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1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee

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

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they were one of Amazon’s first casualties! They're still in business. I browsed one last month. I was amused that one entire rack, 6 shelves, was filled with "Trump is Evil" books. Somebody at that store doesn't like Trump :-)

I want to quickly emphasize that they are data driven enough to understand that lots of people buy those books because about 51-54% of the country doesn’t and never did like him.

But who are those books for? I don’t buy books about politicians I don’t like.

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

#412
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if they don't, it's the end? You can't seriously expect corporations to welcome unions?

Why not?

Because unions offer literally no upside for companies. They are meant precisely to organize the collective power of the employees to pressure the company into deals with its employees it wouldn’t have otherwise.

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

#413

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…

Consumer-side protest has never worked. Organized labor is the only way for workers to effect change at the workplace.

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

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to quickly emphasize that they are data driven enough to understand that lots of people buy those books because about 51-54% of the country doesn’t and never did like him.

But who are those books for? I don’t buy books about politicians I don’t like.

A non-trivial number of people do across the political spectrum. Political memoirs for instance are usually ghostwritten (outside of the first Obama book and maybe the Pete book given he was a nobody) and are only purchased in order to show support for the candidate. It's a team spirit thing.

Plus, I'm sure some have their own niches (satire, exposés like "Frankly we won this election" that have new reporting, etc) and many have their own historical value. I saw an ant-Tom DeLay book in the wild a few years ago well after his fall from grace and considered buying it just as a keepsake of the era.

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

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Amazon warehouse employees will attest to how much you're tracked in terms of performance numbers and how taking micro breaks[0] is discouraged or punished. And $15/hr is still generally more than most employment, with the state average maximum individual unemployment being $2042 a month [1] and Amazon paying minimum $2600 a month (in terms of full-time), which might make or break the bank for many Amazon employ…

> Most Amazon warehouse employees will attest to how much you're tracked in terms of performance numbers What is the turnover rate? Because if you hate your job every single day no amount of money will make you stay.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/15/us/amazon-wor...

> Even before the pandemic, previously unreported data shows, Amazon lost about 3 percent of its hourly associates each week, meaning the turnover among its work force was roughly 150 percent a year. That rate, almost double that of the retail and logistics industries, has made some executives worry about running out of workers across America.

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

#416
post #255

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 u…

>There are a huge number of products that benefit from use-before-you-buy. Brick & mortar is innately profitable in this scenario.

Unless that scenario turns unto "use (in the store) before you buy (on Amazon)," which retailers have been complaining is often what happens.

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

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its all a spectrum but I think in practice the above statement is meaningful. In the USSR the government set ranges of wages that different firms/administrators could give out. I guess in practice you had some choice but not if you had one entity with practically unlimited negotiating power.

There were political differences, though. At least in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic where I grew up. First of all, there were some collectively owned enterprises (cooperatives), which were a tiny bit more independent than directly state owned business. They could deviate a little from the strict, centrally directed price and wage norms etc. Second, even in the state owned sector, there was some diversity among…

Actually there was IMHO another class of directors in CSSR than idealists/hardliners and pragmatists - the totally corrupt ones. :P

Those knew how to play the system and how to get ridd of the others while being untouchable due to being representatives of the regime.

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

#418

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…

If you follow the link at the bottom of this comment it will lead you to $20 shoes from Target. They usually have the option to get it shipped to the store of your choice within several days. You can do a similar thing for other goods you need.

There are also discount/used clothing stores like TJ Maxx which have cheaper clothes.

Relatively speaking, it's not difficult to buy things not from Amazon.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=mens+shoes+target

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

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most Amazon warehouse employees will attest to how much you're tracked in terms of performance numbers What is the turnover rate? Because if you hate your job every single day no amount of money will make you stay.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/15/us/amazon-wor... > Even before the pandemic, previously unreported data shows, Amazon lost about 3 percent of its hourly associates each week, meaning the turnover among its work force was roughly 150 percent a year. That rate, almost double that of the retail and logistics industries, has made some executives worry about running out of workers across America.

then is there any issue? it means workers find better opportunities or better conditions elsewhere.

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

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember that era, too. My first encounter with a microwave was at far Bob's in Pasadena. Finals had just ended at Cal Tech and I walked to far Bob's to decompress. I had no knowledge of microwave ovens. I ordered a piece of cherry pie. Waitress decided to warm it without telling me, using their then-new microwave oven. The plate was ice cold when she passed it to me. When I bit into a piece o…

Nice to see a fellow techer here! The fastest tech revolution I ever saw was in the fall of '75, when I was a frosh. At the beginning of the semester, the Caltech bookstore had slide rules for $125. By December, they were on closeout for $5. Never saw them again. The calculators had arrived!

What was that like, going from log tables to instant calculations?
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