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Black Friday Amazon Boycott

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squizzler

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That would be the mail order retailer, not the South American rainforest, although products harmful to the proper Amazon should be boycotted too ;)

DiEM25, a consortium of public figures and trade unions, including the former Greek Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis who famously went toe-to-toe against the EU finance "Troika" in the Greek financial crisis, is urging the public to boycott Amazon in the Black Friday sales. The protest has come to the attention of the mainstream media, since I read it in the news.

The campaign seems to embody the anti-establishment mood of the moment, with France notably already having made the same outfit delay their country's black friday promotion till after the 'lockdown'.


Yanis Varoufakis calls for the boycott of Amazon on Black Friday!

This Black Friday, Friday, the 27th of November 2020 we’re asking you to refrain from buying anything from Amazon.com.

We’re asking you to not even visit Amazon.com on that day. Just for one day. We are asking you to join our global campaign to make Amazon pay. On this day, by boycotting Amazon you will be adding your strength to an international coalition of workers and activists from the ITUC, UNI Global Union, and Public Services International, and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, to the Tax Justice Network, and Data for Black Lives. Amazon is not a mere company. It is not merely a monopolistic mega-firm. It is far more, and far worse, than that. It is the pillar of a new techno-feudalism.
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telstarbox

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Although it's super convenient, I try not to use Amazon where there's an alternative.

I was really impressed with "Bookshop.org" yesterday - it took 60 seconds from typing in my chosen book to completing the payment. No long-winded sign up process and it supports local bookshops. @Busaholic may know more about it :)
 

EssexGonzo

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I too have used Bookshop.org and may well try to use my kindle less.

Black Friday's a hyped up scam anyway. If I wanted to buy anything of value right now, I'd be looking for a high-street retailer that needs a bit of help rather than Amazon. Difficult though it is to avoid....... :rolleyes:
 

DB

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Not used that site before, but will give it a go - thanks for the link!
 

mikeg

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I boycott Amazon already. Horrible company with rubbish service, treats its staff appallingly too from what I've heard. Not only that if you shop around you can usually find things cheaper elsewhere.
 

Jamesrob637

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I only buy very limited stuff from Amazon and currently have a 3 month free subscription to Amazon Prime through O2, for which I have no intention of paying when the trial period is up.
 

Logan Carroll

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No.

If you think this is anything more than ineffective slacktivism you are delusional.
 
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Busaholic

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Although it's super convenient, I try not to use Amazon where there's an alternative.

I was really impressed with "Bookshop.org" yesterday - it took 60 seconds from typing in my chosen book to completing the payment. No long-winded sign up process and it supports local bookshops. @Busaholic may know more about it :)
I'm out of the loop now, so only know what I've read in newspapers (F.T. and Times, I think) and heard mentioned on Radio 4. I'll ask an ex-rival in Penzance, with whom I'm on quite friendly terms, when he re-opens next week what he thinks. I'd certainly give it two, maybe two and a half cheers, if it works according to plan: the figures I saw on usage, though, weren't going to make any bookseller well off, let alone rich. My bookshop, selling only books and never with full-time staff, had an average turnover of £3,000 per week in 1990/1, a figure that I never approached again in the next three decades. Early 1990s recession, ending of Net Book Agreement and, finally, the advent of Amazon were a triple whammy. I salute any bookseller without a private, unearned income who can keep their head above water in the current environment.
 

Mojo

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I boycott Amazon already. Horrible company with rubbish service, treats its staff appallingly too from what I've heard. Not only that if you shop around you can usually find things cheaper elsewhere.
Many items on Amazon are extortionate; I wonder if it’s a bit like theTrainline where people just use it for those things because they think it’s cheap. There are however some things that are genuinely cheaper; but some categories almost everything seems to cost a lot more!

One of my common irritants is because with Marketplace added to the normal search there are many sellers that have items that are at stupid prices like 1p but then have extortionate postage prices that make them more expensive than the actual cheapest item. There are also those ones that have delivery dates a month into the future. I’ve no idea why they don’t add a sort option like eBay for Price + P&P. eBay can also filter out the long lead times by allowing you to select items that are in the UK only.
 

GusB

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For anyone who hasn't seen it, there was a Channel 4 Documentary the other night advising people that if they use the one-click buying option, it automatically goes to a "preferred" seller (quite often Amazon itself) and that the customer could potentially be losing out on getting the best prices.

It also touched on the fact that many high street retailers were selling on Amazon at lower prices than they charge in their stores.

Link here:
 

najaB

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It also touched on the fact that many high street retailers were selling on Amazon at lower prices than they charge in their stores.
That's worth pointing out - in many cases Amazon is only acting as a distributor, the items are actually sold by other parties. So depending on what you buy you can actually do more good than harm buying on Amazon since it saves the retailer wharehousing costs.
 

gswindale

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Many items on Amazon are extortionate; I wonder if it’s a bit like theTrainline where people just use it for those things because they think it’s cheap. There are however some things that are genuinely cheaper; but some categories almost everything seems to cost a lot more!

One of my common irritants is because with Marketplace added to the normal search there are many sellers that have items that are at stupid prices like 1p but then have extortionate postage prices that make them more expensive than the actual cheapest item. There are also those ones that have delivery dates a month into the future. I’ve no idea why they don’t add a sort option like eBay for Price + P&P. eBay can also filter out the long lead times by allowing you to select items that are in the UK only.
Not so sure about eBay's UK filtering. We've seen numerous items listed as UK sellers, but once order placed have discovered that it is being shipped direct from China.

To be fair, some of those items have turned up faster than ordering from UK retailers, but sometimes they do take ages.
 

Mojo

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Not so sure about eBay's UK filtering. We've seen numerous items listed as UK sellers, but once order placed have discovered that it is being shipped direct from China.

To be fair, some of those items have turned up faster than ordering from UK retailers, but sometimes they do take ages.
To be honest I don’t mind where it comes from as long as it turns up in a reasonable timeframe. Let’s face it; it’s probably come from China in the first place!

Take an example of something I went to order this morning; a set of kitchen scales.

So type in “kitchen scales” and alongside the mid range branded ones you then get some anonymous ones that seem a bit expensive given they’re £6.50 in Asda’s.

So then sort by price low to high, and the first item costs 1p with £13+ postage; the first few pages are full of stupidly low prices with extra high postage costs.

Let’s get a bit real for a moment so skip forward to several pages in the future and the prices seem to be a bit more realistic - but half of them won’t arrive until January and some even into Feb!

It just makes the whole process incredibly frustrating and time consuming.
 

DarloRich

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I love Amazon. If I want a book I can often get it same day ( and almost certainly next day) delivered by a stressed looking man ( often not a uk native) driving a battered estate car while getting paid very little doing menial work for long hours with no job security.

How could that not be a problem?

( still buy the books mind)
 

najaB

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I love Amazon. If I want a book I can often get it same day ( and almost certainly next day) delivered by a stressed looking man ( often not a uk native) driving a battered estate car while getting paid very little doing menial work for long hours with no job security.

How could that not be a problem?
Not sure what difference it makes if they're a UK native or not...
 

DarloRich

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Not sure what difference it makes if they're a UK native or not...

I haven't gone full on UKIP btw. Just an observation that most of the delivery drivers seem to be non UK natives and I suspect they are more likely to be taken advantage of because they are more likely to be exposed to exploitative employment situations.
 
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najaB

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I haven't gone full on UKIP btw. Just an observation that most of the delivery drivers seem to be non UK natives and I suspect they are more likely to be taken advantage of because they are more likely to be exposed to exploitative employment situations.
Fair enough, though it does (to my mind at least) spoil an otherwise excellent post. Amazon are equally exploitative in pretty much every market, though it's worth keeping in mind that while their actions may be immoral, they very rarely illegal.
 

ComUtoR

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Fair enough, though it does (to my mind at least) spoil an otherwise excellent post. Amazon are equally exploitative in pretty much every market, though it's worth keeping in mind that while their actions may be immoral, they very rarely illegal.

Is it Amazon who are exploitiatve or the delivery company ? Yodel and Hermes are notoriously bad for deliveries and do use the self employed driver in their own car types. I've had a quick google for Amazon Delivery drivers (I've not had one yet) and the reviews arent pleasent but nothing more than the typical multidrop complaints. I've worked multidrop and it isn't the greatest industry to work in.
 

najaB

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Is it Amazon who are exploitiatve or the delivery company ?
Depends on if they work directly for Amazon or a third-party. One of my friends drove for Amazon for a while (driving one of their vans) and said he hated it. In the end they fired him over a couple of disputed deliveries - he delivered the packages but the customers claimed that he hadn't.
 

DarloRich

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Fair enough, though it does (to my mind at least) spoil an otherwise excellent post. Amazon are equally exploitative in pretty much every market, though it's worth keeping in mind that while their actions may be immoral, they very rarely illegal.


I wouldn't for one moment suggest they were illegal practices. They are certainly sharp mind. But then you don't make a multi gazzillion value company by being nice/fair to the little people !
Is it Amazon who are exploitiatve or the delivery company ? Yodel and Hermes are notoriously bad for deliveries and do use the self employed driver in their own car types


Doesn't really matter - they all seem exploitative in their own ways.
 

ComUtoR

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That's the same with most multidrop companies.

It's a crap industry tbh. I still know a few people in it. Nothing has really changed since I was a delivery driver and if anything it's got worse because of the gig economy.
 

YorkshireBear

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I found it very easy to boycott on black friday as it just continued my normal standpoint. I have generally managed to find local I dependant stores for most of what I would get from amazon.
 
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