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johnjohnW
Joined: 11 Aug 2020
Posts: 1846
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 Posted: 07/26/21 5:10 pm ::: |
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| Bob Lamm wrote: |
| norwester wrote: |
| It doesn’t matter if you boycott Amazon. They don’t make the majority of their money through their retail. Most of their profit is through providing web services (cloud, etc) and they do so for a substantial portion of the internet. |
Even if this is true--no specifics offered, not a single source cited, coming from a person not using a real name--it is a dubious argument. Suppose only 30 to 40% of Amazon's business comes from retail. An effective boycott could still be costly for the company. Even more important, in many mass boycotts the crucial point isn't necessarily to hurt the corporation financially--though that's surely one of the goals. It's to totally challenge their public image and make them look shameful.
I don't know how successful the cultural and sports boycott of apartheid South Africa was financially. But it surely brought much greater attention to that racist regime and contributed to the end of apartheid. |
You get really hung up on people not using their full government name on a message board.
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TigerVol
Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 2209
Location: ATL
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| Posted: 07/26/21 5:43 pm ::: |
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| Bob Lamm wrote: |
| norwester wrote: |
| It doesn’t matter if you boycott Amazon. They don’t make the majority of their money through their retail. Most of their profit is through providing web services (cloud, etc) and they do so for a substantial portion of the internet. |
Even if this is true--no specifics offered, not a single source cited, coming from a person not using a real name--it is a dubious argument. Suppose only 30 to 40% of Amazon's business comes from retail. An effective boycott could still be costly for the company. Even more important, in many mass boycotts the crucial point isn't necessarily to hurt the corporation financially--though that's surely one of the goals. It's to totally challenge their public image and make them look shameful.
I don't know how successful the cultural and sports boycott of apartheid South Africa was financially. But it surely brought much greater attention to that racist regime and contributed to the end of apartheid. |
Are you really trying to compare South African apartheid to Amazon?
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"Never put an age limit on your dreams" - Dara Torres 2008
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Queenie
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18031
Location: Queens
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| Posted: 07/26/21 7:42 pm ::: |
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| johnjohnW wrote: |
| Bob Lamm wrote: |
| norwester wrote: |
| It doesn’t matter if you boycott Amazon. They don’t make the majority of their money through their retail. Most of their profit is through providing web services (cloud, etc) and they do so for a substantial portion of the internet. |
Even if this is true--no specifics offered, not a single source cited, coming from a person not using a real name--it is a dubious argument. Suppose only 30 to 40% of Amazon's business comes from retail. An effective boycott could still be costly for the company. Even more important, in many mass boycotts the crucial point isn't necessarily to hurt the corporation financially--though that's surely one of the goals. It's to totally challenge their public image and make them look shameful.
I don't know how successful the cultural and sports boycott of apartheid South Africa was financially. But it surely brought much greater attention to that racist regime and contributed to the end of apartheid. |
You get really hung up on people not using their full government name on a message board. |
Seriously! My generation was taught never to give away that level of personal identifying information. Just because the pendulum is swinging so far the other way now doesn't mean some of us are inclined to change our ways.
(And yes, I know, I personally have linked my real-life identity to my internet identity through the whole Jeopardy! thing, so I'm not the best person to demonstrate the theory.)
By the way, to return to the topic: Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing giant led by the now-future Amazon CEO, closed out 2020 with more than $13.5 billion in annual operating profits, responsible for more than 63% of the entire company’s operating profits for the year, on annual AWS revenue of $45.3 billion, up nearly 30% year-over-year.
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FrozenLVFan
Joined: 08 Jul 2014
Posts: 3516
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| Posted: 07/26/21 10:38 pm ::: |
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| Bob Lamm wrote: |
| norwester wrote: |
| It doesn’t matter if you boycott Amazon. They don’t make the majority of their money through their retail. Most of their profit is through providing web services (cloud, etc) and they do so for a substantial portion of the internet. Also, as an aside, there is a not insignificant population of folks who are unable to physically shop/run errands on their own who rely on places that will deliver like Amazon. It’s not all for rich people. Not defending their business practices. Just pointing out why boycotts probably won’t affect them much. Probably more useful to write your reps and advocate for laws that help solve the problem. |
Even if this is true--no specifics offered, not a single source cited, coming from a person not using a real name--it is a dubious argument. Suppose only 30 to 40% of Amazon's business comes from retail. An effective boycott could still be costly for the company. Even more important, in many mass boycotts the crucial point isn't necessarily to hurt the corporation financially--though that's surely one of the goals. It's to totally challenge their public image and make them look shameful.
I don't know how successful the cultural and sports boycott of apartheid South Africa was financially. But it surely brought much greater attention to that racist regime and contributed to the end of apartheid. |
Amazon's ultimate goal may be to get themselves out of retail. 55% of the products they "sell" now are actually sold by third parties, aka their "Marketplace vendors." I could see Bezos just wanting to handle data management, logistics, and shipping, and getting out of hands-on sales, warehousing, and customer support.
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2021/04/29/what-percentage-of-products-on-amazon-are-sold-by-marketplace-sellers/
When Amazon came along, I thought it was great to be able to order books online and their customer service was pretty good. As they've grown, it's become positively painful to deal with them. No timely customer service. No more 2-day shipping or choice of shipping company. Fake reviews. Blah, blah. But I still use them because I can't spend 5 hrs driving somewhere whenever I need to buy socks or a new shower curtain, partly because E-tail has driven so many B&M stores out of business. Amazon has a damn good chokehold on the market from a lot of angles now.
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Bob Lamm
Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 5065
Location: New York City
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| Posted: 07/26/21 10:51 pm ::: |
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| johnjohnW wrote: |
| You get really hung up on people not using their full government name on a message board. |
I plead guilty, johnjohn. If someone is offering an opinion here, then it doesn't make the slightest difference whether they are using their real name or not. But if someone is offering alleged facts--with no specifics, with no source, and without using a real name--then I say that is completely untrustworthy.
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Bob Lamm
Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 5065
Location: New York City
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| Posted: 07/26/21 10:53 pm ::: |
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| TigerVol wrote: |
| Are you really trying to compare South African apartheid to Amazon? |
I was discussing past boycotts and a possible boycott of Amazon. Of course I wasn't saying that the horrors of Amazon are the same as the horrors of apartheid in South Africa. I believe it's reasonable to discuss any boycotts on which anyone has information. If you have examples of other important boycotts that you believe are relevant to this discussion, by all means post again and discuss them. The more such discussion, the better.
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Remember Roe v. Wade. Work for and support legal abortion all over the world and full reproductive rights for everyone.
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TigerVol
Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 2209
Location: ATL
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| Posted: 07/27/21 2:03 pm ::: |
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| Bob Lamm wrote: |
| TigerVol wrote: |
| Are you really trying to compare South African apartheid to Amazon? |
I was discussing past boycotts and a possible boycott of Amazon. Of course I wasn't saying that the horrors of Amazon are the same as the horrors of apartheid in South Africa. I believe it's reasonable to discuss any boycotts on which anyone has information. If you have examples of other important boycotts that you believe are relevant to this discussion, by all means post again and discuss them. The more such discussion, the better. |
I didn't bring up the successful boycotts - I have no info.
I don't think it is analogous to tout the shame and reputational success of the anti apartheid boycotts as an example that could apply to Amazon. Apples and giraffes.
I get people boycotting on principle regardless of impact.
I don't think it would have a bottom line impact if every wnba fan quit using Amazon. Not even a blip.
If there are other more relevant reputational/shame boycotts successful on this scale I'm glad to hear about them.
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"Never put an age limit on your dreams" - Dara Torres 2008
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Bob Lamm
Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 5065
Location: New York City
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| Posted: 07/27/21 3:31 pm ::: |
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| TigerVol wrote: |
I didn't bring up the successful boycotts - I have no info.
I don't think it is analogous to tout the shame and reputational success of the anti apartheid boycotts as an example that could apply to Amazon. Apples and giraffes.
I get people boycotting on principle regardless of impact.
I don't think it would have a bottom line impact if every wnba fan quit using Amazon. Not even a blip.
If there are other more relevant reputational/shame boycotts successful on this scale I'm glad to hear about them. |
I appreciate what you've posted. Including "I get people boycotting on principle regardless of impact." This thread was begun by readyAIMfire53 who said he/she/they are having nothing to do with Amazon and made a strong statement as to why. I'm not boycotting, but I respect readyAIMfire53 and anyone boycotting for similar reasons.
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Remember Roe v. Wade. Work for and support legal abortion all over the world and full reproductive rights for everyone.
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justintyme
Joined: 08 Jul 2012
Posts: 8407
Location: Northfield, MN
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| Posted: 07/27/21 5:53 pm ::: |
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One of the episodes of Hasan Minhaj's "Patriot Act" on Netflix did a really good job of explaining Amazon's whole racket and how everything centers around AWS.
Highly recommend watching it.
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 66920
Location: Where the action is
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| Posted: 07/27/21 9:44 pm ::: |
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| Bob Lamm wrote: |
| TigerVol wrote: |
I didn't bring up the successful boycotts - I have no info.
I don't think it is analogous to tout the shame and reputational success of the anti apartheid boycotts as an example that could apply to Amazon. Apples and giraffes.
I get people boycotting on principle regardless of impact.
I don't think it would have a bottom line impact if every wnba fan quit using Amazon. Not even a blip.
If there are other more relevant reputational/shame boycotts successful on this scale I'm glad to hear about them. |
I appreciate what you've posted. Including "I get people boycotting on principle regardless of impact." This thread was begun by readyAIMfire53 who said he/she/they are having nothing to do with Amazon and made a strong statement as to why. I'm not boycotting, but I respect readyAIMfire53 and anyone boycotting for similar reasons. |
Anybody who uses the internet does business with Amazon. It's unavoidable.
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I ain't got a home
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myrtle
Joined: 02 May 2008
Posts: 32335
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| Posted: 07/28/21 1:27 pm ::: |
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| The closest stores of any kind to me are more than a 30 minute one-way drive away. I try to support these 'local' businesses as much as possible. But there is one grocery store, one gas station, one hardware store, one bank, and one drugstore. I have to drive another 45 minutes to a town of about 20,000 to get anything more than the basics and even there options are very limited. The closest 'city' is a six hour roundtrip. So online stores have been a godsend for me.
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