Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
I’ve had my complaints about Amazon; and I recognize the social and economic threat posed by a single vendor running everybody else out of business; but consider:
I’ve been reading SciFi/Fantasy books my whole life. I just ran across a recommendation for The Chronicles of Prydain, which I’d never heard of. Placed my order for the five-book boxed set ($33) and it’ll be here tomorrow. Wait, what? I stumble across some random collection of young adult books and they’ve got it sitting in the warehouse in Shakopee? How big is that place?
On Friday, I tried out my new Beofung UV-5R handheld ham radio ($25 and yes, I hold a Technician license so it’s legal for me to talk on it). The ham I was chatting with said he could hardly hear me over the background noise. Might be a bad unit, Chinese junk, it happens. I went to Amazon to order a second unit – keep the one that works, return the other. Okay, it’ll be there in five hours. Wait, what? I realize it’s the most popular ham radio in the world so of course they have it in the warehouse, but if I order in the next 20 minutes it’ll be delivered to my doorstep tonight? For free? How many delivery drivers does Amazon have?
I saved a trip to Barnes and Noble (which probably would have been wasted because their SF/F section is only five shelves out of the entire store), and saved a trip to the Ham Radio Outlet in Milwaukee (last Twin Cities store closed two years ago), paid the same prices as I’d have paid brick-and-mortar stores and got free delivery to my doorstep faster than I could have driven to the store and back.
Retail has changed over time. The pioneers bought whatever limited selection of goods was stocked in the local General Store because they had no choice. Later, they ordered from the Sears catalogue for greater selection and department stores drove the mom-and-pop stores out of business. Now Amazon’s wider selection and faster delivery has driven Sears out of business. There’s a reason Amazon is taking over the retail world. And you know what? I’m surprisingly okay with it. What I want to know is . . . what’s next?
Joe Doakes
Artisanal bartering?
JD.
In answer to your question as to how big the Amazon “Fulfillment Center” is, the thing is huge. In Shakopee, it’s a toss up between them and My Pillow, as to has the biggest facility. If we look at Amazon as a whole though, their facilities occupy some pretty big chunks of land.
19 & 20th century textile mill and coal mine workers knew Amazon as “the company store”
I’ll wait a few days and pay the $5 shipping for that thing I don’t need, tyvm.
Enjoy your radio.
Related:
Since I swore off flying, I’ve put thousands of miles on rental cars. While driving, I usually listen to an Audiobook through Piped.
I recently had decided to buy a subscription to Audible, to get rid of the wretched commercial interruptions. But wait! I need an Amazon account?
Fuck that.
What I want to know is . . . what’s next?
You’re not very perceptive, are ya JD?
You, and millions of others have sacrificed your freedom to choose in exchange for convenience and the saving of a few shekels.
Next, you’ll trade your vehicle for the comfort and savings of public transport. Let someone else worry about oil changes and tire rotation!
The huge, old drafty house is a bother. Always something to fix, and the cost to heat it!
No, you need an efficient, modern Unit. No more annoying maintenance; no lawn to mow.
No worries about remembering to turn the thermostat down when you head to the cubicle…there is no thermostat. Your heating needs are pre-set from the control center.
Your future is one of comfort and ease, JD.
BN, convenience has nothing to do with freedom. I am sure you will be quite happy to start riding horses instead of renting cars made by Big Auto and rented via Big Rent. Because invention of fire leads to you losing your freedom to live in a damp cave and eat raw meat you had to fight a squirrel for, using a stone cudgel.
Haha! Right on, Blade.
My wife winters in Florida (Minnesota winters are hard on her arthritis). I plan to join her in a couple of years, when I qualify for Medicare. We have a unit in a senior citizens’ complex; they do the maintenance and grounds work; there’s a short bus for trips downtown to Wal-Mart. It’s everything you predicted. How did you know??
What’s next? A futurist I was talking to a couple years ago said the next thing is that the Amazon algorithms get so good that things you need show up at your door, unbidden. You’ll say, “F* you, Bezos” and send it back…and the next day say, “Crap, I did need that.” Soon enough, you’ll quit arguing.
Convenience is a powerful lure, offered like a lotus on a velvet glove…and I admit to being tempted. The family estate is a bit of a bother to maintain, especially the yard and driveway year-round. I look forward to the condo. In the meantime, I encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the youth in my neighborhood to mow and shovel.
there’s a short bus for trips downtown to Wal-Mart
Isn’t Wal-Mart an evil empire that killed mom-and-pop shops? How dare you convenience yourself with a trip on public transportation to a cesspool at the bottom of the slippery slope! Are you not a free man destined to live in a cave, damn the conveniences that strip your freedoms?
I don’t want to dump on Blade. He’s got a legitimate point but it’s not the point I wanted to make.
Yes, Amazon has problems. So did every other form of commerce, which is why they died out when something better (not perfect, just better) came along. I was trying to stimulate thought about the societal implications of changes in retail (and whether retail changes society or society changes retail):
self-sufficiency (grow/make everything yourself)
barter (trade items)
souk/bazaar/farmer’s market (buy/sell items; prerequisite is invention of money)
single-item shop (butcher, baker, silver smith, regulated by unions/guilds)
general store (Oleson’s Merchantile or Sam Drucker’s General Store)
department store (Daytons, anchor tenant for indoor shopping mall)
Amazon
What’s next?
Robots make and deliver everything (I can’t find it now, but I recall a story in which capitalist economy depended on people buying things (and you were punished as a Bad Citizen if you didn’t buy enough) but you couldn’t buy a replacement item unless your existing item was sufficiently worn (Wasters were also punished, can’t just buy and throw away, must be worn out). Hero of the story is run ragged trying to keep up until he gets the idea to put his household robot to work. Robot wears his clothes, uses his golf clubs in the basement, wears things out so Hero can be justified in buying new which raises his social standing as a Good Citizen, gets a raise, promotion, gets the girl, etc.)
Star Trek – replicators make everything before your eyes.
When those changes occur, fewer jobs, more people sitting around on the government dole, idle hands, devil’s work, bored, bitchy, microaggressions, fed up . . . what happens to society?
Why is it the only time future is imagined the only descriptor that has to be applied is “dystopian”. There is no such thing as a happy future.
jpa, I concede my description of a work-free future could be called dystopian.
Americajust conducted a two-year-long social studies experiment in which a substantial portion of society was paid to stay home instead of working. How would you characterize the results? Would society be a better place if everybody was paid not to work, but to do whatever they liked? Would there be an outpouring of art, literature, inventiveness, creativity, and exploration?
I dunno, that’s what Future History Sci/Fi is all about. I welcome your ideas.
I think that whatever comes next, Joe Doakes, will come about as the oligarchs determine that consumer choice is a barrier to economic efficiency.
I think that whatever comes next, Joe Doakes, will come about as the oligarchs determine that consumer choice is a barrier to economic efficiency.
Just wait until you see their 5-Year Plan for a Command Economy!
We stand at the edge of the precipice, witnessing a fast-approaching end to the civilization as we knew it. We will shortly be pounded into a stone age, just as environazi and Malthusians want. Future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades. And oligarchs won’t realize that they will become part of the dust, maybe a little later than most, but dust nevertheless. And whoever raids them will take an extra pleasure of dancing on their faces.
In the movie adaptation of Carl Sagan’s “Contact”, Jodie Foster’s character is given the golden ticket through the intercession of an obscure oligarch who lives in an orbiting palace.
The oligarch doesn’t do anything useful…he just floats peacefully, high above the hoi poli, like a lotus blossom above a cesspool.
That is Bezos. He built a
flying dildorocket, not to make any scientific contributions to further humanity, but just so he and a few of his pals could get a thrill, and he could wear a cowboy hat.My boycott has zero effect on Bezos’ far flung businesses, but I can say not fucking buck of my money went into his thrill ride.
That’s reward enough, right there.
In the first 200 years of American existence, people lived to work. A man spent 3/4 of his life outside, growing food and caring for livestock.
Then they worked to live. Men and women spent 1/2 their lives outside, earning money to buy food and stuff.
Now, life has free next day delivery. No one need get up off your fat asses at all, so we spend 80% of our time inside, alone…with our pile of stuff.
What could go wrong?