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THE PROBLEM WITH AMAZON [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-11

At present, I don’t have a car. I do have a cat. I had a beastly cold, that left me feeling as though I’d been run over by a Mack Truck, and I was out of cat food.

Under normal, un viral, circumstances, I would walk to the local supermarket. But that wasn’t happening, the way I felt.

I checked Amazon.

They have the brand of cat food I buy, for less than what I’d pay at the local supermarket, and they’d deliver it for free in 24 hours.

I ordered cat food.

This year, my local supermarket chain stopped carrying the brand of soap I use.

I have fairly sensitive skin. I have to be a bit careful about the kind of soap I buy. I found another brand that wouldn’t make me itch. But it was heavily scented, and it didn’t last as long.

I went on Amazon.

I won’t be buying soap from them again, for quite a long time. They let me have about two years supply of my usual brand, at a very reasonable price.

I don’t like dealing with Amazon. I don’t like the way they do business.

HOWEVER, the only thing, so far, I haven’t been able to find on Amazon, was a lemon meringue pie.

I love to browse bookstores. Bookstores, alas, no longer stock Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January mysteries. Amazon does. So, that’s where I will go, next year, when the new one comes out.

(The series begins with “A Free Man Of Color”. They will keep you turning pages until the end.)

On Sunday, friends and I recommended Josephine Tey’s excellent mystery, “Daughter of Time” to a woman we were having breakfast with. As we were telling her how good it is, she got out her phone, went to Amazon and got it on Kindle for 99 cents.

That is the curse of Amazon.com, convenience, especially if, like me, you live in a suburb that is barely walkable, and not blessed with much in the way of public transportation.

I am not alone in this. It is a remarkable day when the Amazon truck doesn’t stop at the house across the street from mine.

It’s a regular visitor to my neighborhood. A lot of folks around here find it easier to go online, than drive out to wherever to find what they want.

Especially, when Amazon seems to carry just about everything, except lemon meringue pies.

If you’re looking for that book you loved when you were ten, or a pirate hat, or a Saint Christopher medal, or a dog bed, or a pair of boots, look on Amazon, chances are they’ll have what you want.

I hate the way they treat their employees.

I was not thrilled, when they kind of tricked me into signing up for Prime.

But I’m going to need yarn for a knitting project. The store that sells the kind I need might as well be on the moon, if I don’t have a car. Amazon will, probably, let me have it for less, and ship faster than other sources.

In March of 2020, thinking I was going to be stuck in the house for at least two weeks, I drove off in search of a bookstore, for a good read and a craft store for some knitting yarn.

I couldn’t find either near me.

So, I went home and went online, and went on Amazon, where I found what I wanted.

If Amazon workers were to organize, and did go out on strike, I would support them. I think most of us, who use the site would. Amazon has made our lives a lot easier. We would not want to be without it for long. We would like the people who keep us supplied with soap, cat food, craft supplies, good reads, music, movies, boots and just about everything else, except lemon meringue pies, to have decent working conditions, and earn a living wage.

That’s the problem with Amazon. It’s the Godzilla of businesses, but it is so damn useful.

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