Jsmth321

I dumped my prime. Considering Amazon doesn't offer 1 or 2 day delivery to this area, it really doesn't serve a purpose, pretty much takes 7 days for anything, order today, get next Tuesday.

I don't use any of the other prime benefits, and shipping is free over $35 so seems silly to pay for prime at this point.

Jsmth321

One thing I like to do is go on ali baba and then amazon and find the products to see how insane the mark ups are by the FBA sellers, so much junk too.

I wont waste my time with FBA sellers anymore, but I notice less and less products being sold by Amazon these days, and many that are sold by Amazon are just junk from Alibaba too....

I was looking for an Air Purifier, I ended up going to Home Depot, like 90% or more were unknown brands from China being sold FBA, no UL or CSA approvals, no independent 3rd party testing to show their product actually worked and way overpriced for what they are.

When Amazon did the selling like a retailer they were not too bad, but they have turned into a online flea market of imported junk.

Jsmth321

Jeff Bezos to step down later this year as CEO, Andy Jassy will take over, expect to be in Q3 sometime.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/jeff...ver-in-q3.html

Scamp

I sometimes look around my apartment and am ashamed at the amount of 'stuff' we've collected over the years. The important pieces are the pictures and artwork from our travels but there's just so much guff.
We have more vases than a florist, we have more cushions than a fake-tit-factory and between us we have more clothes than all the shops in Dubai Mall combined. YET.....weekly, there'll be an Amazon delivery and something from Next for her to wear to work and so on and so on.

I need that Marie Kondo book to sort my shit out.

mikelincs

I'm not suprised, I understand that working conditions at Amazon are quite poor.

DigitalGhost

We've built cultures in the West that are obsessed with consumerism. Most of us work in jobs where even though we may be quite well paid, we don't actually produce or build anything with our hands. We're also living longer and having fewer children than previous generations did. It all means that people end up focusing their energies elsewhere and in the UK and North America in particular, that elsewhere tends to be on buying stuff.

In East Asia the focus tends to be more on food and in continental Europe it is more about socialising and lifestyle but ultimately it all really amounts to the same thing.

Scamp

Spot on. In the simplest terms, I recruit people for a living. I literally contribute nothing to the world other than outstanding natural beauty, the odd joke and lots of hot air.

The whole world needs to learn that fewer children would be a good thing. That or just let everyone loose so Covid can do the culling.

DigitalGhost

Absolutely. These days I create absolutely nothing physical. My entire output is digital and in fact it is due to to the aforementioned Amazon that I have been able to build a career over the last few years because I'm an AWS cloud specialist. I don't even handle physical servers anymore yet what I do is quite financially lucrative.

I think last year would have taught some people the emptiness of rampant consumerism if nothing else did. Most of the bullshit that people obsess over like jewellery, fancy cars and designer clothing was still there but when it came to the crunch, people ended up queuing outside shops for food and toilet roll. It also taught us to appreciate a lot of the little people who might not earn a lot of money or have a flashy job title but can be absolutely crucial to sustaining a society when the chips are down. I think anybody who didn't that lesson from 2020 probably never will.

BristolUK

Scamp

Yeah, we moved during lockdown last year and I was ruthless with the shit we'd got, but we still need to go through it all again.
We're getting better. I don't buy the clothes I used to, only limited pieces and not volume or branded for basics that I always did. Would like to spend money on travel and holidays and experiences rather than items*, moving forwards.

*Breitling not included. Have coveted since about 10 years old and will buy when GME hits the moon.


An accurate portrayal of me as a 'flesh trader'