Amazon is a huge online retailer almost every college kid is familiar with. From carrying cheap home goods to affordable fashion and beauty, Amazon seemingly has it all. Amazon was founded in 1994 by now household name, Jeff Bezos. Jeff started Amazon initially selling music and videos and later branched out to anything the mind can imagine. While Amazon seems like the best way to buy products, its inner workings and ethics are rather shady. Because of this I am choosing to no longer shop at Amazon.
The first reason I decided to ban Amazon in my life is due to the unfair treatment of the brand’s laborers and the conditions under which they work. According to former employees, the warehouses are a cruel work environment. In the Summer months temperatures in the warehouses are extremely high and the workers are required to work lengthy shifts under constant pressure to increase productivity. Even the offices, Amazon is a harsh workplace. According to an article by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, “Workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” Employees often feel pressure to sabotage their colleagues and pressure to rise to the top.Amazon’s connections to the Department of Homeland Security is another reason I am no longer shopping the site. The Amazon corporation currently supports and has financial ties to Homeland Security’s anti-immigration policies. Currently the US government is using Amazon’s facial recognition technology to track immigrants. This direct involvement in government affairs is an abuse of power on Amazon’s part. I believe it is wrong that Amazon is aiding in capturing and separating families.Lastly the use of third-party sellers on the site. On Amazon, anyone is able to sell merchandise. Often people selling their items isn’t an issue. The issue is that items are not verified and on Amazon there is the potential for counterfeit products to be sold. Now some counterfeit items pose no risk such as handbags, shoes, or sunglasses. Some items on the other hand can be deadly, such as fake makeup. Because these items can ship and be shipped from around the world there is no way to properly check every item. In addition to fake products, fake reviews are common on these third-party vendors.
I won’t lie and say Amazon isn’t amazingly convenient. In my early years in the dorms I enjoyed being able to order anything from textbooks to snacks. But I can no longer overlook these issues among many others. Instead of shopping at Amazon, I now have been trying to shop at smaller, local stores. My hope in banning Amazon is to show them they need to restructure their branding and who they are.