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Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

nytimes.com

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Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#91

Post by localhost »

pchristensen wrote: post #32
undefined3840 wrote: post #9

I think there’s something about knowing you need to care for a large family (e.g. a member of a religion that values having lots of kids) that is motivating for entrepreneurs in a way I don’t always hear about e.g. entrepreneurial tendencies among Hasidic Jews and Mormons

For Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the entrepreneurship roots go back to the early church history. Between 1831-1847, members of the church established 4 settlements and were expelled from 3(Kirtland, OH; Western Missouri; Nauvoo, IL; Salt Lake City). These areas were all frontiers at the time, and grew to become the largest cities in their region, which drew fear and persecution from people in the surrounding areas. S…

I really liked the book The Mormon Way of Doing Business[1]. The central idea of the book is that a high commitment church like LDS is a great training ground for business with many examples including the mission example that you cite above.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Way-Doing-Business/dp/14555229...

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#92

Post by Alupis »

GhettoMaestro wrote: post #19
jweir wrote: post #4

About 6 years ago I ordered a tv on Amazon, it was going to be shipped out and delivered in about a week. About an hour later I got a phone a call with a thick accented voice – "John, John, are you home?" "Who is this?" "I got your TV, we can come over right now." Sure enough they pulled up with their van and I got my TV about two hours after I ordered. Unknown to me I had ordered it from a Hasidic run company just d…

Nice! I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster.

> I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster

No - Amazon pays sellers every other week.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#93

Post by amyjess »

joecool1029 wrote: post #62
fortran77 wrote: post #2

Buzz Feed News (yes!) covered this same story with much more sensitivity several weeks ago. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/amazon-o...

Understand that the way Buzzfeed covered it obscures the very real fact that there's a huge amount of controversy regarding this specific Satmar Hasidic community. This is not a question of Antisemitism, there have been very real issues directly caused by prominent rabbis within this community. These controversies are known to pretty much anyone in the NY metro area, so it makes sense that the NYTimes (being located…

There was also a notorious story of multiple kosher restaurants who had booked a lesbian comedienne only for the local kosher board, run by Hasidic rabbis, to blackmail them by saying that if they don't cancel on her they'll revoke their food's kosher certifications. [0]

FWIW, I am Jewish myself, as is the source.

[0] https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/brooklyn-eateries-cancel-les...

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#94

Post by glennpratt »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #74

Amazon is great yet I wish there were more sites like Amazon and eBay so healthy competition between them would stimulate further improvement. BTW why people won't use OpenBazaar instead?

> BTW why people won't use OpenBazaar instead?

Disputes and legal recourse.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#95

Post by mdorazio »

asdfman123 wrote: post #77
GhettoMaestro wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster.

They probably were able to save money by delivering it directly, instead of taking it to a postal office to ship it which probably would have been more work anyway.

Also their breakage rate (and thus returns processing and associated Amazon hit) will likely be much lower since they're delivering it themselves.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#96

Post by wbronitsky »

fortran77 wrote: post #56
AWildC182 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it's just cool to see how people different from ourselves live their lives.

"Ourselves?" As a Litvack Jewish person who goes to a Hasidic Minyan some of "us" are those people. ;-)

I do believe you have misread this. "Ourselves" is used because "me" would not be correct, but really the meaning is "me the author" in that sentence. I would suggest a more generous re-reading.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#97

Post by opportune »

pchristensen wrote: post #32
undefined3840 wrote: post #9

I think there’s something about knowing you need to care for a large family (e.g. a member of a religion that values having lots of kids) that is motivating for entrepreneurs in a way I don’t always hear about e.g. entrepreneurial tendencies among Hasidic Jews and Mormons

For Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the entrepreneurship roots go back to the early church history. Between 1831-1847, members of the church established 4 settlements and were expelled from 3(Kirtland, OH; Western Missouri; Nauvoo, IL; Salt Lake City). These areas were all frontiers at the time, and grew to become the largest cities in their region, which drew fear and persecution from people in the surrounding areas. S…

I think having a tight-knit community of people willing to do each other favors in the face of a world that may not necessarily approve of your beliefs also plays a big part. Also true of both conservative/Orthodox Jews and Mormons.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#98

Post by Smithalicious »

toasterlovin wrote: post #82
GhettoMaestro wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never thought about that. I figured Amazon was just being a middle-man for some insane amount of money and making a nice spread off of it.

Amazon seller here. Amazon doesn't make funds available for disbursement until 7 days after delivery. At that point funds are available for disbursement, but they aren't necessarily disbursed. Seller accounts created before 2011 have what are called daily disbursements: the seller has a button they can click once every 24 hours that will disburse all available funds. Most sellers accounts opened since then have bi-we…

God I hate the word bi-weekly; if you hadn't specified 14 days I would've thought it was twice a week. "bi-weekly" is never the right word to use because you always have to add additional information that makes it redundant.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#99

Post by xyzzyz »

klank wrote: post #84
ars wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this commitment translates into a 28% poverty rate The table used to calculate federal poverty level doesn't scale correctly to high numbers of children. You can make rather a lot of money, yet be considered poor if you have lots of children. Additional children don't cost as much as the federal government thinks.

Can you back that up with some additional data? According to this: https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fp... A family of 8 is under the poverty level if they make less than $43,430. I'd not consider that to be a "rather a lot of money" if raising 8 children is involved.

If you have 5 children already, the additional cost of raising another one is greatly smaller than is the cost of raising the first one. The most likely scenario is that there is already a full time stay at home parent, so they will get additional workload, but won’t incur much additional expenses beyond some more food expenditure, some extra clothing if whatever older siblings have been wearing is too worn out, and extra bed. If the cost of children for you is daycare bills, private school, after school organized activity and college fund, you’re most likely not the kind of person who ends up having 6 children.

Re: Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy

#100

Post by CamelCaseName »

Alupis wrote: post #92
GhettoMaestro wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster.

> I wonder if the vendor gets his money earlier from Amazon if he delivered it faster No - Amazon pays sellers every other week.

This is not necessarily true. Some sellers can request disbursement at any time. For a breakdown of when Amazon pays sellers, see [0].

In this case, the only delay is the 7 day holding period after the latest possible delivery date.

For example, if you sell and deliver a product on Jan 1st, you may be able to disburse the funds as soon as the 8th.

However! This example does not hold for the situation described by the GP because no tracking information can be provided to Amazon. In which case, the longest possible delivery period in the shipping method selected will be used.

More importantly, what the seller did as described by GP is big liability, for two reasons:

1. Phone numbers should never, ever, be used to contact the customer directly. They are for the seller to give to the carrier. This is a violation of Amazon's ToS.

2. Sellers should never, ever, deliver directly to buyers. Not only will this hurt their valid tracking rate metric, but it also makes them a very easy target for item not received cases as there is no proof that the item was delivered. The only recourse in a case like this would be through small claims court.

And on a much more minor note, it's unprofessional to visit a buyer in person. Amazon is not eBay.

[0] https://3t122x28ppxb3z3e3u3i0eib-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-...

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