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Is there a significant ethical difference between purchasing from a store or from a large online retailer? In one case, shipping to the store is bulk, and emplo

Is there a significant ethical difference between purchasing from a store or from a large online retailer? In one case, shipping to the store is bulk, and employees may make low wages, but they interact with other people. For a retailer Amazon's size, warehouses run on people who read orders from handheld devices and are timed for retrieval speed per box filled. Then shipping is done per parcel. How have you decided what's the right behavior to encourage with your dollars?

blisterpeanuts 13y ago
I suppose the same question could be asked about all those saddle makers and horse breeders when the age of the automobile arrived. Online retailing is a great innovation; it makes sense, it's convenient, the selection is 1000x better, the service is excellent (at least at Amazon), and it saves people having to drive somewhere. The reviews and comments are useful, the related items and "what people bought" sidebars are handy. By contrast, retailers have lost their edge. They hire low wage non-specialists, often high school students or other non-professionals who would rather be doing something else for a living. So when you go to a store to purchase a gadget or article of clothing or book, your chief human interaction experience is distressingly often with a bored, under-motivated person who hates his job and hates you too. I treasure the exceptions to the above rule, the dedicated doing-it-for-love guy or gal who really knows their stuff, like the extremely knowledgeable handyman guys and gals at the local hardware store--which is why I still patronize my local Ace whenever I can. Except they sometimes have a teenager who doesn't know where anything is, who doesn't scan my frequent buyer card, who can't offer me any advice whatsoever, who screws up the price. That kind of morbidly useless experience drives me (and millions of others) to redirect my money to smart, helpful businesses like Amazon. The way of the world, I suppose.
- adolgert 13y ago
  Maybe more apt a comparison would be a choice between custom-built automobiles and those from factory lines. At the time, there was fear that working in factories was dehumanizing. The ethical question is resolved politically, by having labor unions so that workers have some control. From the undercover reporting articles on Amazon's warehouses, there aren't labor unions. Amazon does provide a lot that stores don't, but now you're asking what is the outcome of your choice for yourself, not for others. There is a lot of that same focus in the comments here. Counterexamples of people who work in stores and don't enjoy their jobs are perfectly valid. I would focus, though, on what my choice of where I spend money offers as an opportunity to others. The opportunity in the warehouse depresses me. The opportunity in the store seems pretty OK. I, too, want what Amazon has to offer, and those who can pay taking what is offered them is the way of the world, but I still have to make my own choice.

blisterpeanuts 13y ago

I suppose the same question could be asked about all those saddle makers and horse breeders when the age of the automobile arrived. Online retailing is a great innovation; it makes sense, it's convenient, the selection is 1000x better, the service is excellent (at least at Amazon), and it saves people having to drive somewhere. The reviews and comments are useful, the related items and "what people bought" sidebars are handy. By contrast, retailers have lost their edge. They hire low wage non-specialists, often high school students or other non-professionals who would rather be doing something else for a living. So when you go to a store to purchase a gadget or article of clothing or book, your chief human interaction experience is distressingly often with a bored, under-motivated person who hates his job and hates you too. I treasure the exceptions to the above rule, the dedicated doing-it-for-love guy or gal who really knows their stuff, like the extremely knowledgeable handyman guys and gals at the local hardware store--which is why I still patronize my local Ace whenever I can. Except they sometimes have a teenager who doesn't know where anything is, who doesn't scan my frequent buyer card, who can't offer me any advice whatsoever, who screws up the price. That kind of morbidly useless experience drives me (and millions of others) to redirect my money to smart, helpful businesses like Amazon. The way of the world, I suppose.

adolgert 13y ago
Maybe more apt a comparison would be a choice between custom-built automobiles and those from factory lines. At the time, there was fear that working in factories was dehumanizing. The ethical question is resolved politically, by having labor unions so that workers have some control. From the undercover reporting articles on Amazon's warehouses, there aren't labor unions. Amazon does provide a lot that stores don't, but now you're asking what is the outcome of your choice for yourself, not for others. There is a lot of that same focus in the comments here. Counterexamples of people who work in stores and don't enjoy their jobs are perfectly valid. I would focus, though, on what my choice of where I spend money offers as an opportunity to others. The opportunity in the warehouse depresses me. The opportunity in the store seems pretty OK. I, too, want what Amazon has to offer, and those who can pay taking what is offered them is the way of the world, but I still have to make my own choice.