**** vs. Amazon

[jyl]

Amazon employs 1.5 million Americans, how many does **** employ?

[Rusty Heap]

Sister had SAME day delivery on an Amazon purchase. I've had 18 hour delivery before.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Amazon is great for some things. I eat about 3 lbs of shelled pistachios a month. Cheap, CA grown, shelled and here next day. Amazing snack at 3-4 if you have a light lunch. Great weight loss plan.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by jyl

Amazon employs 1.5 million Americans, how many does **** employ?

Good for them. American sweatshops vs Chinese ones.

Amazon docks leave if one is in the bathroom too long/standing around.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

Good for them. American sweatshops vs Chinese ones.

Amazon docks leave if one is in the bathroom too long/standing around.

Roughly 30% of Amazon's headcount is office types (technical, finance, marketing, admin, etc) and 70% is logistics (warehouse, transport, delivery, etc).

The warehouse jobs only pay about $16-17/hr and the work is perhaps not what you and I would like to do, but they are jobs, for Americans, and lots of them.

[Noah930]

I treat a lot of Amazon warehouse employees. Few of them seem to be interested in returning back to work. Noticeably worse than compared to most other employers. My biased take on it is that it must be a pretty crappy job.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by jyl

Roughly 30% of Amazon's headcount is office types (technical, finance, marketing, admin, etc) and 70% is logistics (warehouse, transport, delivery, etc).

The warehouse jobs only pay about $16-17/hr and the work is perhaps not what you and I would like to do, but they are jobs, for Americans, and lots of them.

So, working at Mickey D's in CA pays more. You gotta wonder about that.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Zeke

So, working at Mickey D's in CA pays more. You gotta wonder about that.

I think fast food minimum wage is the result of many years of organized lobbying and strikes and whatnot to achieve their goal.

Isn't Amazon also unionized? Or just certain distribution centers maybe? If the latter, you can be sure to see a greater effort of Amazon employees and unions to raise their minimum wage. Walmart can't be far behind. There's been a trope for over a decade, true or not I don't know, that many/most Walmart store employees have to rely on government assistance to make ends meet.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I think fast food minimum wage is the result of many years of organized lobbying and strikes and whatnot to achieve their goal.

Isn't Amazon also unionized? Or just certain distribution centers maybe? If the latter, you can be sure to see a greater effort of Amazon employees and unions to raise their minimum wage. Walmart can't be far behind. There's been a trope for over a decade, true or not I don't know, that many/most Walmart store employees have to rely on government assistance to make ends meet.

Amazon wages vary by state, and the $16-17 is the starting - Amazon claims average wage of warehouse and fulfillment employees is $20.50 although that’s their claim, so apply salt. It is very aggressive in opposing unionization, as are all the big companies - Starbucks, Walmart, etc. So not a dream job, to state the obvious, but it’s a job that someone without skills can get and do.

[Dixie]

I had a friend that worked summers at an Amazon fulfillment center. Her job the rest of the year was teaching elementary school. She said Amazon was a very fast paced and demanding job. A lot of people would quit before completing a week.

So why'd she work there? Because it paid way better than teaching. Plus, it gave her something to do over the summer

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I do my best to not buy anything made in China. For some things, impossible, like an iPhone though Apple is slowly moving production to India and other more politically favorable countries, so that's good. Other things when I have an option, I'm happy to pay a little more to buy something not made in China.

**** is a Chinese owned company so I wouldn't use it based on that alone.

This

I avoid trade with Amazon also. I would rather pay more and buy from a brick and mortar store, because I am old and like the idea of having a store where I can go buy things

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I think fast food minimum wage is the result of many years of organized lobbying and strikes and whatnot to achieve their goal.

You are mistaken

[911boost]

Amazon beats the hell out of their vendors in some areas and it is starting to bite them in the rear end. They are trying to change and I have seen some positive progress. The wages also vary greatly by shift, time of the year etc. Distribution center work is hard physical work no matter who it is with.

Like has been mentioned, they are good for some things and I do like the Prime free shipping.

I get raw peanuts to boil from them, and its way easier than trying to find them local for example.

Will not use ****, its hard enough avoiding the chinesium in everyday life.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Saw this today from WSJ. Can watch the whole thing but my concerns start at 6:10

[JoeFleming86]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Saw this today from WSJ. Can watch the whole thing but my concerns start at 6:10

Shopping online has gotten more interesting with platforms like **** popping up as alternatives to Amazon. Some people swear by the deals, while others question the quality and shipping times. It’s always good to check real customer experiences before making a decision. A pissedconsumer survey can give you insights into what other buyers have gone through, helping you avoid surprises. Have you tried **** or Amazon for specific purchases? Which one gave you a better deal, and did the quality match your expectations?

[wdfifteen]

**** ****. I'm sticking with Sears.

[911 Rod]

Why does the said retailer show as **** on this thread?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

There are warnings not to buy solar eclipse glasses on **** and Amazon.

Yeah, Amazon has lots of imported junk. Last year, we bought eclipse glasses from Amazon, but I waded through 100 different vendors that looked Chinese in origin and purchased a well known brand (still probably made in China, but made to higher standards).

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

LOL!

Originally Posted by WSH

No fan of Bezos, but I'll support an American company over a CCP loss-leader trying to steal market share by dumping chinese crap on us. F the CCP

yes. And I try to avoid the cheap ,imported, knock-off products as much as possible.

Originally Posted by Dixie

I had a friend that worked summers at an Amazon fulfillment center. Her job the rest of the year was teaching elementary school. She said Amazon was a very fast paced and demanding job. A lot of people would quit before completing a week.

So why'd she work there? Because it paid way better than teaching. Plus, it gave her something to do over the summer

Presumably, she wasn't super young? So we had a more mature (not late teens early 20s) person working in the warehouse repeatedly. It must not have been too gruelling, and the pay must have been decent.

There's a lot of stuff that I can't get local (in my little rural local area). Driving into Houston or Austin (60 miles to the edge of either city, 75-85 to the city centers) to buy from a brick and mortar means a bare minimum of 2.5hours, but probably more like 3+ hours of just driving.

I/we do a lot of shopping with Amazon (and do some other online shopping besides Amazon). It's hard to beat the service, selection, and shipping.

IMO, Amazon shoppers should pay attention to 3 things when buying from Amazon.
1 the Vendor that's actually selling what you're buying. Is the vendor Amazon, or the manufacturer or some other third party. If you want to avoid counterfeit products and cheap imported junk you should stick with stuff sold by Amazon and/or the manufacturer/vendor of the item (and if going with the manufacturer/vendor, you probably want to avoid names that are "odd" which are likely Chinese sellers).

If you want to avoid slow shipping and potential customer service issues and possibly bad products, then stick with stuff that's "shipped by Amazon" or "fulfilled by Amazon". I'm not saying that you can't have perfectly good products shipped quickly with good service that come from somewhere besides the Amazon warehouses. I just think you have to perform additional due diligence for those vendors. If it's shipped from the Amazon warehouse then returns are easy/painless. If it's sold and shipped by a third party, then you could either be hitting a small vendor (great!) or a vendor that is trying to make more money by listing through Amazon (hit or miss) or a fly by night vendor that may be selling junk, or may be hard to work with if there's an issue after purchase. It's up to you to protect yourself in those cases.

It's still possible to get burned by Amazon or to get great products and services sold and shipped from small third party sellers, but I think that following those suggestions help avoid those issues.

[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by Baz

While grocery shopping at Winn Dixie this afternoon I noticed another guy's shoes I thought were cool and asked where he got them.

That guy needs to do a better job shaving his legs.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

Why does the said retailer show as **** on this thread?

It doesn't compete with PP for the most part. Shop supplies and tools maybe. idk
Other company names are also filtered.
Pelican has a business to run.

Maybe the filter software company gets a kickback from Amazon.
Maybe AWS carries the network traffic and does it themselves.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

Why does the said retailer show as **** on this thread?

There was a time many years ago when Amazon was also ****** on PP.

I've never been on the other one, but I'm guessing that it's blocked due to there being a bunch of counterfeit/knock-off items that directly compete against PP.

As previously stated, Pelican Parts is primarily a parts sales business, not a social media company. I'm sure the boards are still around because they support the parts sales.