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Amazon Prime Is a Blessing and a Curse For Remote Towns (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the double-edged-sword dept.

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.

10 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. But what if... by aicrules · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So what happens to many remote towns if access to Prime is reduced, or in some cases, cut off?

    1. Re:But what if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe they will abandon their unviable communities out in the middle of nowhere.

    2. Re:But what if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No economy, dependent on subsidies from the city-dwelling people who are actually doing work. Maybe in Canada there are remote communities that have a purpose, but in the USA we're mostly talking about towns that were built around things like mines that no longer exist or lumber jobs that have been automated away.

    3. Re: But what if... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mixed bag situation. Before, it was home town store owner. Upper middle class family in small town charging outrageous prices. It was a boon to the rest of the people when Walmart came in and drove down the cost of living.

      It goes in cycles. Always has, always will.

    4. Re:But what if... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The cities are shitholes in large part because we've got these welfare queens living in the middle of nowhere that we have to subsidize. And to make it worse, the shitheads in those small towns continually vote against measures that would increase the wealth generating power of cities, so they can get a tiny tax break.

      You might want to first address "ground central" of the welfare queens....Big Cities and the ghettoes they seem to foster as their courts.

      Talk to the rest of us after you get that all cleared up, eh?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Dumping by Hentes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:Yes, yes, we get it by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, the story is telling a very different story. Amazon Prime endangers local stores. They will close shop, making you fully dependent on Amazon Prime in the end. Which is of course when they'll yank that carpet out under your feet and charge you through the nose for ... well, anything you might want or need.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:Yes, yes, we get it by Ogive17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amazon is the new Walmart, it's been happening for decades just with a different store name.

    At a certain point if all local competition is forced to close and Amazon yanks that carpet out, some local entrepreneur will find a way to purchase goods in bulk and sell them cheaper than Amazon but still at a profit. There will be some growing pains but I think this is a case where competition can never be completely removed and prices will remain reasonable.

    --
    "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  5. Re:Yes, yes, we get it by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The small-town lifestyle is not sustainable, and only works when it's being subsidized by the cities. Most of these dying towns don't have any real industry left anyway, so it's time for the people there to pack up and leave.

    That seems rather simplistic, since cities are not self-sustainable at all - they're entirely dependent on products and supplies from the outside. Wall off a city, and people there will starve really fast. Wall off a farming community, and they'll probably last a while.

    There is a balancing act at play here. You need some percentage of your population to work the farms needed to feed everybody. You can certainly talk about automating much of that... but frankly most city jobs are capable of being automated away as well.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. Amazon is a boon for rural folk. by pubwvj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.