Is Amazon amazing? I wouldn’t know.
Ironically, my free trial of Amazon Prime just ended this week too. I complete forgot about it until just two hours before midnight, enough time to cancel it and sit there and go wow, I’m going to miss Prime benefits. I say benefits with an s, but I myself haven’t used Amazon beyond ordering textbooks and books for courses. It’s my parents who share my account and have me order things for them that reap the benefits, which really only means free and fast shipping. We never ventured further on the so-called benefits of Prime.
According to Amazon’s site its benefits includes access to ad-free playlists, unlimited photo storage, instant streaming videos and free books to read on Kindle. Which for someone like me who doesn’t really need any of those means nothing. However, I already have other platforms to stream what I actually want, and often what I want doesn’t pertain to American or western media but rather from Asia. I think that the benefits I cited are pertain to what’s big in the USA because Amazon is a US company, and for someone who likes the idea of having everything in one server. Since I already have places to dump my photos, prefer physical books, and stream anime and Asian dramas through sites like I don’t see or feel the need to Amazon outside of necessary shopping.
As a selling/shopping platform I think we can all agree it’s a major player alongside big names like eBay and craigslist. It allows everyday people like you and me to search for products on a global scale meaning a higher chance of finding exactly what you need as opposed to driving to a store and finding that it doesn’t hold the item you want/need. Amazon has built a reputation for being a large and fast-growing company it’s amazing to think that in one day an employee is walking as much as 10 miles on their shift! As I wrap up my undergrad I wonder about the usefulness of Amazon after college. Since I won’t be here for the UMass partnership with Amazon I’ll be left curious about the outcome. I get this feeling it’ll be different from the Google merge
I agree with much of my peers that Amazon is practical. So when I think of all the powerhouses of the internet today I think it may have a chance at having the longest shelf life. They seem to have a handle on the demands of their customers. In recent years they’ve been curbing their site to accommodate college students, graduates, and staffs with the Textbook department; it offers cheap prices and fast shipping. If I remember correctly it wasn’t that long ago that they implemented this sub-section to their site. Before that it was about Chegg and other rental options that often seemed sketchy or shady in how much you pay and what condition of the book you get out of it. Since Amazon has since expanded across the borders of the USA it’s proof that their company is using their user feedback properly. When we talked about people getting rewards for five star/good reviews I think it’s not impossible that that occurs on Amazon, but for some reason I have good faith. I’ve only ever once scoured Amazon for a reviews on a portable charger I felt I needed. It had over a thousand ratings and I wasn’t sure if I could trust it over the three reviews every other similar product got. I didn’t think about checking the three-star reviews like someone from class mentioned. He was brilliant and I was so baffled at why I didn’t think of that as well. In the end, I bought a price but seemingly good charger and so far it works well, maybe I just got lucky.