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1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

businessinsider.com

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Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#251

Post by fakesheriff »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #218
ProAm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "just stop buying amazon" arguments never made sense to me in the first place, because most people who use it are the ones budget-stretched in the first place. A lot of rural communities have no other viable options for some items as well. They've become the new Walmart, they killed off all other options so now its the only place left for a lot of people.

> they killed off all other options Is it that difficult to imagine the amount of value it created for those communities, too?

> Is it that difficult to imagine the amount of value it created for those communities, too?

"Value creation" generally reveals itself through a rightward shift in the distribution of household incomes, increased standards of living, and resilient supply chains. At least that's what Adam Smith had in mind when he wrote "The Wealth of Nations".

If the only "value creation" KPI that ticks up is corporate earnings in offshore tax havens, the system starts to look like a non-governmental tax authority.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#252

Post by SahAssar »

shawnz wrote: post #171
shakezula wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they participate in union busting? https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/09/amazon-...

I'm not happy about that, but what bigcorp doesn't try to bust unions? Certainly Walmart does it too, so that really seems to just be an instance of Amazon merely matching their competitors' abuses.

> but what bigcorp doesn't try to bust unions?

I know it's slightly off topic, but in some areas of Europe it is considered essential for any big employer to have a healthy union. The employer encourages unionization, and there are certain benefits for them too.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#253

Post by taeric »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #239
taeric wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sort of begs the question on how Walmart is growing. Actually, the more I think on this claim, the less it makes sense. The xkcd of how many weddings someone will have the day after their marriage comes to mind. What am I missing?

I can't find a graph of Walmart employees over time, which may not be surprising since it seems that they only directly employ about 50k of the cited 1.6M total. However, the graphs in this article from 2018 make it fairly clear how the trendlines for Walmart vs. Amazon compare: https://www.pymnts.com/consumer-insights/2018/walmart-amazon... Assuming the relationship between those curves is still roughly the same, it…

Hmmm. I'm torn. At a first instinct, this seems a safe assumption.

However, it is also somewhat safe to say that Amazon's growth has not been cutting in to Walmart, per that article. So what has been shrinking?

That is, assume a somewhat finite pool of shoppers. Since Amazon has grown, and Walmart has remained steady, is Walmart about to start shrinking? Or is there enough of a shopper pool to maintain this growth for Amazon?

Edit: I think it is safe to guess most of the growth came from the death of malls. But my question remains on how large is the pool of shoppers?

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#254

Post by masterof0 »

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

> So aside from “just stop buying from Amazon” what can we do ? Create a better service, sell cheaper and better quality products, etc. Is it easy? Of course not. But what do you want to do? Why would I buy product X more expensive at another store? The convenience is not addictive, is just good. People who don't have SDE salaries can afford the things they need at amazon, because are cheaper. Most people will find the best deals, unless you know a better place, I don't think you can do anything about it.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#255

Post by screye »

The convenience of Amazon is amazing, in part because American urban design and malls suck.

In denser neighborhoods there is a certain charm to walking around dense streets, and sometimes randomly entering stores that catch your eye. Having malls be this dreary location that you must visit to get anything, makes amazon look so much more attractive.

Similarly, small roadside stores in high foot traffic areas can end up being sustainable due to a high number of customers per second. On the other hand, malls are built to be large and inefficient in a manner that almost feels like it's by design.

There are a huge number of products that benefit from use-before-you-buy. Brick & mortar is innately profitable in this scenario. Brick & mortar stores can also facilitate warranty more easily and will generally have fewer returns. Usually, they would have be able to stand against online shopping in those product categories. However, most US cities lack areas that would naturally see high foot-traffic. This makes it impossible to actually run a physical store. As for the other product categories, I am so glad online shopping became a thing.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#256

Post by rantwasp »

sbierwagen wrote: post #134
rantwasp wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're being downvoter and I don't understand why. Here are a few more things for your list: 7. Amazon monitors everything you do online and offline (they do provide the backbone and all of ISP services). Corrective action is taken if needed 8. Amazon decides who get to live and who gets to die based on your predicted future value. Also, Amazon decides who gets to reproduce.

>you're being downvoter and I don't understand why. Probably because Amazon historically hasn't done vertical integration. Amazon Basics items aren't manufactured in Amazon factories. Heck, half the time they're not even branded. I bought an AB air conditioner last month and there wasn't a single Amazon logo on the box. A maximal Amazon would eat all retail, but I don't seem them running hotels or hospitals. They cou…

they don’t run hotel and hospitals yet.

also GP was half serious/half joking and was talking about some point in the future, not today

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#257

Post by munificent »

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

> So aside from “just stop buying from Amazon” what can we do ?

As far as I can see, there are only two forces potentially big enough to fight a big corporation today:

1. Another equally big corporation.

2. The federal government.

The fact that US anti-trust enforcement has been essentially non-existent means that #1 is almost gone these days. Citizens United allowed corporations to buy politicians, so it seems that #2 is dead too.

It sucks.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#258

Post by marcusverus »

dstick wrote: post #150
shakezula wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So aside from “just stop buying from Amazon” what can we do ? The "just stop buying amazon" arguments never made sense to me in the first place, because most people who use it are the ones budget-stretched in the first place. A lot of rural communities have no other viable options for some items as well. It will take massive government action and that's it. There's no other way we can fix this problem. Wages are su…

And it’s a negative cycle. Those already budget stretched people are getting paid poorly by Amazon, so they too will shop at Amazon. We’re not there yet but the cycle is reminiscent of the factory owners with factory stores and pubs where the workers spend all their money during the industrial revolution. Unions and worker laws stem from that era. So who knows - maybe we’re on the cusp of another revolution that’s si…

> We’re not there yet but the cycle is reminiscent of the factory owners with factory stores and pubs where the workers spend all their money during the industrial revolution.

Is it? Amazon employees (presumably) have the same options as everyone else. Many of those options are, generally speaking, cheaper than Amazon. Whatever your feelings about Amazon in general, fact that Amazon’s supposedly cash-strapped employees choose to pay a premium for convenience is not evidence of Amazon’s malevolence.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#259

Post by nunez »

underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

The reason why I'm personally okay with buying stuff from the Everything Store is because [1] retail is a brutal business, [2] _everyone_ in retail (except perhaps the executive leadership) is treated like shit, and [3] Amazon, for all of their failings, is still absolutely obsessed with customer satisfaction.

Amazon is still one of few companies that has a completely seamless, no-BS return policy, for example.

The "sensible" alternative is to shop direct from small businesses, which I do sometimes, but see [2] from above.

Re: 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

#260

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

nunez wrote: post #259
underseacables wrote: post #72

I’m torn badly with Amazon. After read The Everything Store, and what has been written all over the place, Jeff Bezos is a massive turd. Employees are horribly treated, wages suppressed, and all sorts of terrible and abusive practices. Then it comes time for me to buy something. I needed a new pair of size 14 sneakers. I drove to Adidas, Footlocker, dicks, and a few other stores but I just couldn’t justify $100 sneak…

The reason why I'm personally okay with buying stuff from the Everything Store is because [1] retail is a brutal business, [2] _everyone_ in retail (except perhaps the executive leadership) is treated like shit, and [3] Amazon, for all of their failings, is still absolutely obsessed with customer satisfaction. Amazon is still one of few companies that has a completely seamless, no-BS return policy, for example. The "…

>[3] Amazon, for all of their failings, is still absolutely obsessed with customer satisfaction.

I recently had an AWS issue. Emailed our rep. Next day I was on the phone with like 8 Amazon people, high up enough to make things happen and low enough to make things happen.

It was pretty wild and yes, for all their faults, the are the most customer focused company I’ve ever worked with.

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