AIBU to please ask you not to plough even more money into Amazon over this lockdown?

[schitter]

I know, it's cheap and easy.
I know you probably need to find the lowest price you can.
I know it being delivered straight to your door is win win on non essential trips out.

But pleeeasssssse let's not make the richest man in the world any richer than he is already if you have any other option.
Even shopping online with the big high street retailers is better than lining JBs pockets.
Look at those little individual eBay shops that'll no doubt have exactly what you're looking for and you only have to wait a couple of days extra, it's not the end of the world.

Please look around you, please look what else is available.
Lots of your local shops have diversified into offering home delivery because their livelihoods depend on it.

My livelihood depends on it! My little business did 3% (yes, three percent) of its usual sales in April. I permanently laid off 4 staff and haven't made a penny personally since.
I feel sick at the thought.

I see you point, but those of us live far away from shops (50 miles to nearest big brand stores), in rural towns where the few small local shops sell tourist knick-knacks or hunting/ shooting gear, don't have much choice. I find that most of what I buy on Amazon is from other businesses who choose to use that as their platform.

So you laid off 4 people.

Amazon hired 7000

And we should be shunning them?

Amazon is too convenient, fast, quick and generally better than smaller/independent sellers for me to drop it. I'm all for independent businesses but they must offer something better than the bigger sellers if they are to be successful.

@CakeRequired
Surely food delivery would be on the increase, during first lockdown a local sports club (have premises/kitchen)started up delivering a hot meal service for £5 per meal; just to keep ££ coming in, it’s been very popular.

[quote SBTLove]@CakeRequired
Surely food delivery would be on the increase, during first lockdown a local sports club (have premises/kitchen)started up delivering a hot meal service for £5 per meal; just to keep ££ coming in, it’s been very popular.[/quote]
It was.

@SBTLove

Yeah but what else can't possibly be delivered by amazon and only within a certain area? I can't think of anything, nothing that could be made the same day and is needed that urgently. Maybe there is something but dunno what it is.

And yeah delivery should have gone up, but maybe op didn't advertise well enough, or people just don't like the product.

I think she delivers fresh food to people, whether that's cakes or meals I dunno, but it's literally the only thing it could be, as she will deliver to your door personally.

Anyone with a food delivery service round here made a killing during lockdown.
My first thought stupidly was florist but sadly I don’t think that is the case.
Maybe party food? Birthday cakes? Party balloons and decorations? Bouncy castles?

Also, the OP says ’No, my product isn't compatible with Amazon’ which is confusing. Surely if it’s a such a niche product there will be little competition.
Must be something people don’t need or want during lockdown times.

@LolalovesLondon

Oh you might be right about florist I guess, although I thought they had to close down fully during the first lockdown so furlpuch might have been a possibility for op if she'd been running long enough.

Furlough, not furlpuch.

@Elsewyre

So you laid off 4 people.

Amazon hired 7000

And we should be shunning them?

But those 7,000 people didn't just replace the 4 that got laid off by one business. It's ALL the little shops and businesses that have closed and the staff that provided services relating to them: cleaners, bookkeepers, people further up the supply chain and the people who worked for them etc.

But those 7,000 people didn't just replace the 4 that got laid off by one business. It's ALL the little shops and businesses that have closed and the staff that provided services relating to them: cleaners, bookkeepers, people further up the supply chain and the people who worked for them etc

All of that has been happening for decades. First with the move towards town/city centre chain stores, then out of town shopping centres and supermarkets, then the internet. It's just the evolution of shopping and was going to happen anyway - covid has just accelerated it.

Amazon have been incredibly efficient.

Many of my local stores have dragged their heels, behaved rudely and seemed almost determined to provide a shit service.

Some have been wonderful.

It will be easy to decide who to continue shopping with.

I can’t imagine a food delivery service of any kind that reduced its business to 3% during lockdown. They were all booming. Florists were allowed to keep delivering too, so I don’t think it can be that. Funerals alone would have kept the business at over 3%.

If OP's business isn't suitable for Amazon, presumably Amazon isn't a competitor either so there's another reason for the downturn, which has nothing to do with the success of Amazon.

@LittleMissLockdown

I vote with my feet and consider what sort of world I want to live in. One where Amazon dominates world retail certainly isn't something I want to see.

But surely you must understand by taking this stance you are actually saying I also don't want lots of small local businesses to survive?

I honestly dont think people understand the huge amount of the items sold on Amazon from small businesses. By deciding to unequivocally forego using amazon you are actively denying these businesses sales.

This is a great point. As a small business owner I couldn't survive without Amazon

@Caeruleanblue

Shops paid retail rent to the Council, corporation tax, their employees paid tax on their earnings. Local shops probably spent profits locally. This goes to an American co in California which apparently doesn't pay the tax it should in the U.K. to not see that this will mean the money that used to go into our economy is now going abroad but think that doesn't matter. Where's the money for public services and pensions to come from? Some magic money tree.

The jobs that Amazon provides. Its jobs are going to give salary to local residents who will put it into the local economy. The money for public services and pensions will come from tax paid by the employee

Sorry but I love Amazon and have Prime so I am now so used to ordering something one day and it arriving the next. I buy pretty much all my clothes on e-bay and everything else from Amazon (because postage free) or other online businesses. The only thing I don't like about Amazon is that they have a tendency for overpacking. We have a constant cardboard mountain!

@cautiouscovidity...No it wouldn't. People including myself will just go to big box stores like Staples,Office Max or Walmart. There are very few small independent retailers that I will mess with. Namely the fish store, butchers and fish monger. Everything else I will have delivered by Walmart, Staples/Office Max

As an example of why I use amazon and I am kicking myself I didn't do so the other day. I ordered a slip on ebay. £6.99 postage free. It arrived today and is no good so I went to return it and it would cost £4.25 to return! Really? If I had bought it on Amazon it would have been free return and immediate refund. My fault. I won't make that mistake again.

Last time I ordered on eBay it ended up being a “U.K. item” that was actually being shipped from China. I ordered in July. September I was finally able to get a refund because the item hadn’t arrived. I ordered one on Amazon and got it the next day same price and technically looking at the pictures and sped a better product not that I could actually compare the two in person.

I only buy pick up local items on eBay it’s all China pretending to be U.K. otherwise.

In normal times, I'll pay a premium to local shops and physical stores to be able to buy something and take it away immediately, not even wait 24 hours. I'll pay more to be able to touch products, not just see a photo, but how something really looks in real life, what it's size, exact shade etc. I'll pay for advise from shop assistants.

But if I'm ordering online, then the cheapest and easiest wins.

@OneForMeToo i had same issues last year. 3x! Different sellers. I gave up on ebay after that.

Stamford
Don’t bother with Imodium @ £4/5 Buy the generic supermarket brand boxes! £1.20.
I asked the pharmacist to compare ingredients between the two and they confirmed that they were exactly the same product.