Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

[bdamomma]

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/amazon-made-online-commerce-bewildering/580660/

snip of article.



Given that Amazon controls about half of the U.S. online-retail market and takes in about 5 percent of the nation’s total retail spending, it’s encouraging to see pushback against the company’s hold on the market. But Dash buttons are hardly the problem. Amazon made online shopping feel safe and comfortable, at least mechanically, where once the risk of being scammed by bad actors felt huge. But now online shopping is muddy and suspicious in a different way—you never really know what you’re buying, or when it will arrive, or why it costs what it does, or even what options might be available to purchase. The problem isn’t the Dash button, but the way online shopping works in general, especially at the Everything Store.

[LisaM]

1. And this.....

But there’s a reason that we used to have shoe stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, bookstores, and all the rest: Those specialized retail spaces allow products, and the people with knowledge about them, to engage in specialized ways of finding, choosing, and purchasing them. On Amazon, everything gets treated the same. The problem with an Everything Store is that there’s no way to organize everything effectively. The result is basically a giant digital flea market. Amazon is so big, and so heterogenous, that the whole shopping experience is saturated with caprice and uncertainty. It’s not that Dash purchases alone might produce a result different from the one the buyer intended, but that every purchase might do so.

My feelings exactly.

[democratisphere]

2. I constantly look for online alternatives like Walmart.com and other

large and smaller online businesses. There are tons of alternative stores to Amazon out there!

[LisaM]

4. Well, Walmart has its issues too (but who thought they'd be better than another company?)

Killing mom and pops, employees on food stamps, you name it.

Actually, I rarely shop online.

[democratisphere]

5. Brick and mortar stores are closing down so fast you need a score card.

Walmart.com has free shipping with pickups at a designated Walmart store. Paying Amazon $119.00 annually to join the Prime club really burns me.

[LisaM]

6. There isn't a Walmart in Seattle.

I have no idea where to find one!!

[democratisphere]

7. There is a Walmart in Renton WA and Bellevue WA near you.

[LisaM]

8. Those aren't remotely close.

We must lead very different lives. I do 90 percent of my life via public transportation.

And Renton is at least a 40-minute drive, and Auburn is even farther.

[democratisphere]

9. Sorry. Didn't look that far away on the map.

[LisaM]

10. The Seattle area is kind of weird that way.

There aren't really any suburbs. What might look like one on a map is usually a place that decades ago was an entirely different city. The areas in between have filled in, but the towns don't bleed into each other like they do in places like Detroit and Chicago, where three towns away can be considered close.

[democratisphere]

11. Thank you. I now have a better understanding of the geography of the Seattle area.

[LisaM]

3. I read that article, and a linked article about being a Flex driver.

Whoa, what a terrible job that must be. In fact, when I came home from work a couple of days ago, there was a Flex driver trying to deliver packages to my apartment building - I know this now, from reading the article below, because he was wearing a yellow vest. Our building is locked and we're not supposed to let people in, so I slipped by him - I felt a little guilty, but there have been incidents - and then he piggy backed on the person behind me. Because Amazon doesn't have the same driver delivering each day, the way the USPS and UPS and FedEx do, we have a sign saying that Amazon drivers need to go to the office, but he was trying to get in anyway (it was after hours). After reading the article below, I'm slightly more sympathetic, but it still floors me that people who count themselves as progressive order from this company at all, the way they treat workers.


https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/amazon-flex-workers/563444/