I love Amazon. Amazon Prime is a life saver! When I broke up with my ex last year I needed a new mattress, and I needed on quick. So what did I do? I didn’t go to Sleepy’s. I didn’t have the means to transport a 100lb mattress from the store into my apartment. I also didn’t have the funds to pay for a mattress worth more than $500. I avoided all this hassle. I avoided the awkward mattress testing. I avoided the desperate salesman. I avoided the burdensome pick up and drop off. What did I do? I went to Amazon, and in just a few clicks, and after reading a few reviews, and in just a matter of 2 days, I had a brand new mattress!
Amazon has made my life incredibly easy. I’ve found everything from textbooks to bathing suits to special light bulbs on this platform. Amazon has saved me obnoxious trips to random hardware stores or to distant malls. Amazon has allowed me to use and expend the least amount of energy to receive a product I probably purchased on a mere whim. Amazon has allowed me to indulge in my American, first world, world class laziness. Amazon has opened up a world of possibility for me, a world of consumerism and shopping and joy and gratification I probably would not have experienced otherwise. And I love Amazon for this, but after reading several articles on platforms and their sneaky sales tactics, I have to admit that Amazon doesn’t appear as kind and pure as it once had been for me.
The author of “The Age of the Platform” used a metaphor to best present the idea to me:
“Amazon Prime’s cheap and fast shipping causes shoppers to buy considerably more than they normally would…everything Amazon does–and how the company does it–is by design…For instance, grocery stores place milk in the back and put high-margin items near the register. They make it reasonably difficult for customers to run in and run out. Customers in the store for longer periods of time are more likely to purchase more things; they have more time to make impulse buys.”
When I read that my mind was blown. Milk is always in the back! And I always end up buying Icebreakers at the cash register! And Amazon’s design with its recommended products and ease of use and efficiency have definitely forced me to splurge more than once or twice! Reading that made me feel like a stupid, senseless, gullible, vulnerable, pliable, dumb, and greedy consumer. Reading that paragraph made me feel like a fat, wasteful cow easily goaded into buying products I don’t need.
But at the same time, hello?! I can order books I’ve been meaning to read and have them at my doorstep in 2 days with FREE shipping! I can order Dunkaroos (which have been discontinued in the US) from Canada and snack on them in 2 days! I can grocery shop on Amazon. I can buy shoes, clothes, bags, food, beds, and even milk from Amazon! As much as I feel I should be skeptical of Amazon, I really don’t see myself ever not using it.
Platforms, as sneaky and untrustworthy as they may be, in the long run do a great deal of good for the hungry American consumer. They make connections more efficient, fast, and easy. Americans will always value this over the hidden downfalls.