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Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

alexdanco.com

81–90 of 91 posts

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#81
post #3

Thought experiment (I don't actually want to go down this road): can you out-market Amazon in this scenario? If you have a $400 committed spend for a $500 rent discount, can you find people who would buy things from Amazon anyway and offer to make purchases on their behalf at a 1% discount (which is, on paper, obviously rational for them), such that you're now getting back $396 of the $400? Now you're spending a mere…

> If you have a $400 committed spend for a $500 rent discount, That makes no sense, who wouldn't do that. It would be more like $250 rent discount for $500 purchases.

I was referencing the example from the article, which argues that a $400 committed spend on a $500 discount is a bad thing. If you think the article makes no sense, then my discussion of it will of course make no sense either.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#82
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> on-site Amazon lockers. why not general lockers that all deliveries could be put in? The pin could be given as instructions to the deliverer.

Because tenets have to pay for those. My building has them and apartment company offloads cost to tenets in form of a yearly fee.

FYI:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenet

vs

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenant

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#83
> I’m sure many of you either have an Alexa-powered device in your house

Yeah, lost me there, pal. I thought I was getting lower rent for not going _over_ some quota - which would work great, since my quota is exactly $0, on principle.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#84
post #73

Basically why I haven't watched season 3 of The Expanse: I'm far from being an Amazon boycottist, but I refuse to enter any form of ongoing agreement that would make them a default choice or bring them closer to becoming one. I have never put even remotely as much thought into this as the author, but the central idea has been clear nonetheless: don't give away your wallet-vote in a bulk transaction, nothing good can…

Season 3 was on SyFy; it's Season 4 (and later?) which was picked up by Amazon.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#85

The apartment building I live in already has a business deal with Amazon. Not for appliances, but for an Amazon Hub Apartment Locker. https://www.amazon.com/b?node=17337376011 I get an email with a pickup code to the email address tied to my Amazon account whenever a package arrives that is too big for my mailbox, from any sender. This means that Amazon presumably has a profile about my package receiving habits, incl…

Your choice: Stop using Amazon. Alternatives exist - for now.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#86
post #80
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>could purchasers band together and join an organization that negotiates on their behalf, organizes boycotts, etc. for a relatively small fee? I think you just reinvented unions.

Not quite. The fundamental concept of collective bargaining is similar, but unions are for employees to band together and negotiate with their employers , not for consumers to band together and negotiate with their vendors . (In US law at least, unions are very tightly regulated, managers can't unionize, etc. A group of people negotiating what their Prime membership means would absolutely not be called a "union.")

Understood, thanks for the correction. Collective bargaining against vendors actually sounds like a really useful idea.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#87
post #73

Basically why I haven't watched season 3 of The Expanse: I'm far from being an Amazon boycottist, but I refuse to enter any form of ongoing agreement that would make them a default choice or bring them closer to becoming one. I have never put even remotely as much thought into this as the author, but the central idea has been clear nonetheless: don't give away your wallet-vote in a bulk transaction, nothing good can…

I don’t understand this way of thinking. I despise Amazon in a variety of ways, but I think they do a great job in a variety of other ways. Wouldn’t it be reasonable for me to spend money on the parts I think are good, like Prime Video, and withold money from the parts I think are utterly stupid (anything Alexa-related)? Assuming Amazon reacts to spending habits of its customers, wouldn’t I be more able to effect cha…

I wouldn't mind Prime Video as an alternative to Netflix if it wasn't bundled with the manipulative free delivery subscription. Sure, I could use Video on a secondary account and stubbornly keep my deliveries in the regular tier, but that would be absurd, right?

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#88

Not unless they sold the things I would otherwise buy. And that is unlikely.

What do you buy that amazon doesn’t sell?

Most of what I buy these days are services not goods. I pay to have the wheels changed on my car twice a year (winter versus summer tyres), insurance, house painting and maintenance, servicing for my car, electricity, water, sewerage, an internet connection.

As for goods, well I buy a new computer about once a decade and a phone perhaps twice as often, fresh bread, fruit, vegetables, meat, butter, biscuits, and tea, every few days or weeks.

No idea if Amazon sells all that but it doesn't seem so from a glance at their web site.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you buy that amazon doesn’t sell?

Most of what I buy these days are services not goods. I pay to have the wheels changed on my car twice a year (winter versus summer tyres), insurance, house painting and maintenance, servicing for my car, electricity, water, sewerage, an internet connection. As for goods, well I buy a new computer about once a decade and a phone perhaps twice as often, fresh bread, fruit, vegetables, meat, butter, biscuits, and tea,…

Amazon sells food, computers, cell phones.

Re: Would you accept cheaper rent in exchange for a monthly Amazon purchasing quota?

#90

The apartment building I live in already has a business deal with Amazon. Not for appliances, but for an Amazon Hub Apartment Locker. https://www.amazon.com/b?node=17337376011 I get an email with a pickup code to the email address tied to my Amazon account whenever a package arrives that is too big for my mailbox, from any sender. This means that Amazon presumably has a profile about my package receiving habits, incl…

Your choice: Stop using Amazon. Alternatives exist - for now.

My alternatives are to break my lease or get all of my packages at a P.O. box. Even if I never purchase a single item from Amazon, all packages sent to me from anyone go into the Hub.
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