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I love Costco not just because of their good prices but also because they have a reputation for paying and treating their employees reasonably well. Amazon does

I love Costco not just because of their good prices but also because they have a reputation for paying and treating their employees reasonably well. Amazon does not share this reputation (at least for their warehouse workers).

conorh 13y ago
Agreed. I'd been reading about Amazon's treatment of their warehouse workers over the years and an article in The Guardian [1] finally pushed me over the edge. I stopped shopping at Amazon (I shopped a huge amount there) and cancelled my prime account. I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment, if Costco can do it then I believe they can too. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazon-insider-feature-treatment-employees-work http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazo...
- deegles 13y ago
  Amazon has the second-highest turnover of all the Fortune 500 companies [1]. That data combined with conversations I've had with several Amazon developers makes me wary of Amazon's long-term prospects for retaining talent. More here: http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ... [1] http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ...
- eikenberry 13y ago
  Bad jobs play an important role in an economy. They provide a high turn-over, relatively easy to acquire job that you can get when you have trouble finding proper work. So you can provide for yourself while looking for a good job. If the job didn't suck it wouldn't have the turn-over and availability. Once we eliminate the need for employment to provide the basics then shitty jobs will go away. Until then they have a place.
  - johnvschmitt 13y ago
    True, but there will always be tons of "inherently bad" jobs (smelly, sweaty, monotonous). It is unnecessary to make these jobs MORE shitty by bad management. For example, the worst thing IMO that Walmart does (IDK about Amazon), is to mandate that employees be on call 24x7 to be ready to come in for a shift on short notice (3 hours). This cripples the worker from taking on a 2nd job, school, or anything else. This traps them into the Walmart job & makes this not an entry level job.
  - conorh 13y ago
    Sure, however in the US there are already huge number of terrible low paid jobs. The balance of jobs is not right as it stands. I believe that Amazon has the resources to provide better jobs and should do so.
- res0nat0r 13y ago
  Question: everyone keeps talking about low pay amazon workers, but do the lowest paid warehouse employees of Costco get paid the same comparable low wage or not? There are many tiers of employment at amazon and the same for costco, I'm wondering if the great costco benefits also apply to their hourly warehouse employees or their equiv on the amazon side.
  - cdjk 13y ago
    I'm pretty sure the costco benefits are fairly good for hourly warehouse employees. Here's the first reference I found: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whole-foods-and-the-container-store-3-compa.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whol...
- sneak 13y ago
  > I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment If their wages and treatment aren't enough to drive them to quit their jobs, they are sufficient. I am glad Prime costs what it does and not more.
pjc50 13y ago
Mm, I was just pondering that both Costco and Sam's have good labour reputations, and that it's _not_ saying "takes on Walmart".
- xdracon 13y ago
  Sam's Club has a good labour reputation? I find that surprising because they're owned by Walmart.
  - adventured 13y ago
    It competes with Costco, has traditionally targeted business customers heavily, has a different business model and margins than Walmart, and competes for a slightly different pool of labor.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- stevetursi 13y ago
  This is one of those things where you don't realize how nice it is until you have it and you consider what life would be like if it was gone. There apparently is a full time employee at Costco's headquarters who's job is to test... toilet paper. They really put a lot of resources into making sure that the things they sell are quality - which makes shopping there easy. For any item x, if Costco has it, I can safely say "I'll just get whatever Costco has" and be confident that not only will I get a good price, I'll also get something that will last longer than a few months. Last year I found myself in a situation where I needed a stereo receiver. Knowing nothing about receivers, I did some research on them so I had a basic knowledge of what I needed - and then I checked Costco. It turns out I could have skipped all that research time and just trusted that Costco's offering would fulfill my needs and have the best value. In the very unlikely event that they're wrong, I know I can count on that extraordinary return policy - which I've only had to use once or twice in the two decades I've been shopping there.
  - paul_f 13y ago
    Nice story, but it has nothing to do with the topic. Amazon Pantry is for dog food, not electronics. I don't think the same amount of extensive curation is needed for most of those products.
minikites 13y ago
Exactly: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f...
loceng 13y ago
And you'll see a lot of people won't care when they're paying less. See Walmart for reference.
samolang 13y ago
Do you also boycott wood and paper products? Jobs in the logging industry have comparable pay to amazon warehouse jobs, but are far more dangerous.

conorh 13y ago

Agreed. I'd been reading about Amazon's treatment of their warehouse workers over the years and an article in The Guardian [1] finally pushed me over the edge. I stopped shopping at Amazon (I shopped a huge amount there) and cancelled my prime account. I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment, if Costco can do it then I believe they can too. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazon-insider-feature-treatment-employees-work http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazo...

deegles 13y ago
Amazon has the second-highest turnover of all the Fortune 500 companies [1]. That data combined with conversations I've had with several Amazon developers makes me wary of Amazon's long-term prospects for retaining talent. More here: http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ... [1] http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ...
eikenberry 13y ago
Bad jobs play an important role in an economy. They provide a high turn-over, relatively easy to acquire job that you can get when you have trouble finding proper work. So you can provide for yourself while looking for a good job. If the job didn't suck it wouldn't have the turn-over and availability. Once we eliminate the need for employment to provide the basics then shitty jobs will go away. Until then they have a place.
- johnvschmitt 13y ago
  True, but there will always be tons of "inherently bad" jobs (smelly, sweaty, monotonous). It is unnecessary to make these jobs MORE shitty by bad management. For example, the worst thing IMO that Walmart does (IDK about Amazon), is to mandate that employees be on call 24x7 to be ready to come in for a shift on short notice (3 hours). This cripples the worker from taking on a 2nd job, school, or anything else. This traps them into the Walmart job & makes this not an entry level job.
- conorh 13y ago
  Sure, however in the US there are already huge number of terrible low paid jobs. The balance of jobs is not right as it stands. I believe that Amazon has the resources to provide better jobs and should do so.
res0nat0r 13y ago
Question: everyone keeps talking about low pay amazon workers, but do the lowest paid warehouse employees of Costco get paid the same comparable low wage or not? There are many tiers of employment at amazon and the same for costco, I'm wondering if the great costco benefits also apply to their hourly warehouse employees or their equiv on the amazon side.
- cdjk 13y ago
  I'm pretty sure the costco benefits are fairly good for hourly warehouse employees. Here's the first reference I found: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whole-foods-and-the-container-store-3-compa.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whol...
sneak 13y ago
> I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment If their wages and treatment aren't enough to drive them to quit their jobs, they are sufficient. I am glad Prime costs what it does and not more.

pjc50 13y ago

Mm, I was just pondering that both Costco and Sam's have good labour reputations, and that it's _not_ saying "takes on Walmart".

xdracon 13y ago
Sam's Club has a good labour reputation? I find that surprising because they're owned by Walmart.
- adventured 13y ago
  It competes with Costco, has traditionally targeted business customers heavily, has a different business model and margins than Walmart, and competes for a slightly different pool of labor.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

stevetursi 13y ago
This is one of those things where you don't realize how nice it is until you have it and you consider what life would be like if it was gone. There apparently is a full time employee at Costco's headquarters who's job is to test... toilet paper. They really put a lot of resources into making sure that the things they sell are quality - which makes shopping there easy. For any item x, if Costco has it, I can safely say "I'll just get whatever Costco has" and be confident that not only will I get a good price, I'll also get something that will last longer than a few months. Last year I found myself in a situation where I needed a stereo receiver. Knowing nothing about receivers, I did some research on them so I had a basic knowledge of what I needed - and then I checked Costco. It turns out I could have skipped all that research time and just trusted that Costco's offering would fulfill my needs and have the best value. In the very unlikely event that they're wrong, I know I can count on that extraordinary return policy - which I've only had to use once or twice in the two decades I've been shopping there.
- paul_f 13y ago
  Nice story, but it has nothing to do with the topic. Amazon Pantry is for dog food, not electronics. I don't think the same amount of extensive curation is needed for most of those products.

minikites 13y ago

Exactly: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f...

loceng 13y ago

And you'll see a lot of people won't care when they're paying less. See Walmart for reference.

samolang 13y ago

Do you also boycott wood and paper products? Jobs in the logging industry have comparable pay to amazon warehouse jobs, but are far more dangerous.