Is it bad to shop on Amazon? – Quartz

Amazon Prime Day is On

Sales are from 3pm ET today (July 16th) at 3pm ET on July 18th. 36 Hours for Amazon Buyers to Buy Echo Looks, Puma Shoes, Sony Noise Canceling Headphones and Twerk Jibo Robots

At the same time, thousands of Amazonian workers in Europe have threatened to disrupt the festivities. buying with demonstrations to demand better working conditions. Warehouse workers in Spain have come out today to protest an increase in working hours and the elimination of bonuses, CNBC reported. "Amazon is a fair and responsible employer," said a spokeswoman for the Amazon in an email statement about the protests, adding that the company is committed to " positive work ".

The contrast between enthusiastic consumers and disgruntled workers is not new to Amazon, but Prime Day has highlighted it. While the remaining hours check, it's the right time to ask: Are you a bad person if you shop on Amazon?

The Amazon Shopping Case

Amazon is the pinnacle of consumer convenience. $ 119 per year, Privileged Members have access to free two-day shipping on over 100 million items (plus free same-day shipping in certain postcodes), streaming music and videos. videos, free outings from the Kindle Library, A first – rate wardrobe, exclusive discounts on the Amazon – owned Whole Foods Market and unlimited storage of photos with Prime photos among other benefits.

Toilet paper, headphones, air conditioners, Jenga-Amazon will bring all these things to your door two days or less, if you subscribe to Prime. As Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, wrote in his letter to shareholders in 2016: "We want Prime to be so good value, you would be irresponsible not to be a member."

Amazon has invested considerable resources in Prime, and it's easy to see why. In the United States, it is estimated that 53% of households, or 60 million people, subscribe to Prime. According to Cowen investment company research, these first two members account for about two-thirds of Amazon's total buyers, and make about 3.5 purchases a month, compared with two purchases a month for buyers not privileged.

Even for customers without Prime, the case of Amazon is compelling. The volume of Amazon makes it a proverbial store, with many of these items being sold cheaper online than at a brick or mortar store or at another ecommerce site. In a survey conducted by Quartz with 2,752 readers in 63 countries in November and December 2017, 41% of respondents said they had checked prices on Amazon "all the time" before making a purchase on another site and 31% "

Everyone loves a discount Who can blame consumers for taking Amazon seriously?

The case against shopping on Amazon

It takes a lot of work for that Amazon machine runs efficiently, and the company has been repeatedly accused of mistreating In April, an undercover reporter in the Amazon said that workers who were making deliveries from a warehouse in the UK were boring in bottles rather than in the restroom, because they feared taking breaks in the restroom.In June, a group of employees from an Amazon warehouse in Minnesota claimed to have been victim of dehydration n, of exhaustion and injury at Amazon without air conditioning. Other Amazonian workers in Europe and the United States told Business Insider that they were being treated like robots and that they could be penalized for talking to colleagues, drank the water or took too long to find a package.

struggling to get out of it. Amazon's median salary in 2017 was $ 28,446, according to the company's annual proxy statement – a little less than the 2017 federal poverty line for a family of five. According to data from Policy Matters Ohio, a research institute favorable to Ohio workers, one in 10 Amazonian worker was receiving food vouchers in August 2017. One out of every 10 Amazonian workers would also be on food coupons. in Pennsylvania, and one in three in Arizona. Another company whose workers have long depended on food stamps to supplement meager wages? Walmart

Meanwhile, Bezos has just become the richest man in modern history, with a fortune that reaches 150 billion dollars. Bernie Sanders, for one, would like answers

Will Jeff Bezos have the courage to face the Amazon workers tonight at 7 pm ET and explain why he is worth $ 151 billion dollars but will not pay them a living wage?

– Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 16, 2018

Amazon has rejected these characterizations. In response to allegations from the UK warehouse and complaints collected by Business Insider, Amazon has stated that it "provides a safe and positive workplace" and that it does not "recognize these allegations as an accurate representation of the activities in our buildings ". Amazon said its employees were receiving "regular pay raises," Amazon shares, performance-based bonuses, and "comprehensive benefits that include health, vision, then there's business culture." from Amazon, described by The New York Times in 2015 as a "deadly workplace". The Times reported that Amazon pitted workers against each other and eliminated underperformers each year. human resources director qualified as "intentional Darwinism". Amazonians were encouraged to "disagree and commit"; The value code of the company helped to inspire the first "philosophy of work" of Uber. Amazon has called the Times "sensational" and tried to discredit some of the main sources of history

Workers are not the only ones to lodge a complaint against Amazon. Third-party merchants, who once formed the backbone of Amazon's ecommerce platform, began to suspect that Amazon is using them to determine what sells best, and then make the product itself. -even. In the past two years, Amazon has marketed at least 1,500 products through its home-brand name, AmazonBasics, in December 2017.

Other brands sued Amazon for failing to prevent counterfeiting from appearing on his list. website. Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and the iconic German shoe manufacturer Birkenstock, which released in 2016 all of their Amazon products, are among the best-known plaintiffs. In addition to all this is the ever-present concern that Amazon may be a monopoly that uses low prices as an anti-competitive weapon.

Oh, and all that transport and cardboard is not good for the environment.

what is the verdict?

If you are a socially conscious consumer, the answer is probably that you should not shop on Amazon. The company's eventful history about work and vaguely monopolistic trends should make you consider Walmart: cheap, but at a price. On the other hand, Amazon has made it so valuable that the typical Amazon consumer – and especially the typical first subscriber – seems reluctant to give up the habit because some workers are unhappy and that small businesses were forced to fight

. all of us on a convenience conveyor belt.