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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#241

Post by rbinv »

tompt wrote: post #49
nicklevin wrote: post #2

There were seemingly odd hoops for customers to jump through to have their purchases qualify for Smile. Didn't type in the 'smile' URL? Too bad, no donation for you. One of the oddest was requiring push notifications in order for mobile purchases to count ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21233815 ).

I always assumed having to type the smile domain was more about making sure they didn't have to make both an affiliate payment and a smile payment on the same order. Seemed like an easy way to cut off affiliates while appearing to be generous. Maybe I'm just too cynical.

www.amazon.com sets cookies for (*).amazon.com, though. Session cookies (and affiliate info) could therefore still be accessed on smile.amazon.com. I think affiliate attribution is just discarded regardless of cookie presence.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#242

Post by atdrummond »

grantc wrote: post #187
boomboomsubban wrote: post #127

Canceling the program bothers me a little, but replacing it with "donating" to four in house charities, only two of which are properly labeled as such, that clearly help Amazon makes it so much worse. The first is about building houses in areas near Amazon offices. The second is training future Amazon employees. The third is delivering food that I'm sure won't use existing Amazon delivery solutions at all. And the fo…

The 20,000 families benefitting from housing in the Seattle metro area as a result of Amazon's investments in the community might define charitable vs. non-charitable differently than you. I've personally met the women and children benefitting from the $100M Amazon and its employees have donated to Mary's Place -- their lens is not yours. Your comments about AFE are a bit underdeveloped. File under no good deed goes…

20,000 houses hardly makes up for the 12m square feet that Amazon inhabits in the Seattle Metro area, very little of which is built in such a way to contribute to a livable or affordable city. Their impact on the real estate situation is nowhere near positive even with this whitewashing.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#243

Post by indrora »

jyap wrote: post #118
indrora wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon (via Smile) and Microsoft (via employee donations) are probably the two biggest funding sources for the FSF.

Their patrons page says otherwise: https://www.fsf.org/patrons “Patron pages for past fiscal years” section

These are ones that they want to name.

It would be politically inconvenient for the FSF to accept that they get donations in kind from Amazon or Microsoft, given the FSF's regular attacks on the two companies.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#244

Post by rjh29 »

shusaku wrote: post #28
TMWNN wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One million eligible recipients around the world, according to Amazon, so $400 per recipient over the decade the program has existed.

Checking my account right now: I generated $2.86, and my charity received $399.79. Yay for being average I guess! I’m surprised they couldn’t squeeze more out of this program though. With credit cards, I think the points system definitely works to make you feel better about your purchase.

IMO they tried to strike a balance, the existence of Smile helps drive traffic to Amazon and improve their PR, but they make it harder than it should be (you have to use a speciic link, you have to enable push notifications on mobile etc.) so they don't end up having to pay too much. Logically they could have made Smile an option you set once and it's applied forever, but they didn't.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#246

Post by FroshKiller »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #88
FroshKiller wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They seem pretty committed to pursuing profit forever. I would simply make it a part of my mission and have the integrity to stick to it.

Every company, even the "good" ones, are committed to pursuing profit, at least to some extent. That's the _entire_ point of a company.

Have you ever heard of nonprofits?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#247

Post by jzb »

HorizonXP wrote: post #132
jzb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But smaller organizations will be missed entirely. My charity is a cat shelter in St. Louis. I’d rather they get my cut than a larger charity that means less to me and has bigger fundraising machinery.

Name? I'll get some folks to donate.

Animal House Cat Rescue: https://www.stlcats.org/

They do great work.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#248

Post by pnt12 »

amscanne wrote: post #215
lazyasciiart wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that e.g. homelessness in America has not been solved because the organizations working on it are not trying to solve it?

I’m sure that the frontline workers for those organizations are earnest and genuine in their effort to help, but it’s also undoubtedly true that there’s a lot of money to be made (and it’s not really in the interest of those making the money to see the problem solved). If you search the term “homeless industrial complex”, you’ll see lots of hot takes on this. I’m not really endorsing any specific perspective, but I s…

"there's money to be made" is one of the weakest arguments there is. Capitalism makes it all about money! There's little doing without it.

This opinion can lead to some really ignorant statements (which I've heard before) :

- Full time jobs at charities? Money laundering for sure, they should reject their salary and starve. - Investing in clean energy? A conspiracy, some people make money there. - Recycling? People are paid to do it, it's a sham. - Politician not forfeiting his salary? Corruption, they shouldn't make a living (or just take brides under the table).

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#249

Post by adave »

grantc wrote: post #187
boomboomsubban wrote: post #127

Canceling the program bothers me a little, but replacing it with "donating" to four in house charities, only two of which are properly labeled as such, that clearly help Amazon makes it so much worse. The first is about building houses in areas near Amazon offices. The second is training future Amazon employees. The third is delivering food that I'm sure won't use existing Amazon delivery solutions at all. And the fo…

The 20,000 families benefitting from housing in the Seattle metro area as a result of Amazon's investments in the community might define charitable vs. non-charitable differently than you. I've personally met the women and children benefitting from the $100M Amazon and its employees have donated to Mary's Place -- their lens is not yours. Your comments about AFE are a bit underdeveloped. File under no good deed goes…

Its good but probably not the most effective or most wanted by customers which is what that point was with these donations.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#250

Post by danaris »

quanticle wrote: post #15

I'm sad, but unsurprised to see Amazon Smile go. Retail isn't exactly high margin to begin with, and Amazon has made a specialty of squeezing what margin remained. As Jeff Bezos said, "Your margin is my opportunity." So, when Amazon announced Smile, I was very surprised that they weren't adding a surcharge for the donation, but rather where making the donation out of whatever margin they earned on the product. I gues…

Some retail isn't high margin, that's absolutely true.

Some retail has a 75%+ markup as standard at the store. That's why they're able to regularly offer sales where they take 25%, 50%, even 75% off: it's not just to clear out unsold inventory; many retailers that do this are still making a profit at those prices.

Amazon, being a "sell everything and more" retailer, certainly doesn't get to enjoy those high profit margins for all their products, but they also definitely do not have to deal with the razor-thin margins of other sectors across the board. They get to average it out nicely somewhere in the middle.

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