What Amazon Does to Poor Cities
February 1, 2018 1:54 PM Subscribe
Alana Semuels writes in The Atlantic about the impacts of Amazon distribution centers on the poorer communities where they are located. In San Bernardino, the unemployment rate dropped from 15% to 5%, but the percentage living in poverty went from 23.4% to 28.1%.
The impacts on Amazon workers' mental and physical health can be substantial.
The impacts on Amazon workers' mental and physical health can be substantial.
At around $12 an hour, 40 hours a week, full-time jobs pay higher than many others in the region, and the benefits are also better than many other jobs in the industry. But workers are required to be on their feet all day, and receive scant time for bathroom breaks or lunch. They’re pressured to meet certain production goals and are penalized by getting “written up”—the first step in getting fired—for not meeting them, they say.
Many of the employees mentioned the fear of being “written up” and losing their jobs, which will thrust them into other low-paid jobs with fewer benefits. If pickers don’t grab an item in a certain amount of time, they get written up. If they take too long a bathroom break, they get written up. If they’re not walking as fast or performing as well as the majority of employees, they get written up. “You constantly feel like, ‘I’m not doing enough, I need to do a little more,’ and that’s their business model,” Burgett said. “The constant trying to chase your rate, trying to stay ahead of being written up—it affects you psychologically.”
You punch in at 8:30 every morning, except you punch in at 7:30 following a business holiday, unless it's a Monday, then you punch in at 8 o'clock. Punch in late and they dock you. Incoming articles get a voucher, outgoing articles provide a voucher. Move any article without a voucher and they dock you. Letter size a green voucher, oversize a yellow voucher, parcel size a maroon voucher. Wrong color voucher and they dock you! 6787049A/6. That is your employee number. It will not be repeated! Without your employee number you cannot get your paycheck. Inter-office mail is code 37, intra-office mail 37-3, outside mail is 3-37. Code it wrong and they dock you! This has been your orientation. Is there anything you do not understand, is there anything you understand only partially? If you have not been fully oriented, you must file a complaint with personnel. File a faulty complaint and they dock you!
posted by borges at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2018 [46 favorites]
posted by borges at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2018 [46 favorites]
I mean, is there anyone under the impression that Amazon is a force for good, except on a purely selfish level? Yes you can get your shit fast. Yes, your convenience comes at huge cost to everyone else but you.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:09 PM on February 1, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 2:09 PM on February 1, 2018 [16 favorites]
Yes you can get your shit fast. Yes, your convenience comes at huge cost to everyone else but you.
Eventually it hits your backside, too. It's not as if I don't use Amazon, but it has come to the point I avoid it as much as I can precisely because you have one man making more billions than any one person needs at the expense of workers getting used and abused as they get pittance for it. We are so not getting this whole "civilization" thing, let alone the capitalism thing which having respect for the workforce is a big part of that original theory.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 2:20 PM on February 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
Eventually it hits your backside, too. It's not as if I don't use Amazon, but it has come to the point I avoid it as much as I can precisely because you have one man making more billions than any one person needs at the expense of workers getting used and abused as they get pittance for it. We are so not getting this whole "civilization" thing, let alone the capitalism thing which having respect for the workforce is a big part of that original theory.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 2:20 PM on February 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
They’ll run competitions such as a “Power Hour” in which workers are encouraged to work as hard as they can for a prize. One recent prize was a cookie.
The most concise definition of neoliberalism I've ever seen.
Fuck off amazon.
posted by crazylegs at 2:21 PM on February 1, 2018 [57 favorites]
The most concise definition of neoliberalism I've ever seen.
Fuck off amazon.
posted by crazylegs at 2:21 PM on February 1, 2018 [57 favorites]
Please please pleeeeeeeeeease let Toronto lose the horribly debasing competition for Amazon's new headquarters.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:23 PM on February 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:23 PM on February 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
Interesting timing--I canceled my Prime membership yesterday. I had been meaning to do it for a while, but was reminded once again, via an article on unions, just how horribly Amazon treats its warehouse workers.
posted by Automocar at 2:29 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Automocar at 2:29 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Orwellian Hell, but the next episode of The Grand Tour goes live in less than eight hours, so it's all good.
posted by Beholder at 2:35 PM on February 1, 2018
posted by Beholder at 2:35 PM on February 1, 2018
the unemployment rate dropped from 15% to 5%, but the percentage living in poverty went from 23.4% to 28.1%.
For further reference, the 2016 per capita income of the City of San Bernardino was $14,759, with the median household income at $38,774. In a city still recovering from losing an Air Force base (not to mention nearby Kaiser Steel) and its well over 10,000 jobs, which finally had to declare municipal bankruptcy in 2012. According to the 2012 census, San Berdoo had nearly 35% living below the poverty line, and over 40% on some kind of assistance.
Amazon has its faults, lord knows, but it isn’t the only problem by a long shot.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:35 PM on February 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
For further reference, the 2016 per capita income of the City of San Bernardino was $14,759, with the median household income at $38,774. In a city still recovering from losing an Air Force base (not to mention nearby Kaiser Steel) and its well over 10,000 jobs, which finally had to declare municipal bankruptcy in 2012. According to the 2012 census, San Berdoo had nearly 35% living below the poverty line, and over 40% on some kind of assistance.
Amazon has its faults, lord knows, but it isn’t the only problem by a long shot.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:35 PM on February 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
My guess is the next phase will be to introduce more automation, so that the company doesn’t have to deal with those pesky workers.
Also, it’s not surprising that efforts to organize the workers aren’t successful. Many of these warehouses are located in fox news country, where unions=bad. Add to that the constant anti-union drumbeat from your employer while on the job and you become part of the machinery that hastens the race to the bottom.
posted by SteveInMaine at 2:39 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also, it’s not surprising that efforts to organize the workers aren’t successful. Many of these warehouses are located in fox news country, where unions=bad. Add to that the constant anti-union drumbeat from your employer while on the job and you become part of the machinery that hastens the race to the bottom.
posted by SteveInMaine at 2:39 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
My guess is the next phase will be to introduce more automation, so that the company doesn’t have to deal with those pesky workers.
We're in the next phase. And note, while people still create the packages, Amazon has a robotics competition every year. It's to take random items off a list, and place them in a box.
posted by zabuni at 2:52 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
We're in the next phase. And note, while people still create the packages, Amazon has a robotics competition every year. It's to take random items off a list, and place them in a box.
posted by zabuni at 2:52 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
As this report points out, even the employment gains are illusory -- generally offset by losses in other industries. (via)
posted by tonycpsu at 2:52 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by tonycpsu at 2:52 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
From The Economist: What Amazon Does to Wages
posted by koavf at 3:26 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by koavf at 3:26 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
from The Washington Post (you know, the newspaper Jeff Bezos owns): "Why you cannot quit Amazon Prime — even if maybe you should"
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:13 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:13 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
A Glimpse Inside CamperForce, Amazon's Disposable Retiree Laborers
In September, Jessica Bruder's Nomadland took us inside one of the strangest and most cutthroat of Amazon's business practices: CamperForce. Composed almost entirely of retirees living out of motorhomes performing seasonal labour, CamperForce workers are expected to perform physically demanding tasks despite their advanced age.
The story of CamperForce has now been adapted into an excellent mini-documentary, directed by Brett Story and executive produced by Laura Poitras of Citizenfour fame, and includes hidden camera footage taken by Bruder from inside Amazon's facilities in the US.
posted by adept256 at 4:13 PM on February 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
In September, Jessica Bruder's Nomadland took us inside one of the strangest and most cutthroat of Amazon's business practices: CamperForce. Composed almost entirely of retirees living out of motorhomes performing seasonal labour, CamperForce workers are expected to perform physically demanding tasks despite their advanced age.
The story of CamperForce has now been adapted into an excellent mini-documentary, directed by Brett Story and executive produced by Laura Poitras of Citizenfour fame, and includes hidden camera footage taken by Bruder from inside Amazon's facilities in the US.
posted by adept256 at 4:13 PM on February 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Orwellian Hell, but the next episode of The Grand Tour goes live in less than eight hours, so it's all good.
As an aside, since we're talking about Amazon and employment, can you imagine that job interview?
So what did you do in your last job?
I was paid millions to drive the most expensive cars in the world in exotic locations, interview celebrities, and tell a few jokes.
Why did you leave then?
I was fired for punching my boss in the face.
Wow. Did he sleep with your wife? What happened?
He didn't get me a steak in a timely fashion.
... You're hired!
posted by adept256 at 4:27 PM on February 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
As an aside, since we're talking about Amazon and employment, can you imagine that job interview?
So what did you do in your last job?
I was paid millions to drive the most expensive cars in the world in exotic locations, interview celebrities, and tell a few jokes.
Why did you leave then?
I was fired for punching my boss in the face.
Wow. Did he sleep with your wife? What happened?
He didn't get me a steak in a timely fashion.
... You're hired!
posted by adept256 at 4:27 PM on February 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
OK, so when amazon shows up, average wages in the industry fall. That is probably attributable to the fact that amazon added jobs that pay less than the pre-existing jobs. No evidence is presented, either in the FPP or the Economist article, that Amazon had any effect on the wages of those pre-existing jobs.
In order to say that amazon was hurting warehouse workers, rather than just hiring more of them, you'd have to consider what workers who work there would have been doing otherwise, or at least what they had been doing before. No such effort is made in either article. It is merely presupposed (and left for the reader to infer) that those workers would have like been making $26/hour at Stater Bros.
Well, people aren't that dumb, and if the dude whose brother worked at Stater Bros could get that job, presumably he would take it. Obviously it's not so easy to do. It isn't amazon's responsibility to fix poverty, it is the government's. The problem is that many workers are in a shitty bargaining position.
The article appears to be attacking a strawman that amazon warehouses are gonna fix poverty and make everything spiffy. That is obviously bullshit and was obviously bullshit at the time they opened--and I don't care what starry eyed crap the economic development authorities spouted to justify whatever tax credits or zoning favors. That does not come close to proving that amazon had a deleterious effect on the labor market overall.
And no, lowering the average wage is not necessarily a bad effect if the only reason it went down was because of addition of jobs and a corresponding increase in the labor participation rate, for example. The reality is that lots of people are willing to work for shit wages because they don't see a better option, and the alternative to Amazon+SNAP isn't Stater Bros+no SNAP, it's unemployment+SNAP.
posted by andrewpcone at 5:09 PM on February 1, 2018 [13 favorites]
In order to say that amazon was hurting warehouse workers, rather than just hiring more of them, you'd have to consider what workers who work there would have been doing otherwise, or at least what they had been doing before. No such effort is made in either article. It is merely presupposed (and left for the reader to infer) that those workers would have like been making $26/hour at Stater Bros.
Well, people aren't that dumb, and if the dude whose brother worked at Stater Bros could get that job, presumably he would take it. Obviously it's not so easy to do. It isn't amazon's responsibility to fix poverty, it is the government's. The problem is that many workers are in a shitty bargaining position.
The article appears to be attacking a strawman that amazon warehouses are gonna fix poverty and make everything spiffy. That is obviously bullshit and was obviously bullshit at the time they opened--and I don't care what starry eyed crap the economic development authorities spouted to justify whatever tax credits or zoning favors. That does not come close to proving that amazon had a deleterious effect on the labor market overall.
And no, lowering the average wage is not necessarily a bad effect if the only reason it went down was because of addition of jobs and a corresponding increase in the labor participation rate, for example. The reality is that lots of people are willing to work for shit wages because they don't see a better option, and the alternative to Amazon+SNAP isn't Stater Bros+no SNAP, it's unemployment+SNAP.
posted by andrewpcone at 5:09 PM on February 1, 2018 [13 favorites]
I mean, is there anyone under the impression that Amazon is a force for good, except on a purely selfish level? Yes you can get your shit fast. Yes, your convenience comes at huge cost to everyone else but you.
Ah, but for upper middle class people like me, it's not just that we're getting our shit fast. My college friends work for Amazon in highly compensated programming jobs (I think, ignoring all the people made homeless in Seattle by the insane rent increases, all the people stuck in these awful gig "jobs" like Postmates delivering my friends' dinners). Other friends use services like AWS or Mechanical Turk to do research (I think, ignoring how AWS exists mostly to enable internet advertising or creepy data mining, ignoring how MT is exploitative). Amazon has a powerful propaganda/soft power campaign beyond just the 2-day delivery in my demographic of highly educated people with more money than sense. There's so much class based social segregation in this country it's easy for people like me to "forget" (read: choose not to see) all the other shit that rides alongside our ability to order laptop-projector hookup dongles at 3am and pick them up at 8am.
This is a good article, and so are the others people are sharing. It's perverse to me that so many people in this country work much harder than I do for so much less reward. No one should be treated like this (monitoring how long you take to piss? Jesus.) If people are going to work like this at least give them free college, decent housing, healthcare, and all-you-want cupcakes Tuesday and Thursday.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 6:02 PM on February 1, 2018 [16 favorites]
Ah, but for upper middle class people like me, it's not just that we're getting our shit fast. My college friends work for Amazon in highly compensated programming jobs (I think, ignoring all the people made homeless in Seattle by the insane rent increases, all the people stuck in these awful gig "jobs" like Postmates delivering my friends' dinners). Other friends use services like AWS or Mechanical Turk to do research (I think, ignoring how AWS exists mostly to enable internet advertising or creepy data mining, ignoring how MT is exploitative). Amazon has a powerful propaganda/soft power campaign beyond just the 2-day delivery in my demographic of highly educated people with more money than sense. There's so much class based social segregation in this country it's easy for people like me to "forget" (read: choose not to see) all the other shit that rides alongside our ability to order laptop-projector hookup dongles at 3am and pick them up at 8am.
This is a good article, and so are the others people are sharing. It's perverse to me that so many people in this country work much harder than I do for so much less reward. No one should be treated like this (monitoring how long you take to piss? Jesus.) If people are going to work like this at least give them free college, decent housing, healthcare, and all-you-want cupcakes Tuesday and Thursday.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 6:02 PM on February 1, 2018 [16 favorites]
The company's exploitation is so widely reported that I'm shocked that literate people use Amazon when it is not that hard to avoid. I looked through my order history because of some Twitter meme and I no longer own the vast majority of the crap I bought. I don't even remember a lot of it. I did use it in the past year because I got a gift card and thus they already have the money, but there is nothing there I can't get locally or through some other site. Capitalism is de facto exploitative but some companies are worse than others.
Okay fine, I know, there is someone who lives in a cabin in Montana, with no stores within 100 miles, and absolutely no other website will ship to them. Mx. Strawperson has my blessing.
posted by AFABulous at 6:52 PM on February 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Okay fine, I know, there is someone who lives in a cabin in Montana, with no stores within 100 miles, and absolutely no other website will ship to them. Mx. Strawperson has my blessing.
posted by AFABulous at 6:52 PM on February 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
ignoring how AWS exists mostly to enable internet advertising or creepy data mining
Wha? This is incredibly not true. I mean, you are spending time reading a website hosted via AWS right this second. You know that other website you like? Yeah, that's likely hosted via AWS as well.
posted by sideshow at 7:25 PM on February 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Wha? This is incredibly not true. I mean, you are spending time reading a website hosted via AWS right this second. You know that other website you like? Yeah, that's likely hosted via AWS as well.
posted by sideshow at 7:25 PM on February 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Afaik, AWS exists to be the cash machine that funds all of Amazon's other research and development.
posted by batter_my_heart at 7:40 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by batter_my_heart at 7:40 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm going on second- or third-hand information here so I'm very willing to be told I'm wrong! But all those AWS-backed websites I like don't charge me to read them, they (attempt to) serve me ads. Doesn't a lot of the "digital marketing" (does it have a better name?) ecosystem run on top of that too?
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 7:46 PM on February 1, 2018
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 7:46 PM on February 1, 2018
Netflix is hosted on AWS.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:54 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Autumnheart at 7:54 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Amazon (and especially Prime and Now and Grocery) scares the beejeezus out of me. We are stripping ourselves of choice. We think we're getting better prices and more convenience, but do we really believe that those low prices and free next day shipping will still exist when all of the brick-and-mortars are gone?
Don't get me wrong, our household is no better than anyone else's - we're on a first name basis with our UPS guy. Still, I know we're active in creating our own demise.
posted by vignettist at 11:36 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Don't get me wrong, our household is no better than anyone else's - we're on a first name basis with our UPS guy. Still, I know we're active in creating our own demise.
posted by vignettist at 11:36 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
In order to say that amazon was hurting warehouse workers, rather than just hiring more of them, you'd have to consider what workers who work there would have been doing otherwise, or at least what they had been doing before.
That is a like saying in order to determine if slavery hurt Africans first we have to know what jobs they had before they were captured. Or like saying maybe the kids chained to their 16 hour a day third world factory jobs are in a great spot because before they were eating mud and grass sandwiches. Amazon hurts its workers because it offers shitty physically taxing, psychologically grinding non-union jobs to people who, thanks to late-stage capitalism, are in no position to object. Amazon is taking advantage of workers to benefit shareholders.
posted by xigxag at 5:43 AM on February 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
That is a like saying in order to determine if slavery hurt Africans first we have to know what jobs they had before they were captured.
Not really, because again, when we tried to get free-market solutions to slavery they all failed, and that is the government's job (also minimum age for employment ) to solve just like the poster said.
So Amazon is taking advantage of the fact that San Bernadino is economically depressed because its where all the people priced out of LA and Orange County (more jobs/lower unemployment/higher median wages) have to move to if they want to stay in California. And that the government has only the most bare interest in assisting people in poverty. And if that's what it's like in San Bernadino, were the CA government steps up to fill in some gaps left by the Feds, it's much worse where the states don't step up. Extreme economic segregation is an easy thing to find and for private companies to exploit.
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:56 AM on February 2, 2018
Not really, because again, when we tried to get free-market solutions to slavery they all failed, and that is the government's job (also minimum age for employment ) to solve just like the poster said.
So Amazon is taking advantage of the fact that San Bernadino is economically depressed because its where all the people priced out of LA and Orange County (more jobs/lower unemployment/higher median wages) have to move to if they want to stay in California. And that the government has only the most bare interest in assisting people in poverty. And if that's what it's like in San Bernadino, were the CA government steps up to fill in some gaps left by the Feds, it's much worse where the states don't step up. Extreme economic segregation is an easy thing to find and for private companies to exploit.
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:56 AM on February 2, 2018
Doesn't a lot of the "digital marketing" (does it have a better name?) ecosystem run on top of that too?
A lot of everything runs on top of it. It might be a shorter list to figure out which online companies you like that don't have a some connection to AWS.
posted by sideshow at 8:11 AM on February 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
A lot of everything runs on top of it. It might be a shorter list to figure out which online companies you like that don't have a some connection to AWS.
posted by sideshow at 8:11 AM on February 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thanks for the correction, sideshow. Now I know and hopefully I won't make the same mistake again. I'm tempted to be churlish and say "aha, just more reason to not like anything!"
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 8:22 AM on February 2, 2018
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 8:22 AM on February 2, 2018
that is the government's job (also minimum age for employment ) to solve just like the poster said.
Maybe I should've made it clear that I don't dispute andrewpcone's point that the government has dropped the ball. What I dispute is the nitpickery regarding Amazon's complicity. They could've set up a working environment that was not degrading, dehumanizing and actively harmful toward the long term health of the workers. But Amazon chose to chase efficiency and profits over humanity. They choose to treat workers as entirely fungible cogs to be exploited until broken. Yes it's also the case that our society inherently considers exploitation to be virtuous and rewards brutal productivity with sky high share prices. And that the government refuses to enforce basic human rights. But the fact that it's not Amazon's responsibility to fix poverty doesn't mean that they bear no responsibility in how they treat the working poor.
posted by xigxag at 9:35 AM on February 2, 2018 [8 favorites]
Maybe I should've made it clear that I don't dispute andrewpcone's point that the government has dropped the ball. What I dispute is the nitpickery regarding Amazon's complicity. They could've set up a working environment that was not degrading, dehumanizing and actively harmful toward the long term health of the workers. But Amazon chose to chase efficiency and profits over humanity. They choose to treat workers as entirely fungible cogs to be exploited until broken. Yes it's also the case that our society inherently considers exploitation to be virtuous and rewards brutal productivity with sky high share prices. And that the government refuses to enforce basic human rights. But the fact that it's not Amazon's responsibility to fix poverty doesn't mean that they bear no responsibility in how they treat the working poor.
posted by xigxag at 9:35 AM on February 2, 2018 [8 favorites]
Amazon is basically doing to Wal-Mart what Wal-Mart did to the other retail stores.
posted by sotonohito at 10:07 AM on February 2, 2018
posted by sotonohito at 10:07 AM on February 2, 2018
i want to know who actually decides on the specific policies. like who was in the meeting where they actually decided to fire people for taking too long in the bathroom. how much do they push that responsibility onto relatively low-level people?
posted by vogon_poet at 3:22 PM on February 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by vogon_poet at 3:22 PM on February 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm certain it's all bloody hands at arm's length. Top management just directs lower management to maximize profits, lower management puts pressure on the warehouse managers to maximize profits, warehouse managers put pressure on shift managers.
It's magically no one's fault and there was never really a formal decision, the policy just sort of formed by magic and no one is responsible but it is a policy that must be enforced.
posted by sotonohito at 6:32 PM on February 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's magically no one's fault and there was never really a formal decision, the policy just sort of formed by magic and no one is responsible but it is a policy that must be enforced.
posted by sotonohito at 6:32 PM on February 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
I wonder if a chicken dinner has ever been offered as a Power Hour prize.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:36 PM on February 2, 2018
posted by tobascodagama at 6:36 PM on February 2, 2018
The company's exploitation is so widely reported that I'm shocked that literate people use Amazon when it is not that hard to avoid.
Despite my snarky comment at the start of this thread, I am not holier than thou and I do use Amazon. I order physical books from Book Depository, and I look for all physical goods on Ebay first, and I try to do all my gifting through Etsy, but I do place maybe 12 orders a year with Amazon. I am not going to get an Insinkerator into this country for a fair price any other way. (And obviously, as an expatriated American, I have a God-given right to an Insinkerator.)
The one thing that absolutely weds me to Amazon is my Kindle. Kindle Unlimited is such a massive cost saver for me that I like to lie to myself about how since it's a digital books, the negative impact it carries is really very small. No oversized boxes! No underpaid delivery contractors! No overworked warehouse packers! I conveniently ignore the part where it screws a lot of authors to the wall.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:41 PM on February 2, 2018
Despite my snarky comment at the start of this thread, I am not holier than thou and I do use Amazon. I order physical books from Book Depository, and I look for all physical goods on Ebay first, and I try to do all my gifting through Etsy, but I do place maybe 12 orders a year with Amazon. I am not going to get an Insinkerator into this country for a fair price any other way. (And obviously, as an expatriated American, I have a God-given right to an Insinkerator.)
The one thing that absolutely weds me to Amazon is my Kindle. Kindle Unlimited is such a massive cost saver for me that I like to lie to myself about how since it's a digital books, the negative impact it carries is really very small. No oversized boxes! No underpaid delivery contractors! No overworked warehouse packers! I conveniently ignore the part where it screws a lot of authors to the wall.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:41 PM on February 2, 2018
Book Depository
The Gruaniad (2011): Booksellers fear 'stranglehold' as Amazon snaps up British rival The Book Depository
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:45 AM on February 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Gruaniad (2011): Booksellers fear 'stranglehold' as Amazon snaps up British rival The Book Depository
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:45 AM on February 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
In order to say that amazon was hurting warehouse workers, rather than just hiring more of them, you'd have to consider what workers who work there would have been doing otherwise, or at least what they had been doing before. No such effort is made in either article. It is merely presupposed (and left for the reader to infer) that those workers would have like been making $26/hour at Stater Bros.
The Atlantic actually explicitly talks about that - it says:
posted by insectosaurus at 10:29 AM on February 3, 2018
The Atlantic actually explicitly talks about that - it says:
If these places don’t get a new Amazon facility, they won’t instead get companies like Stater Brothers that are willing to come in and pay double or triple the minimum wage for jobs that don’t require a college education. For many places, the choice is not between Amazon or another, better employer. The choice, instead, is Amazon or nothing.
posted by insectosaurus at 10:29 AM on February 3, 2018
The choice, instead, is Amazon or nothing.
Amazon (like Trump!) started as the symptom of a larger disease, but has now metastasized.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:38 AM on February 5, 2018
Amazon (like Trump!) started as the symptom of a larger disease, but has now metastasized.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:38 AM on February 5, 2018
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posted by borges at 1:56 PM on February 1, 2018 [9 favorites]