“Where did you get that?”
“I got it on Amazon.”
This is a conversation that happens perhaps a million times day. I’ve participated in this conversation myself dozens of times.
It seems innocuous enough. It’s surely intended to be helpful to a person interested in the product you own. But what does it really mean when we get everything on Amazon? A few thoughts:
- It means the brand that made the product usually cannot be recalled and is eclisped by fast shipping and convenience of the Amazon marketplace. In other words, the product is commoditized.
- It means the maker of the product has no relationship with you, therefore cannot improve your future experience with their brand and products.
- It means the data of your purchase is now available to Amazon themselves and the marketplace as a whole. If you bought a popular product, odds are it will be copied into oblivion. Note that patents and copyrights rarely help, as both Amazon sellers and Amazon itself show little respect for IP.
- It means that more and more revenue ia siphoned into an entity that pays virtually no meaninful taxes to the US government, indirectly increasing the burden on the small businesses that make the very product you “got on Amazon.”
As a consumer, I love amazon. As a business owner, I hate it. As a citizen, I’m torn.
What say you?