the Amazon dilemma

A friend on Facebook asked if Amazon was the new Walmart. I don’t think that is a question. I think it’s a fact that is hard to dispute.

I do not shop at Walmart. I refuse to shop at Walmart. Walmart keeps prices low and profits high by squeezing both their employees and their suppliers. In the pre-Obamacare days they told employees who needed medical attention to avail themselves of the local county health system.

I spend a lot of money at Amazon. Yet Amazon’s poor treatment of their warehouse employees is well-documented. When the Hachette dispute arose, I downloaded the Barnes and Noble Nook app to my iPad thinking that I would read my next book on the Nook, as a small, insignificant, but symbolic protest. When that time came I found that the book I selected was four dollars more on the Nook than on the Kindle. Spending the additional four dollars, even as a protest, didn’t make sense to me, especially since I had a gift card credit on the books (excuse the unintended pun) at Amazon.

I really should be consistent in my approach to Walmart and Amazon. I’m not. I can’t justify that. I can’t justify supporting Amazon. But I do.