.
 
timo2 said:
Regarding the chickens: How are you going to feed 8 billion people on the planet? ........
Click to expand...
I regard this type of a rebuttal as a false choice. "What? You want to ban children from laboring in coal mines? People need to heat their homes, ya know!"
 
CardsFan said:
BUT, boycotting a company over their employment practices just blows me away.
Click to expand...

Boycotting a company over their employment practices is just one of several good reasons. I'm powerless to change how a large corporation treats their employees but I have 100% control over where I shop.
 
travelover said:
I regard this type of a rebuttal as a false choice. "What? You want to ban children from laboring in coal mines? People need to heat their homes, ya know!"
Click to expand...

A little bit yeah but in the case of the chickens, the volume of chicken consumed means either you have concentrated large chicken houses that reek in a few remote areas or everyone has 10 chickens in their backyard in your city and you can't sleep past 6am.
 
Chicken / Children, what’s the difference. [emoji848]
 
Last edited:
I've been buying more from Walmart.com, but they are way behind Amazon when it comes to delivery logistics.

Three weeks ago, I placed an order on Walmart.com for five items.

The first item was on my porch in a plastic bag the next morning. I assume it was hand-delivered from a local Walmart store.

The second item was delivered via FedEx the next day.

The third item was delivered via FedEx on the third day.

The fourth item came in the mail about a week later.

The fifth item finally showed up in the mail after three weeks.
 
Fermion said:
A little bit yeah but in the case of the chickens, the volume of chicken consumed means either you have concentrated large chicken houses that reek in a few remote areas or everyone has 10 chickens in their backyard in your city and you can't sleep past 6am.
Click to expand...
Another false choice argument.
 
At first, you might think that everything goes to Bezos. But, there are tens of thousands of micro, small and medium size businesses and individual business who depend on the Amazon platform to sell their products.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom