The High Cost of Buying Through Amazon

[elrhiarhodan]

I usually don't post about politics or political issues or real world isses here. But I can't help but pass this story on. Found via Daring Fireball, this article in Mother Jones, I Was A Warehouse Wage Slave tells the story of how you can get all the books and toothpaste and dildos you want at incredible discounts and Amazon and Walmart and Staples still make massive profits.

Honestly, I was under the very mistaken impression that the product warehouses for Amazon were fully automated, to the extent that humans did not do the product picking. My brain could not wrap itself around the concept.

But they do. And the cost is terribly high. The people who work in these huge warehouses do so under appalling physical conditions, can be fired for taking sick time, or for being more than a second late coming back from break, or for simply making a mistake. The majority of workers are hired through temp agencies and have limited rights when it comes to unionization and job protection.

Perhaps the only different between the warehouse job described in the Mother Jones article and a Dickensian workhouse is that ...

Actually, I can't think of any difference.

If you want to understand why Amazon can offer you 43% off that bottle of shampoo or case of toilet paper or whatever, read the article.

And then go buy locally if you can afford to.

Comments

[ebeneezerdark]

Amazon sucks. I *knew* Amazon sucks, but even with years of well-honed scorn for Amazon-EVILness (trying to drive independent booksellers out of business, coercing publishers into giving them discounts SO big that their "retail" is cheaper than an "indy" bookstore's WHOLESALE costs for the same book, and cheating on state sales taxes so as to further undercut "main street" stores), I didn't expect THIS level of SHIT.

I was actually here to wish you a Happy Birthday, thanks to HoosierBitch's SQUEEful post saying it was your Birthday over the weekend... sorta ironic that she was also SQUEEing over her Kindle in the same post. (grmph)

Well, Happy Birthday (hope it was fantastic!), and thanks for spreading the word about the VILENESS that is Amazon.

[lokifan]

JESUS. I'd read a bit about what it's like working for Amazon, and even then I was really shocked. It genuinely makes me feel sick.

[elrhiarhodan]

Yeah.

There was a report of workers collapsing from heat exhaustion in an Amazon warehouse last summer, but I thought they just handled the packaging for shipment, not the actual picking of the products.

Unbelievable.

[clemgo3165.livejournal.com]

Their system seems inefficient to me. The workers pull by order, not by product, so they end up running all over the warehouse in the process. The whole thing screams that people, at least those who pack product, are completely expendable.

[elrhiarhodan]

Exactly - that's the point. For every person hired, there are six more waiting to take the job.

So there's no incentive to do anything but maximize profits. A horrible and telling indictment of 21st Century America

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

This is appalling. Thanks for the heads up.

[dmk0064.livejournal.com]

Wow, I wish that there were other outlets I could access easily and as efficiently as amazon. I try to buy locally as often as possible but sometimes the product just isn't available. Then what? Plus I do have to say, many of the products offered by amazon do actually have higher prices, so I don't buy those. But still I'm in a quandary as to what to do.