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Amazon Prime Is a Blessing and a Curse For Remote Towns (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: If access to Prime is reduced, or in some cases, cut off, it can leave many remote towns in the lurch. One dozen five-gallon barrels of hydraulic oil. A 2x4x8 of lumber. A pallet's worth of 10-ply, heavy-duty truck tires. These are just a few of the heavy, cumbersome orders one Redditor on the Alaska subreddit claimed to have ordered from Amazon Prime, with free shipping, before users started to notice difficulty finding eligible products. For many remote and rural communities in the U.S. and Canada, the arrival of Amazon Prime, with its low prices and free, expedient shipping was a boon. Hard-to-get or expensive products were now accessible, and reasonably priced to boot. For the cost of a membership (which now runs $99 per year), residents were able to get deals on everything from food to diapers to truck tires. But sometimes when something seems too good to be true, it is. Prime has proven to be a bit of a double-edged sword for many of these communities. Residents become dependent on Prime as local retailers struggle to compete. If access to Prime is reduced, or in some cases, cut off, it can leave many remote towns in the lurch.
Amazon Prime is MARVELOUS, thanks none the least to viral marketing agencies and social media advertising. It's GREAT to have AMAZON PRIME, except in rural Alaska, where you're fucked anyway.
So what happens to many remote towns if access to Prime is reduced, or in some cases, cut off?
Anyone else remember the song about the "Wells Fargo Wagon" from 76 Trombones? That was the end result of a remote order business hooked up to a rail-backed transportation system.
See also "Sears Catalog Home":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home
Another bitch session where we discuss why small business can't compete against mega corporations with lots of lawyers and government connections.
But somehow we praise small business and then damn them with high taxation and onerous laws and regulations. That's the Democrat/Republican way.
How many things in the world would NOT leave people in a lurch if reduced or cut-off, after said people became used to it?
Electricity, clean water, flushing toilet, gas stove, modern medicine ... you name it.
If you don't want to in lurch when anything is reduced, go live in the wilds. Then you would be in a lurch when anything you are used to in the wilds became reduced or cut-off.
You cannot avoid it unless you made your own entirely self-sufficient biodome that can recycle and build everything your need, including every part of the biodome.
And these click-bait articles can be "news", I guess they have templates that they can just plug any new service/tech and generate an article.
Next up: The Internet is a blessing and a curse for journalist. "If access to the Internet is reduced, or in some cases, cut off, it can leave many journalists in the lurch."
An Alaskan man many years ago had concrete blocks shipped individually via USPS because it was cheaper than shipping a pallet via freight. USPS put an end to that practice as they could only fit so many concrete blocks into a mail bag.
So basically Amazon would be better overall for them and for local businesses by being in just the freight business?
Sometimes it really doesn't make any sense.
Without prime, I bought a safe which easily weighs over 200lbs. Because it was over $25.00, it shipped for free by freight carrier right to my door.
There's no way Amazon didn't loose money on that.
Who here thinks that the free shipping is sustainable. Especial with the given examples?
for fucks sake, get a clue.
This is simple supply and demand. If Amazon forces the local business to fold, several possibilities exist:
1) Amazon will continue operating in a price range that says within price elasticity
2) Amazon stops or exceeds price elasticity causing
a) new business growth (back to where they were)
b) an unserved market in which either:
I - people will move
II - people will adopt to not having these things available
The sorts of things they citing here are prohibitively expensive on Amazon... a 2x4x8 of poplar (didn't poke around long enough to see SPF pine) is around $70 for which I would expect the whole flitched tree. For smaller things that hardware stores can usually wring you for I can see why Amazon is competitive but the examples here seem odd. I've not found anything bigger/heavier than a large sack of dog food that was price competitive.
This is an old trick: sell goods/services below their cost until you drive out competition. You have to swallow some massive losses at first, but in the end you'll secure yourself a monopoly.
my pussy hurts
I thought it was a floor wax AND a dessert topping.
Years ago, not long after becoming a Prime member, I was renting a cottage in a very remote location in the middle of a national forest for a couple weeks. This location was without mail delivery. Population density of the county is maybe two dozen per square mile, so not the sparsest but fairly low density.
I ran an experiment, set that as my main address in Prime, and ordered something (I don't even remember what.) Imagine my surprise two days later when I heard the delivery truck hustling down the country road 4 miles away!
If only that place had consistent, reliable internet service (Verizon worked if you held your phone just right in certain places and the cottage was equipped with Wild Blue? satellite internet) I could see setting up shop semi-permanently, provided I could find a job that allowed me to work remotely.
But I was always concerned about dependency on delivery service, it seemed like a fluke that it worked, there's no way that was economically viable for Amazon.
Really.
When you buy that amazing $9.99 doohickey from Amazon, the actual cost to them was closer to $2, with a couple of bucks per package for the actual shipping cost. A $400 graphics card probably cost them $300, but didn't cost much more than the $9.99 item to ship. Yeah, they're going to have "loss leaders," especially in those remote shipping areas, but they can afford a short-term loss on some items because they make so much money on the rest. They do notice that they're losing money on the "ship a ton for nothing" items - but they take care of that with a simple "no free shipping to X location."
The thing is, Amazon finally noticed that, due to the effects of not having to pay quite so many people, they can actually sell that cheap gadget for less than a typical store, even to semi-rural areas.
Manufacturer -> marketing to wholesalers -> wholesaler -> marketing to sellers -> seller's warehouse -> seller's stores -> stock in store -> you
(Wal-Mart cut out a lot of this, which is why they're cheaper)
Manufacturer -> ship to Amazon -> ship to distribution center -> ship to you
(marketing went from "paying dozens of people to sell our product" to "paying a couple of people to work on the Amazon page content")
When you cut out so many marketing and handling and stocking steps, things cost less.
Sorry but I don't see the double-edge sword in eliminating inefficient purveyors of goods and services. It saves a lot more people time and money than it does people who have their jobs eliminated.
Those people who have their jobs eliminated can also go do something else. If they had at one point set up a successful retail business, then they should have the skills to set up some other kind of business.
If they did not work during their tenure to keep their skills modern and fresh, then that's on them. People don't lose their jobs because of some big evil corporate overlord. They lose their jobs because they deserve to - because their skills are no longer relevant to an efficient economy.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/iqaluit-amazon-prime-1.4193665
A Utah frontier town was reputed to have ordered its new courthouse to be mailed in brick by brick from a distant city, because artificially low postal rates made that cheaper than shipping in bricks on railroad cars.
According to TFA, problem is that once inefficient purveyors (ie local retailers) are driven out by Amazon, locals are fucked over when Amazon decides it isn't worth their dime shipping to the sticks anymore.
Once available locally at price X -->
Next available via Prime for X - Y -->
Now available nowhere
It's undercutting the competition in order to let the locals starve... perhaps not Amazon's original intent, but a potential dark outcome for those who live in remote parts.
Yes, it is expensive to transport goods to remote areas. However, and I'm sure you've seen this too, price gouging most definitely occurs, far beyond the additional expense due to transportation. Little shops in the middle of nowhere have a monopoly, and it is often abused as goods can be double the price and more compared to what you'd pay in a regular supermarket or store like Walmart. I've also literally seen signs in tiny country stores that said the likes of "If you don't start buying your milk here then we will have to stop carrying it and it won't be available locally in case you need it."
I'm just throwing this out there off the top of my head, but one thing that might work is for Amazon to partner with small rural stores. If the customer picked up their order at the store then there could be a slight discount, because Amazon would save on that final mile of delivery which is the most expensive. Amazon could then evaluate what that community is purchasing most often and then allow the store owner to keep an inventory on hand of those items. The local merchant would then get some percentage of the sale of those items. Of course that also brings customers into their store, increasing the likelihood of purchasing other items as well.
However, I doubt the Ruth-Anne type would go for having a big corporation like Amazon working their tentacles into their business. Bonus points if you know who I'm talking about. :)
Better known as 318230.
Amazon Prime does more for northern food security than federal subsidies, say Iqaluit residents
Nothing prevents someone from re-opening a business in the sticks after Amazon decides to stop shipping to it. A market is a fluid thing.
Why the hyperbolic anger???
1. The shipping is being done at a loss. The local provider is not being inefficient; the seller is basically subsidized by Amazon. This subsidy can be pulled at any time, once Amazon decides to tighten the rules on renewal.
2. We're talking about small communities where there may not be that many jobs available. The loss of three of four jobs out of a labor pool of 20-30 people is a major blow. Furthermore, the money that kept in the local shops is now being sent out of the community, leaving even less money available locally.
3. The loss of one local business that goes under may cause issues to other local businesses that depended on it.
And it was the Music Man. 76 Trombones was one of the songs. God I'm old.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Just because a Business is delivering in a way that Government can't doesn't mean Business is Evil!
That whole collectivist/socialist/communism thing has NEVER worked as advertised in Propaganda.
That isn't the reality most places though. You have to be much much more remote to be that 'closed' of a system. There are some places like that, probably in Alaska and some others out west on the Continental US.
My experience with rural life is Appalachia. Many years ago we still had general stores I am talking the late 90's here. Actually we still do but they are shells of their former selves where they do exist. You could ask the proprietor to order just about anything you need and they had a supplier who could get it for you.
Than two things happened. E-Commerce and the massive expansion of Walmart. That pretty much left the general stores, and local hardware stores, independent lumber yards etc, stocking convince items and things people tend to suddenly need a lot of in hurry like wall studs.
There was no way the little mom and pops could staff up with people actually capable of contacting suppliers and placing special orders etc. That actually tended to require some thinking and intelligence and working with the custom. Well I can get you those 15 widgets or I can order a case of 25 for about the same price. Maybe you offer the customer the 25, for just a little more to see if they want them. Maybe you make a judgement call you can order the case and sell the other 10 and give the guy a beak. Point is you can't just stick some local teenage behind the counter to do that with no supervision. So they quit doing that stuff, and laid people off.
So for a time if Walmart did not have it, you got in the car and drove a couple hours to the nearest city. That might be a place like Charleston, Beckly, Hunting, Lexington, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, etc. It took time but it was never really like you could not put your hands on stuff you needed.
The next cycle was gas go super expense; that posed a real problem, but by then Amazon and others various free shipping schemes were a thing.
Now gas is cheap again. So that will get people thru the next cycle.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Move to a real city then assholes, instead of your welfare supported towns.
Those are excellent points, thanks.
Queue the slew of ebil (corp) doing ebil hurtful things pandering for the destruction of the ebil (corp).
First it was uber, now it's Amazon?
Grab your torches and pitch-forks and rall... Uhg to hell with it. Tired of railing at whatever (corp) is deemed ebil of the week.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Witness BitZtream getting pwned!
Because it's a lifeless troll.
Yes, of course. But then, who is going to risk his life savings running a similar business in the same spot as the poor schmuck that went under before him? In the meantime, the residents of that location may have to drive far or pay a lot to get access to things that used to be available at the local store. Betting that Amazon prime will keep losing money shipping to these remote areas is not a gamble I would be willing to take.
If Amazon prime leaves then local retailers come back. The Amazon itself can become a victim of the technological progress. The internet provides unlimited showroom capacity. So brands don't need to select limited number of styles and designs to fit into available retail space, so they can produce some core collection for retail and everything else for Internet publishing. That everything else will tend to stay for a long time online as long as people continue to buy the product. Plus all experimental products may stay in on-line show rooms almost forever. That limitless showroom will create demand for small volume production and flexible switch from one product to another. Ultimately production facilities will be able to produce individual items by design published on-line in the showroom. That individual production will be done according to individual customer body signature as a result products seas to be reusable and generic. So it will be individual product production for concrete individual customer. Returned products are gonna be destroyed. There are gonna be no logistics and warehouses. We are going to have only internet, factories and Canada post. So Amazon with all its automated warehouses will seas to exists as well.
The fact that products are gonna be produced by individual design of the customer will create ultimate space for designs market. It will create thousands of self employed designers working from home and publishing their products as books online. Factories will be 100% robotized to process those standardized designs. Designs are gonna be auto-validated by existing factory services and approved for publishing.
Amazon's future is not so bright-full if they stay where they are now. They also need to evolve as fast as they do now.
lurch lurch in the lurch lurch lurch lurch
A market is a fluid thing with enough entrants.
cause everyone is sick of hillbilly entitlement.
I live in alaska in a small town on the road system a few hours away from Anchorage and have had prime for almost four years now. It has some impact on some businesses but frankly a lot of the local ones don't carry most items and if they do they are extremely overpriced.
For example I needed 4 new basic tires for a truck I only drive in the summer. Local tire shop wanted 1,100.00 out the door for new tires and mount. Found a comparable set on amazon fro 400.00. Ordered the tires they arrived 3 days later. Paid that same shop 75.00 to mount the tires for me.
Was this place price gouging me or was it a issue of product scarcity?
A lot of small businesses up here operate with the attitude of "well if you don't like it you can go somewhere else...oh there is nowhere else...looks like you are paying what we ask"
It's bitztream
The autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating, Qualcomm-hating Slashdot troll!
Amazon is a boon for rural folk. There are NO stores in our town.
Drive further to the next towns beyond that and there is only an expensive gas station with a very limited and high priced selection chips, soda, milk, candy, ice cream, etc.
If you drive for about 60 minutes round trip there is a town with limited selection of goods in stores, a hardware store, a lumber yard, a few restaurants and grocery store.
My purchases on Amazon are not taking dollars away from local stores, not even stores within an hour of me. Rather I'm buying things I simply can _NOT_ buy here. I would have to drive another hour to get even a quarter of the things I get on Amazon and even then there are many things I simply could not get.
This is very common in rural areas. Urbanites, who make up most of Slashdotters, don't understand this so they are not likely to appreciate just how wonderful Amazon is for rural folk.
The other issue on this topic is that many people seem to think that Amazon is some monolithic seller. Amazon is not. Amazon is more like a mall filled with many small and larger sellers. Amazon helps some of those sellers with fulfillment but most of all Amazon offers search features, product description and reviews. All of these are valuable and NOT available through local or even regional stores in the brick-and-mortor world.
I believe the top 3 causes of divorce are:
1 Money Issues
2 Family/Relatives
3 Disney
What Amazon is doing used to be called a web portal like Etsy.
How's life in the hypocrite lane?
Douche bag is upset that Amazon no longer chooses to subsides his expensive....
.... you're a fucking idiot.
"to subsidize" (or "to subsidise", depending on your location).
There, FTFY, you fucking idiot.
OMG another EPIC PWN!!! Awesome!