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Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#171

Post by iLoveOncall »

infecto wrote: post #126
vouaobrasil wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a bad thing. And you say it like it's a dichotomy. And I could certainly get most of the comforts of modern life with 5% of the force of globalization. House, food, bed, some reading material, etc. I don't really care for technology, and I use it because it's part of my work and livelihood. BUT, I could easily be just as happy living a simpler life. Believe me, I've already thought about it. I could be pretty m…

Please get off the internet then, destroy your computer and go live on a farm. I don't say this to be an antagonist but it is what you yourself is suggesting others do.

Yes please, I'll happily pay for the sledgehammer for him to destroy his computer.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#172

Post by asah »

a12k wrote: post #102

I’ve found that the rise of Apply Pay as a payment mechanism on random sites has been helpful in getting me off of Amazon. Often it’s just as easy to order something direct if they have Apple Pay (or ShopPay, but I have other issues with them) and the same price as Amazon. Plus discoverability is awful on Amazon anyways. Still don’t get the Whole Foods return ability when not shopping from Amazon, but not punching in…

For me, Amazon cuts delivery times, improves reliability and makes returns 10x easier.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#173

Post by bobajeff »

Retric wrote: post #82
vouaobrasil wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my grandpa's village everything was local production and commerce but they all lived way worse than me and my friends that get paid through remote companies and spend our money online. (1) That is because technology also takes away components of life that one can enjoy without being rich such as accesss to nature and local food production. (2) The global economy is only so "good" because it takes advantage of th…

(2) They where literally describing a poor area being better off with global trade. Economies of scale and local advantages make the world better off. There’s no advantage to growing bananas in greenhouses in Iowa when you can grow wheat and trade with Panama.

Off the top of my head, the advantage in having bananas grown near you verses imported from Panama is that they are possibly fresher. This is assuming they can grow in your area and are in season of course. Produce is a special case in this regard locally sourced can potentially be healthier.

That is to say everything isn't objectively always 100% better with globalization and specialization at least not until come up with faster methods of shipping.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#174

Post by bombcar »

nine_k wrote: post #108
a12k wrote: post #102

I’ve found that the rise of Apply Pay as a payment mechanism on random sites has been helpful in getting me off of Amazon. Often it’s just as easy to order something direct if they have Apple Pay (or ShopPay, but I have other issues with them) and the same price as Amazon. Plus discoverability is awful on Amazon anyways. Still don’t get the Whole Foods return ability when not shopping from Amazon, but not punching in…

To me, the key feature of Amazon is the fast delivery with Prime. Do other merchants offer fast delivery often enough? Regarding credit cards, I started using privacy dot com for virtual, merchant-locked cards. It protects against (rare) card details leaks, but, of course, does not give you any points or cashback.

Prime delivery is rarely 2 day anymore, and Walmart/HD/Target often match or beat it.

And you still get free shipping over $35 which covers most anything else.

Prime is too heavily tied to video now, which is a $0 value for me.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#176

Post by asah »

MoreMoore wrote: post #158
nine_k wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the key feature of Amazon is the fast delivery with Prime. Do other merchants offer fast delivery often enough? Regarding credit cards, I started using privacy dot com for virtual, merchant-locked cards. It protects against (rare) card details leaks, but, of course, does not give you any points or cashback.

It's really hard to beat Amazon just because of logistics. Amazon tells me if it'll arrive tomorrow or the day after if I order now and I can be 99% sure that it'll be processed today or tomorrow and it'll arrive as expected. Anybody else? I have no idea how long it'll take them to process my order, how long it takes for it to be processed by DHL/DPD/GLS and how long the actual delivery will take.

+1 - when I order on Amazon, it mostly gets here. Others, I suffer stress & distraction.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#177

Post by gruez »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #75
graemep wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first point is true, but most people do not choose it. I do not think your second point stands. Almost the entire world is financially better off than it was in the past. Lots of third world economies are visibly richer than they were a few decades ago. Whose suffering are they benefitting from?

> The first point is true, but most people do not choose it. Because they lack wisdom and human beings en masse operate on instinct, not wisdom. > Almost the entire world is financially better off than it was in the past. Lots of third world economies are visibly richer than they were a few decades ago. Whose suffering are they benefitting from? The classic reply of the economist. It's because the industrial world me…

>The classic reply of the economist. It's because the industrial world measures better off with variables like "life expectancy" and "money".

I'd take arguments with objective metrics over handwavy arguments involving vibes, because with the latter you can make whatever argument you want with them and it's impossible to refute.

>For example: if I could live next to a beautiful national park and walk there every day, that would be more valuable to me than a million dollars but living in a huge city. How does the prevailing evaluative mechanism account for that?

You can ask for how much people are willing to pay for access to such a scenery and put a dollar value on it, or try to infer it based on housing price patterns (eg. house next to national park vs equally rural house next to corn fields).

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#178

Post by giraffe_lady »

asah wrote: post #172
a12k wrote: post #102

I’ve found that the rise of Apply Pay as a payment mechanism on random sites has been helpful in getting me off of Amazon. Often it’s just as easy to order something direct if they have Apple Pay (or ShopPay, but I have other issues with them) and the same price as Amazon. Plus discoverability is awful on Amazon anyways. Still don’t get the Whole Foods return ability when not shopping from Amazon, but not punching in…

For me, Amazon cuts delivery times, improves reliability and makes returns 10x easier.

I live in a big city and the last few years especially it's very easy to see the cost of that approach to delivery. Residential streets are clogged with double parked amazon vehicles, I can't go three blocks in the bike lane without having to get into traffic to go around one. If they can't figure out the apartment buzzer in a few seconds they just ring them all, I'm buzzed multiple times a day even if I don't use amazon.

It has made life worse in small but tangible, concrete ways. I don't need it that fast, probably neither do you. You can blame enforcement or the individual drivers or whatever but I think that's a cop out. Amazon demands efficiency of its drivers, this is what efficiency looks like.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#179

Post by Retric »

bobajeff wrote: post #173
Retric wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(2) They where literally describing a poor area being better off with global trade. Economies of scale and local advantages make the world better off. There’s no advantage to growing bananas in greenhouses in Iowa when you can grow wheat and trade with Panama.

Off the top of my head, the advantage in having bananas grown near you verses imported from Panama is that they are possibly fresher. This is assuming they can grow in your area and are in season of course. Produce is a special case in this regard locally sourced can potentially be healthier. That is to say everything isn't objectively always 100% better with globalization and specialization at least not until come u…

> assuming they can grow in your area

You can grow bananas in Alaska, but you can’t simply plant them outside. Thus my example assumes greenhouses built to a large enough scale to handle trees which is a major economic and environmental cost.

Comparative advantage applies to a huge range of things not just bananas. You could mine cobalt basically anywhere at extreme expense, but everyone is better off when that happens in locations that naturally have extremely high concentrations of cobalt.

Re: Amazon workers to strike at multiple US warehouses during busy holiday season

#180

Post by gruez »

Symbiote wrote: post #160
vasco wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had this exact sentiment for many years but... what are we supporting really? Is it because you want a distributed network of inventory across the country near you in case of emergency? Is it because you like talking to someone when doing purchases? Is it because you think someone is doing a societal good by parking money in inventory they brought near you? Is it because you just don't like someone doing it more…

There are many replies already, but one point that hasn't been mentioned: The local store pays their taxes — local and national taxes. Amazon is big enough to evade these, or where possible, pay small amounts only in Luxembourg, Delaware etc.

Amazon pays sales taxes, which makes up a big chunk of the local business' tax burden anyways. Moreover, the retail division Amazon barely makes any money, so any taxes on profit going to delaware or whatever is probably minimal (as % of your spend).
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