As we flee from the holidays, we are left with memories of boxes and stuffed envelopes greeting us as we opened our front doors, all signs that Amazon has come through yet again.
It was the holiday season where gift giving was facilitated by an online store displaying huge arrays of potential presents in almost any category of possible interest. And if the time for giving was drawing near, rest assured most items could be delivered within a day or two. At least if you had Prime.
Amazon is an amazing development which makes it convenient to shop and buy, with rating and reviews to guide you. And I have deep respect for Jeff Bezos whose guts and energy guided the development that has earned him billions. I am sure I will continue to turn to his creation many more times.
But I hate it.
This holiday season, for the first time since Covid hit, I actually shopped in real stores. It was at a mall. Malls are boring to me. They sell things like clothes, perfumes, and jewelry. They don’t in general sell hardware, model trains, and lumber. However, there are people in my life who like what can be purchased there. So there I was.
It was fun. It was nice being able to see what I was buying instead of depending on a picture, and, if it required a measurement, to make it myself without having to trust the somewhat ambiguous values given at the Amazon site. And I liked being around others, even though I was the only masked one in sight.
There are compromises one must make when shopping in the non-digital world. The selection is significantly smaller. There is much less chance of finding what you want. On the other hand, I think having to search harder for the perfect gift puts more meaning into it, where you have time to dwell on the person for whom it is intended, to remember why that person is so special that you are willing to make this extra effort.
I have to say that Amazon is an amazing achievement. But there is so much related to it that I find offensive.
It has made small businesses have to struggle even harder than normal to stay afloat. How can they compete with this behemoth which offers more choices and lower prices? Independent bookstores are examples. Even larger companies have been hit, like UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. They used to do much of the Amazon deliveries, but now most of that has been replaced by Amazon’s own trucks.
Amazon is forging into areas that will target other types of businesses such as food, health care, and entertainment. It’s no longer just an online department store, it’s a community control center. It’s never good when the powerful push out the less so.
It’s one thing to reward a smart and gutsy guy like Bezos. Indeed, it’s proper to do so. But billions of dollars? When there is so much hunger, homelessness, poverty, and illness in our communities.
Prime is good and bad. You know it’s making Amazon money or they wouldn’t offer it. But they have to cleverly convince you it’s a great bargain, and it can be if you buy a lot (making them even more money) and get the free delivery, or you spend hours and hours watching its streaming service. Every time I order something on the site, I am promised the wonder of what Prime can do for me. But a family member has Prime and all she has to do is order for me. Except at holiday time when I might just wish to purchase something that I don’t want that other person to know about. There is a solution to this dilemma. Amazon offers a 30-day free trial of Prime which, they assure me, can be cancelled at any time (knowing I will find it so wonderful that I will keep it at its “low” monthly cost). I don’t get that message and do cancel, usually on day 29 just to be safe. When I do so, Amazon expresses concern I’m losing out on all the many advantages and assures me I can still cancel my cancel.
Amazon is turning to robotics to replace as many employees as possible. Also, I’ve heard it is not good to its employees.
Amazon kindly pops up offers via my email on things it thinks would be wonderful for me to purchase, cluttering my inbox even more than it normally is. Very annoying. I finally found, at the very bottom of such suggestions and in the tiniest of print, the word “unsubscribe.” I clicked it. Now we’ll see if it works.
Yes, there is a lot to hate about Amazon.
But it’s so convenient.
It was the holiday season where gift giving was facilitated by an online store displaying huge arrays of potential presents in almost any category of possible interest. And if the time for giving was drawing near, rest assured most items could be delivered within a day or two. At least if you had Prime.
Amazon is an amazing development which makes it convenient to shop and buy, with rating and reviews to guide you. And I have deep respect for Jeff Bezos whose guts and energy guided the development that has earned him billions. I am sure I will continue to turn to his creation many more times.
But I hate it.
This holiday season, for the first time since Covid hit, I actually shopped in real stores. It was at a mall. Malls are boring to me. They sell things like clothes, perfumes, and jewelry. They don’t in general sell hardware, model trains, and lumber. However, there are people in my life who like what can be purchased there. So there I was.
It was fun. It was nice being able to see what I was buying instead of depending on a picture, and, if it required a measurement, to make it myself without having to trust the somewhat ambiguous values given at the Amazon site. And I liked being around others, even though I was the only masked one in sight.
There are compromises one must make when shopping in the non-digital world. The selection is significantly smaller. There is much less chance of finding what you want. On the other hand, I think having to search harder for the perfect gift puts more meaning into it, where you have time to dwell on the person for whom it is intended, to remember why that person is so special that you are willing to make this extra effort.
I have to say that Amazon is an amazing achievement. But there is so much related to it that I find offensive.
It has made small businesses have to struggle even harder than normal to stay afloat. How can they compete with this behemoth which offers more choices and lower prices? Independent bookstores are examples. Even larger companies have been hit, like UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. They used to do much of the Amazon deliveries, but now most of that has been replaced by Amazon’s own trucks.
Amazon is forging into areas that will target other types of businesses such as food, health care, and entertainment. It’s no longer just an online department store, it’s a community control center. It’s never good when the powerful push out the less so.
It’s one thing to reward a smart and gutsy guy like Bezos. Indeed, it’s proper to do so. But billions of dollars? When there is so much hunger, homelessness, poverty, and illness in our communities.
Prime is good and bad. You know it’s making Amazon money or they wouldn’t offer it. But they have to cleverly convince you it’s a great bargain, and it can be if you buy a lot (making them even more money) and get the free delivery, or you spend hours and hours watching its streaming service. Every time I order something on the site, I am promised the wonder of what Prime can do for me. But a family member has Prime and all she has to do is order for me. Except at holiday time when I might just wish to purchase something that I don’t want that other person to know about. There is a solution to this dilemma. Amazon offers a 30-day free trial of Prime which, they assure me, can be cancelled at any time (knowing I will find it so wonderful that I will keep it at its “low” monthly cost). I don’t get that message and do cancel, usually on day 29 just to be safe. When I do so, Amazon expresses concern I’m losing out on all the many advantages and assures me I can still cancel my cancel.
Amazon is turning to robotics to replace as many employees as possible. Also, I’ve heard it is not good to its employees.
Amazon kindly pops up offers via my email on things it thinks would be wonderful for me to purchase, cluttering my inbox even more than it normally is. Very annoying. I finally found, at the very bottom of such suggestions and in the tiniest of print, the word “unsubscribe.” I clicked it. Now we’ll see if it works.
Yes, there is a lot to hate about Amazon.
But it’s so convenient.
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