While Amazon does a lot of good for the world, they also don’t always have the best business practices. As a result, the deals you might end up purchasing could have repercussions for the people who deliver them and implications for the planet. Here are seven things that Amazon does wrong, and they might cause you to stop shopping for them altogether!
In a big company like Amazon, you can sadly come to expect that the efficiency comes at a very human cost. Numerous articles and reports have stated that Amazon’s warehouses have harsh conditions, and they fight against the formation of unions that can support workers. Long hours, hard work, and the stress of being the best have taken their toll on Amazon’s workers.
Amazon is admittedly making strides in this regard, with more of their company switching to electric power. However, most of their company is powered by fossil fuels, which are very harmful to the planet. Additionally, its website is powered 50% by clean energy and 50% by fossil fuels.
While we applaud Amazon for making some changes to become more sustainable, we also wonder if they are doing enough. They’ve got a long way to go before they start helping the planet instead of hurting it with their business practices.
One of the biggest problems that Amazon has had to deal with recently is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour. While you might think that this is a good thing, most workers cannot support themselves on $15, to say nothing of their families, forcing them to work even longer hours.
Additionally, while Amazon raised wages for their workers, they also cut down on stock plans and bonuses that would have helped out their workers.
Amazon’s workers are overworked and underpaid, and to add to the trifecta, they aren’t treated well to boot. The non-unionized workers, especially the drivers, need to deal with their job’s physical demands over very long hours.
Amazon offers many discounts and sales, some of which is done without the owner’s consent. When you purchase an item on Amazon at a discount, you might be paying less, but the people receiving the money are getting less as well.
The discounts also come from dubious origins as well. For example, Amazon can cut costs on author payments, taxes, and safe-labor practices to get you that extra five dollars off.
Even in states where Amazon has a physical presence, they still practice tax evasion and don’t put any money back into the local economy. This robs states of badly needed revenue and prevents funding for necessary items like Medicare and education.
Plus, because they don’t pay taxes, their prices seem 5% to 8% lower than everyone else. This often drives smaller retailers out of business because they can’t compete with that unfair advantage.
There’s a production quota at Amazon that needs to be met no matter what, and Amazon doesn’t care what employees need to do to keep up that pace. However, in some warehouses where temperatures can hit the extreme mark, the workers still need to keep their pace with minimal breaks or risk losing their jobs.
Examining Amazon
Amazon isn’t the best place to work, and it also isn’t the most outstanding company either. So don’t shy away from looking at the company’s dark side and then take your business somewhere more humane.
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