Amazon has been vilified on social media lately, which is surprising since President Trump is also not a fan either. This mix would have trouble agreeing on the color of an orange, let alone agreeing on a common villain.
According to a Business Insider article:
Warehouse workers have protested long hours and the working conditions. Employees told Business Insider earlier this year that they were constantly under surveillance while working in Amazon warehouses with intense targets. Stories include dealing with an “awful smell” coming from warehouse trash cans, which workers used as toilets because workers were afraid of missing targets if they took the time to go to a bathroom.
“The metrics are brutally aggressive, and most of my colleagues are in a state of constant anxiety that we could be fired at any moment for not meeting metrics,” one current US employee said.
The employee added: “Amazon needs union representation globally. It is modern slavery. Jeff Bezos has become the richest man in the world off the backs of people so desperate for work that we tolerate the abuse.”
I was also surprised to read that Amazon fires customers for too many returns, or just being what they deem a problem customer. You may not even know you are a problem customer until you are fired for life.
I personally have been one to support Amazon in the past, but I have noticed since they decimated so much viable competition their prices have been creeping up quickly and staying high. Items and supplies that I bought a year ago or less have doubled in price.
Because of this I have started incorporating Walmart back into the price comparison search along with Office Depot and Amazon. Walmart has been winning a few orders by being the lower cost supplier.
There is currently a book I want to read, but Amazon has no discount on the new hardcover. Target is advertising a lower price online, so I may have to stop in to pick it up. Their shipping cost is $10 so shipping is not a cost savings option; Walmart is free if you get the order high enough.
I helped create this problem and now I have to work to fix it. Amazon does not always have my best interests as a priority, I recognize that, but I like discounted books, going back even to Crown Books. I had a college professor help me get a couple at a discount as well.