The massive online retailer Amazon just finished up its “Prime Day” sale, a mid summer event where they offer deals which would normally be reserved for people with a “prime” subscription. At least, that’s the idea, there are claims all around the internet each year that the prices shoot up and then sales are taken off of those “inflated” prices and blah blah I’m not going to get into it here.
What I am going to get into is the great many people on social media speaking up about boycotting Amazing for their working conditions, the fact that they “didn’t pay taxes last year” and other reasons. This trend seeming to come after the past year or so when reports came of the above poor work conditions and other shall we say less than desirable practices of the company.
I’m not going to get into details on those subjects here, either. That’s not where I want to focus either. What I do want to focus on is the incredible irony that it would seem the same kind of people who are so vocal about what Amazon has become are the ones who for the past 10 years could do nothing but talk about everything they bought from the site and how amazing the Prime service is!
I’m serious about this. For what feels like the past decade or so I almost constantly had friends, either online or locally, who invariably brought up Amazon purchases quite regularly. Whenever they got something new to show off and someone asked where they got it from, it was Amazon. Then came the “oh get Prime it’s amazing you will save so much money” posts — these people not realizing that not everyone buys things constantly from Amazon. Hell, I’ve only personally purchased I think 3 things ever using the service!
I’m sure if you’re reading this you’ve seen this too, or maybe been a part of it yourself. It was an annoying trend but otherwise harmless — people get excited about saving money so it makes sense.
Think about it for a moment, though. Look at how many people have taken advantage of the service and the general savings it provides. This kind of demand means more infrastructure, so more warehouses and processing facilities get built and more people get hired. As business continues to increase those people and locations naturally get worked more and more and at a certain point things are quite liable to go downhill. As the title suggests, Amazon is, in effect, the beast you made it.
Don’t read me wrong — I’m not justifying in any way the way Amazon may or may not treat its workers. As I said, that’s not my point here. What I am getting at, if you haven’t already realized it, is that by using the service as heavily as you had you created the situation which allowed any possible poor worker treatment to happen.
So, to me, for so many people to now suddenly be against this particular company as opposed to so many others, when they themselves are partially responsible for its success is just absurd! It’s not like Amazon is alone in this — far from it, over stressed workers are beyond common. Companies barely paying taxes as well is incredibly common — loopholes are everywhere and they know how to exploit them. The focus on Amazon though is something else. It’s as if people are surprised that such a heavily used service would be like this… or maybe it’s guilt, for feeling a part of it? I don’t know.
I just wanted to get that out there, and felt now was as good a time as any to point out this little bit of irony.