Amazon: The Company We All Love to Hate

The newly-built (summer 2019) Amazon fulfillment warehouse about 3 miles down the road from my house opens January 2020. Already, supervisors are being trained on what is no doubt the most modern facility built in preparation for hiring and training 2,000 or more new employees. According to one person to whom I spoke, the new hires will start at $17/hour and will have very generous monthly cash performance benefits. That will most likely make a lot of people apply.

Since I already have next-day delivery - during non-Christmas rush periods; I am lucky if I can get 2-day delivery during Christmas shopping season - opening that huge new warehouse will probably give me same-day delivery.

But there is this from a New York Times article on how Amazon "treats" its suppliers, regardless of size...badly. So:

Many sellers and brands on Amazon are desperate to depend less on the tech giant. But when they look for sales elsewhere online, they come up short. Last year, Americans bought more books, T-shirts and other products on Amazon than eBay, Walmart and its next seven largest online competitors combined, according to eMarketer, a research company...

 

Amazon collects 27 cents of each dollar customers spend buying things its merchants sell, a 42 percent jump from five years ago, according to Instinet, a financial research firm. That does not include what companies pay to place ads on Amazon, a business that Wall Street considers as valuable as Nike.

 

“We really built the company on Amazon,” Mr. Thompson said. “We have no regrets about doing that. But today our focus has to be getting diversification off Amazon.”

He said he understood what he was up against. “We are dealing with a partner,” he said, “who can and will disrupt us for unpredictable reasons at any time.”

 

Yes, Amazon is the behemoth we truly love to hate. We all know how bad it is and we all continue shopping there. It is easy. Click, evaluate, buy...and a couple of days later, the item appears on your doorstep. No car, no crowds. Heck, you don't even have to get dressed.

And like the worst addiction you can imagine, getting "off" Amazon is very, very difficult. I know. I am one of them.

All Things King

I spend a lot of time reading while on my extended breaks from driving, such as I am now. Many drivers watch TV, but not me; I read and listen to music. I am currently rereading a masterpiece, Stephen King's, The Shining, that I first read long ago, before the movie came out - I have never seen the movie, nor will I.

Knowing the effect his words have on me and what they do to my reading - speeds it WAY up - I have changed the way I read his work. Instead of getting engrossed in the Torrance's world at the Overlook Hotel for hours on end, as I used to, I have begun to meter how much I read. I might read one chapter or only part of one chapter. And I force myself to read much slower, an unnatural but necessary change when entering his twisted world. I can spend 15-30 minutes reading then put the book down while the words settle into my mind. This way, I also hope to get a sense of how a terrific writer puts his thoughts together so well.

I also have to admit to a secondary reason for rereading The Shining: I want to read Doctor Sleep next. It's his 500-page thriller that answers the question that King asked himself one day that got him to writing it:

What has happened to Danny Torrance in the 25-plus years since his family wintered over at The Overlook Hotel that tragic year?

To understand it fully, I have to know the whole story. And I will.