This isn't a controversial statement, and I wouldn't have argued that point. Jumping from that to this...
...is alarmist.
I don't think its that alarmist. With Skype and the like, you can still see other people. Everything can be delivered to your door. I think most people don't want to go out if they don't have to.
Sorry, nothing you said here makes me want to spend more money and go spend my time at the mall as opposed to doing what I want to do with the people I know. If I don't spend my money in the community it doesn't make me selfish good grief.
Again let's not twist a statement like society is becoming more selfish with, if you shop on Amazon you are selfish. Those are different concepts.
I'm not trying to convince you to go to a mall. I'm simply stating that we should try and balance out what we do. Order from Amazon, if you can get it at a local business for a reasonable price support local. If you can't see how giving an awful company like Amazon unlimited power is a problem then having a discussion with you is pointless.
I don't know how many times I can say it without someone trying to twist it into a silly argument. These companies have their place but let's stop lying and ignoring the problems. Let's stop lying and acting like anyone here is so busy that they have to use their service so they can spend time with loved ones and friends because it isn't true.
People are spending less time with each ither. Less time than ever before.
Lying about being too busy with loved ones to justify and ignore how Amazon exploits people is a little bit selfish and it's a societal issue. It doesn't make you a terrible person to shop there.
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Our company has been a supplier to Wal-Mart, Amazon and many other retailers in both the US and Canada for several years. I've dealt directly with buyers for many years too.
The company definitely isn't big, but I'd have to say that from an operational, logistics and financial perspective both Wal-Mart and Amazon are dreams to work with compared to everyone else. If we were a larger supplier and had products that they could make some serious money on I could see it being more challenging.
With our products it's all the other chains that make your work life hell. They are extremely innefficient, think that they're doing you a favour by being in their stores and try to grind the hell out of you on prices. And because they aren't efficient there's always some type of issue that causes late payment.
I can't say that I've missed any of the retailers that have gone out of business in Canada. The one I actually miss is Woodward's and that was well before Ecommerce or Wal-Mart.
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Again let's not twist a statement like society is becoming more selfish with, if you shop on Amazon you are selfish. Those are different concepts.
I'm not trying to convince you to go to a mall. I'm simply stating that we should try and balance out what we do. Order from Amazon, if you can get it at a local business for a reasonable price support local. If you can't see how giving an awful company like Amazon unlimited power is a problem then having a discussion with you is pointless.
I don't know how many times I can say it without someone trying to twist it into a silly argument. These companies have their place but let's stop lying and ignoring the problems. Let's stop lying and acting like anyone here is so busy that they have to use their service so they can spend time with loved ones and friends because it isn't true.
People are spending less time with each ither. Less time than ever before.
Lying about being too busy with loved ones to justify and ignore how Amazon exploits people is a little bit selfish and it's a societal issue. It doesn't make you a terrible person to shop there.
This is a terrible, patronizing post filled with opinion presented as fact combined with "if you don't agree with my biased opinion, you are a liar".
I don't necessarily accept that Amazon is a horrible, evil company. I don't believe that they are left to run unchecked or don't pay their share of taxes. I also don't accept that they don't contribute greatly to many local economies.
But that aside, where is this evidence that people are spending less time with each other? What does that even mean? Does walking into a generic store, picking your item, and inserting your credit card while a disinterested teenage worker grunts at you count as spending time with each other? Does that even count as a more engaged human interaction than my son talking to his fortnite friends on his computer headset?
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But that aside, where is this evidence that people are spending less time with each other? What does that even mean? Does walking into a generic store, picking your item, and inserting your credit card while a disinterested teenage worker grunts at you count as spending time with each other? Does that even count as a more engaged human interaction than my son talking to his fortnite friends on his computer headset?
Taking a walk to the corner store possibly interacting with people along the way versus
Taking a walk to the corner store possibly interacting with people along the way versus
Or is it ordering my stuff off Amazon I need for the week and spending the weekend out hiking, fishing, golfing, visiting wineries and breweries, watching my kids' soccer games, going to farmers markets and local restaurants vs doing the old weekend run to buy all the stuff at brick and mortar stores:
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What does that have to do with the comparison you made? That's what I responded to not your incredibly active, happy, engaging and perfect life that you had not mentioned yet.
Taking a walk to the corner store possibly interacting with people along the way versus
(picture of about 0.1% of the population)
Ok. Yeah.
What's with the human interaction tangent in here? Not going to the store when you don't have to is taking society to Hell? That's how people met people back in the day? Nowadays, people don't talk to each other at the store. In line, people pull out their phones and talk silently to people they know and people they don't know, across many different platforms that have recently been invented. Our "circle" of friends and acquaintances has gone exponential and become more like a sphere, with dozens or hundreds or thousands more people that we wouldn't otherwise never know.
Look at this site, where quite a few of us spend a lot of time. Many hundreds of usernames are recognizable, a couple/few hundred are active enough that you kind of know each other. And then there are many many IRL friendships and lots of commerce.
This is the evolution of human interaction. We all still leave the house every day. We just talk to different strangers than we did before, and because of that, we learn (or take in, anyway) a variety of information that was unheard of a mere 20 years ago. I think we'll survive not going to the store and not hear Betty that cashier's quip about the weather.
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It's actually experts who are ringing the alarm bells on this stuff. Depression, anxiety, screen time, social isolation - we have more and more data showing this stuff is linked and is all trending the wrong way. The UK has even appointed a minister of loneliness to address the issue.
I'd link to the articles, but I'm trying not to waste so much of my time on this site.
This could be a good separate thread, my friend Patrik is a leading voice in raising alarm bells especially with young children, how early we drop these devices into their laps without much consideration for how long they use them and fears the long-term developmental harm.
To me having to drive around in the city and shopping is a time sink so to be able to do a lot of it online is more efficient.
I also find it hard to actually find what I want in store. Often times if you are looking for a specific item from a company it is easier to find it online.
I understand some people like to shop and actually spend the time browsing, but I think as time goes on more and more people will choose to buy more of their items online.
Amazon is definitely making it easier to manage shopping. Things like dishwasher soap, put it on a subscribe and save and have it show up when you need it. Makes life a lot more easier.
I agree with what Richard Branson said. Humans are not meant to clog it out in 9-5 tasks every day. With automation we can improve so many aspects of our lives, and shopping is a BIG one.
I do mean monopsony. A monopsonist means that it is so big that they have bargaining power strong enough to force its supplier to offer prices as low as possible. Which in Walmart's case, they've done for some time now.
Walmart essentially put the final dagger in Toshiba's heart in the optical disc war between hd-dvd and blu-ray when they decided to go blu-ray only after what many industry people called a "hush" deal with Warner Bros.
To me having to drive around in the city and shopping is a time sink so to be able to do a lot of it online is more efficient.
I also find it hard to actually find what I want in store. Often times if you are looking for a specific item from a company it is easier to find it online.
I understand some people like to shop and actually spend the time browsing, but I think as time goes on more and more people will choose to buy more of their items online.
Amazon is definitely making it easier to manage shopping. Things like dishwasher soap, put it on a subscribe and save and have it show up when you need it. Makes life a lot more easier.
I agree with what Richard Branson said. Humans are not meant to clog it out in 9-5 tasks every day. With automation we can improve so many aspects of our lives, and shopping is a BIG one.
Ya, 5 minutes on Amazon, and have it show up in a day or 2 at my door, or setting aside an evening, 45 minutes of driving to and from Canadian Tire, then wandering the store for 15 minutes, then 10 more to find someone who can help, only to find that it is sold out at that location(despite online saying it is in stock) and it's another 30 minutes drive to go find it at another store that *might* have in stock. Gee, what do I prefer? And ya, this has happened more times than I prefer to talk about.
Retail has shot themselves in the foot, and are earning their reward here.
Ya, 5 minutes on Amazon, and have it show up in a day or 2 at my door, or setting aside an evening, 45 minutes of driving to and from Canadian Tire, then wandering the store for 15 minutes, then 10 more to find someone who can help, only to find that it is sold out at that location(despite online saying it is in stock) and it's another 30 minutes drive to go find it at another store that *might* have in stock. Gee, what do I prefer? And ya, this has happened more times than I prefer to talk about.
Retail has shot themselves in the foot, and are earning their reward here.
There are even lots of specialty items that you wouldn't find on normal retail stores that are readily available to buy on Amazon WITH Prime.
I understand there will be concerns over everything becoming digital, AI, Amazon having too much of a monopoly, but I agree, retail has REALLY shot themselves in the foot.
My other issue is that certain things in Canada are WAY too expensive as is, so blowing so much time, fuel, money to buy them in store versus having them shipped? No brainer to me.
One thing that really upset my wife was a toy that we ordered through Amazon came in a box that was labelled "Toy". On either side of the box was the exact description of the toy that was in the box. I've never seen that before. Anyway, I was out of town when it arrived and wasn't able to hide it away in my office. The kid saw the box and now knows one gift that he's getting for sure. Thank Christ it wasn't on his Santa list or we'd be struggling to explain that one.
Part of me is starting to think that Amazon is going the way of Standard Oil.
That'll never happen, the days of government busting up corporate monopolies is long gone. Bezos spends way too much money on lobbying to allow a bill like that to even get drafted
One thing that really upset my wife was a toy that we ordered through Amazon came in a box that was labelled "Toy". On either side of the box was the exact description of the toy that was in the box. I've never seen that before. Anyway, I was out of town when it arrived and wasn't able to hide it away in my office. The kid saw the box and now knows one gift that he's getting for sure. Thank Christ it wasn't on his Santa list or we'd be struggling to explain that one.
You can chose at checkout to have it boxed in a plain Amazon box.
To me having to drive around in the city and shopping is a time sink so to be able to do a lot of it online is more efficient.
I also find it hard to actually find what I want in store. Often times if you are looking for a specific item from a company it is easier to find it online.
I understand some people like to shop and actually spend the time browsing, but I think as time goes on more and more people will choose to buy more of their items online.
Amazon is definitely making it easier to manage shopping. Things like dishwasher soap, put it on a subscribe and save and have it show up when you need it. Makes life a lot more easier.
I agree with what Richard Branson said. Humans are not meant to clog it out in 9-5 tasks every day. With automation we can improve so many aspects of our lives, and shopping is a BIG one.
I agree automation could drastically improve our lives. But it won't, people are greedy and those that control the automated businesses aren't going to give free handouts. It's not going to happen. Decent paying jobs will continue to go away. More people getting more education isn't going to fix the problem. If schools start pumping out way more degrees the value of those jobs decrease.
You're seeing this already with this garbage company we're discussing in this very thread. Automation at Amazon is making workers lives worse. Amazon is treating people worse and obviously they aren't the only ones. What's everyone's response to that? It's convenient, it saves some money etc. No one cares. It's the same with the slave labour used to make all our other products. As I said we can't avoid it all but we can't try and make an effort where it's possible.
Amazon easily has the opportunity to be an amazing employer. Instead they nickle and dime their employees, chew them up and spit them out so a garbage human being can add another billion to his giant piles of money.
I agree automation could drastically improve our lives. But it won't, people are greedy and those that control the automated businesses aren't going to give free handouts. It's not going to happen. Decent paying jobs will continue to go away. More people getting more education isn't going to fix the problem. If schools start pumping out way more degrees the value of those jobs decrease.
You're seeing this already with this garbage company we're discussing in this very thread. Automation at Amazon is making workers lives worse. Amazon is treating people worse and obviously they aren't the only ones. What's everyone's response to that? It's convenient, it saves some money etc. No one cares. It's the same with the slave labour used to make all our other products. As I said we can't avoid it all but we can't try and make an effort where it's possible.
Amazon easily has the opportunity to be an amazing employer. Instead they nickle and dime their employees, chew them up and spit them out so a garbage human being can add another billion to his giant piles of money.
Do you have anything to backup these claims?
I don't know that Bezos and Amazon are the anti-christ that you are claiming.
