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Consumers benefit assuming all suppliers are equivalent, which is not at all the case with Amazon. They're gaining a price advantage over using real carriers m
by larzang 7y ago
Consumers benefit assuming all suppliers are equivalent, which is not at all the case with Amazon. They're gaining a price advantage over using real carriers mainly through incredibly exploitative labor practices in the warehouse and abusing uber-like contractors to cover the last mile for pennies on the dollar.
Not only is the human/societal cost high, consumers directly suffer as well as untrained contractors working irregular routes rush to meet unrealistic deadlines. Every day a different person in a rented van pulls up to throw armloads of packages at my building, may or may not be the right entrance, they don't know the place and have no time to check, before racing off to the next location.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoConsumers benefit because of competition and redundancy several suppliers create. Competition forces suppliers whose service is deemed inadequate by the market to change or disappear. Clearly the market wants packages delivered fast and cheap.
- tracer4201 7y agoIf the model is failing as you describe, then more competition is a good thing. Consumers will flock to whoever that provides better service for what it is they’re willing to pay. I’m not sure how consumers suffer - if trained or untrained contractors fail at their jobs, consumers take their business elsewhere. It sounds like you’re against Amazons delivery practices. Fine. But the more competition there is, the better. UPS or Fedex absolutely shouldn’t own the private delivery market.