
Amazon Has Too Much Power - pcl
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/opinion/amazon-union-congress-antitrust.html
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NoOneNew
Okay, so I do believe in worker's rights and in general that Amazon is too
large. Especially that city bidding mess where it was just a way to get free
data from cities about their future plans.

But I don't like the argument in the article. It lays the responsibility of
government to fix something that the public can have a bigger influence on.
It's something I do. Don't buy from Amazon. I don't approve of their warehouse
policies. Thus, I choose not to buy from them. It's not like they are the only
shop on the web. The convenience argument is rather petty too. At a certain
point, you have to put adult pants on. You are just funding them in doing what
you don't like if you wait for someone else to "fix" the problem.

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rmcpherson
Unionization, as argued for in the op-ed, is something that’s legal right now.
We just need government to enforce the laws already in place. Laws paid for
with the blood of the labor movement in the early 20th century. Unfortunately
regulatory capture has eviscerated the agencies and government bodies tasked
with upholding those laws.

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NoOneNew
Doesn't help when the general public bank rolls companies to fight laws and
regulatory actions. That's my point. The money Amazon uses doesn't magically
appear. These companies dont use spells to generate income, it comes from the
people. I swear, it seems like folks dont know how business works these days.
The people are voting with dollars saying Amazon is doing the right thing when
they buy from Amazon. That's the reality.

People generally dont want to see themselves as being accessories to this mess
and just say, "the gov isn't doing enough to stop Amazon from abusing
workers... I totally need to buy that new widget, good thing I have Prime
shipping."

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Barrin92
> The people are voting with dollars saying Amazon is doing the right thing
> when they buy from Amazon. That's the reality.

And how is that justification? If people buy cheap stuff made from prison or
child labour does that justify the practise? It just tells us that people by
and large are indifferent to the conditions under which their goods are
produced, it's not a justification for it.

That people don't care about Amazon labour conditions doesn't tell us that
Amazon is doing the 'right thing', it tells us that people don't care about
worker rights.

That's what laws and governments exist for. People also never cared that their
palm oil consumption endangers biodiversity and destroys the rainforest,
because they don't suffer from it.

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adamsea
I'd go even further and say simply that it tells us that human behavior is
complicated.

Someone is perfectly capable about caring about workers rights _and_ ordering
from Amazon at the same time. What if you forgot to get a birthday present and
need next day delivery? Amazon's kind of the only game in town, and that's an
understandable compromise lots of people might make.

I think it's more about the lack of alternatives to Amazon (they are both
great at customer service and at snuffing out competition) and the collective
action problem than anything else. And I agree that's part of why laws and
governments exist : ).

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NoOneNew
Dont forget to get a present? I mean, the world has existed great for a long
time prior to Amazon's existence. Now everyone acts like Prime is an essential
service to life itself. It's pretty pathetic. Like, really pathetic. Your own
failure of planning isn't an excuse to break your own ideals, but then turn
around to act pious to that ideal. In essence, you then dont actually stand or
believe in it, you just do it, when convenient for virtue signaling and cheap
warm/fuzzies.

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adamsea
You're absolutely right. It's not an excuse, and the example/hypothetical I
shared would be a violation of my ideals.

But that's my point. We're flawed. Which isn't an excuse. It's like, when the
experts talk about how to change habits, they say the best way to do it is to
change your _environment_. Because of the powerful influence our environment
has upon us.

And most models of change for behaviors like smoking or weight loss (and it's
becoming increasing clear that computers/screens/apps/the internet share the
addictive qualities of those behaviors) incorporate relapse as one _step_ of a
change process.

It's an old book and a simple one, but as far as I know their research on how
people successfully change behavior still holds up:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46680.Changing_for_Good](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46680.Changing_for_Good)

Most studies show, I think, that positive motivation is a better tool than
shaming/blaming/judging, in most situations.

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zxcvbn4038
I actually wish Amazon had more power. They have done an amazing job of
putting the customer first when everyone else was trying to figure out new
ways to screw people over and tell them it was their fault. They opened a
marketplace for small businesses that normally would not be able to obtain
shelf space at a major store. They created an awesome computing platform and
made it available to everyone who can’t afford to build their own. I think
they have earned their position.

My only wish is that they would pick up their boxes and reuse/recycle them
when they drop off the new ones.

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lotsofpulp
> They have done an amazing job of putting the customer first when everyone
> else was trying to figure out new ways to screw people over and tell them it
> was their fault.

They used to do an amazing job at putting customers first.

Then once they got traction, they pivoted to putting themselves first by
commingling inventory with random resellers who can insert counterfeit or bad
product into their inventory. They even went so far as to remove the option to
filter for products only shipped and sold by Amazon.com.

They did this because retail margins suck and they would rather collect 15%
for being a platform rather than a few percent accept and they get to shed all
the inventory risk as a retailer. So now they’re just a more expensive
Aliexpress, as far as I can tell.

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zxcvbn4038
I'd argue that neither problem is unique to Amazon. E-Bay was notorious for
being the dumping ground for burned out/damaged computer parts, though they
did start weeding out people that do that because sold as-is or not, it caused
a lot of problems and damaged E-bay's brand. Best Buy has been the target of
return scams forever because they are easy marks. If you live in Texas then
your probably familiar with Fry's Electronics - when I used to buy parts from
them we started marking all of the stuff we returned so that we wouldn't buy
it again.

I've had > 99% good experience buying from Aliexpress but you have read
carefully and make sure you know what your ordering. Only bad experience I had
was ordering a dozen i2c multiplexers and receiving a child's leather
minidress instead, seller would only speak to me in nonsense sentence
fragments regardless if I contacted them in English or Mandarin, and it took
three weeks to get a refund. But on the bright side the exact same nail files
that CVS sells for $10 each I can get 5 for $1 if I'm willing to wait 2-3
weeks.

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TYPE_FASTER
What I would like is a product search responsive web page that would search
all local stores, including big box, and Amazon. You could start with a simple
Froogle-ish search, and add discovery features as time goes on.

This would disrupt the current model, both online and offline.

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0max
Sounds like what Alibaba already does in China, where they digitize local
stores and their stock but make it available on their platform. Imagine
Square, Shopify and Amazon all rolled into one to help digitize your brick and
moartar.

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TYPE_FASTER
Yeah, that would be great. I'd like to be able to support local businesses,
and if not available locally then price compare Target/Walmart/Amazon.

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drivingmenuts
Show me something better that aligns with my needs and I’ll switch.

