Why you should try to avoid shopping at Amazon

[KZNSeagull]

Amazon is being challenged by the HMRC isn't it?

I believe so, but even if they paid full tax on their profits, they would have only paid 400m odd. Which is not very much when they turned over 8bn, which is certainly not an Alan Sugar style business model!

 

[KZNSeagull]

It's rather anti-competitive of them to enter markets, where they are not trying to make a profit, or deliberately making a loss, to put the squeeze on competitors such as independent book shops, other e-reader and tablet manufacturers, who don't have such a luxury.

Indeed. But that is their business model - do away with all competition and then charge what they like. I don't see this ever happening though and I wonder how long it will take for their investors to get fed up and look elsewhere. Same with Facebook and Twitter etc.

 

[Commander]

Because over 25's have more fiscal responsibility in general. More likely to be home owners, have kids etc.

Through their choice. They shouldn't take on more responsibility if they can't afford to pay for it. Otherwise it's not 'responsibility'.

Living wage breeds more confidence and spending in the economy, more businesses start up, more competition which caps cost of living plus less unemployment and more money for the government. End result healthier country.

Perhaps, although I'd like to see some proof. Not necessarily doubting it, just if it was that simple then why hasn't it been done yet? And maybe I'm out of touch, but £10 an hour seems like an awful lot to have as a minimum wage. Someone on £10 an hour living up North somewhere is on reasonable money.

 

[Nibble]

Through their choice. They shouldn't take on more responsibility if they can't afford to pay for it. Otherwise it's not 'responsibility'.



.

They can afford it though, they earn more.

 

[Nibble]

Min wage should be at LEAST £10 ph. To live a decent, fulfilled, happy life people should ideally earn enough to have £250 a week completely disposable income. That's after putting some aside, after all bills and obligations. Purely for yourself. It rarely happens but that's the least one should expect.

As HT says, only companies that can afford this should be allowed to operate. We'd soon strip away the dead weight and burden businesses and be left with thriving, profit making business all paying adequate tax.

 

[KZNSeagull]

As an independent book shop owner, thankfully I am shielded some what from Amazon due to their prohibitive postage rates to South Africa and the current exchange rate.

But I did receive an extraordinary letter from one of my suppliers (Gardners Books in Eastbourne) pleading with book shops not to buy books from Amazon because at that time (about 5 years ago) many books were cheaper at Amazon than they were from them! Which is an amazing state of affairs.

Gardners are involved in an interesting initiative called Hive.co.uk, where customers can download ebooks etc and elect which shop to send a cut of the profit to, to allow independents to sell ebooks with very little outlay. I am not sure how successful it is, but it has been going for 3 years or so, so must be doing reasonably well. Sadly, they cannot include overseas shops due to rights problems - I can order ebooks from them directly, but again the choice is limited by rights. But things like Hive are an interesting alternative.

 

[Commander]

Min wage should be at LEAST £10 ph. To live a decent, fulfilled, happy life people should ideally earn enough to have £250 a week completely disposable income. That's after putting some aside, after all bills and obligations. Purely for yourself. It rarely happens but that's the least one should expect.

That is ridiculous. I've never had £250 a week disposable income in my life and I've been round the world twice and own a 2 bed flat in West Hampstead.

If I'd had £250 a week disposable income in my twenties I'm pretty sure I'd be dead by now. If everyone earnt that kind of money they would have no reason to try and better themselves and we'd be a nation of nobodies.

 

[dougdeep]

Min wage should be at LEAST £10 ph. To live a decent, fulfilled, happy life people should ideally earn enough to have £250 a week completely disposable income. That's after putting some aside, after all bills and obligations. Purely for yourself. It rarely happens but that's the least one should expect.

Have you heard of inflation?

 

[Nibble]

That is ridiculous. I've never had £250 a week disposable income in my life and I've been round the world twice and own a 2 bed flat in West Hampstead.

If I'd had £250 a week disposable income in my twenties I'm pretty sure I'd be dead by now. If everyone earnt that kind of money they would have no reason to try and better themselves and we'd be a nation of nobodies.

Really. That's you though isn't it. £250 aint that much. Here:

£75 on a meal out with the mrs
£75 on a day out with the kids/mrs/family
£50 on treats, DVD's, takeaway, few beers/wine indoors
£50 on the hip for bits and bobs throughout the week or emergencies.

Not that much really. If you can't handle that amount of money it's a good thing you don't earn that much. Most of us adults could easily deal with that I'm sure. It'll never happen for everyone though.

And what do you mean we'd never try and better ourselves? No-one would strive to earn more than 25-30K a year? Oh come on man, that's rubbish.

 

[Nibble]

Have you heard of inflation?

yes. Your point?

 

[Notters]

Min wage should be at LEAST £10 ph. To live a decent, fulfilled, happy life people should ideally earn enough to have £250 a week completely disposable income. That's after putting some aside, after all bills and obligations. Purely for yourself. It rarely happens but that's the least one should expect.

As HT says, only companies that can afford this should be allowed to operate. We'd soon strip away the dead weight and burden businesses and be left with thriving, profit making business all paying adequate tax.

£250 a week! I've never had £250 a month (thanks to brighton rent).

 

[Nibble]

£250 a week! I've never had £250 a month (thanks to brighton rent).

Well, you've just made my point. In reality, you know you don't have to earn that much to have 1k disposable a month.

 

[scooter1]

I hate Amazons business model and what they do. In my business we support bricks and mortar retail outlets who Amazon allow to sell their goods on their site. Amazon then monitor what sells well and directly approach the manufacturer to supply direct, thus cutting out the retailer who they initially supported. Once they get manufacturer supply, they smash the arse out of the price so the retailer is unable to compete.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Min wage should be at LEAST £10 ph. To live a decent, fulfilled, happy life people should ideally earn enough to have £250 a week completely disposable income. That's after putting some aside, after all bills and obligations. Purely for yourself. It rarely happens but that's the least one should expect.

As HT says, only companies that can afford this should be allowed to operate. We'd soon strip away the dead weight and burden businesses and be left with thriving, profit making business all paying adequate tax.

This.....

It's rather anti-competitive of them to enter markets, where they are not trying to make a profit, or deliberately making a loss, to put the squeeze on competitors such as independent book shops, other e-reader and tablet manufacturers, who don't have such a luxury.

And this......

Really. That's you though isn't it. £250 aint that much. Here:

£75 on a meal out with the mrs
£75 on a day out with the kids/mrs/family
£50 on treats, DVD's, takeaway, few beers/wine indoors
£50 on the hip for bits and bobs throughout the week or emergencies.

Not that much really. If you can't handle that amount of money it's a good thing you don't earn that much. Most of us adults could easily deal with that I'm sure. It'll never happen for everyone though.

And what do you mean we'd never try and better ourselves? No-one would strive to earn more than 25-30K a year? Oh come on man, that's rubbish.

...and this.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

That is ridiculous. I've never had £250 a week disposable income in my life and I've been round the world twice and own a 2 bed flat in West Hampstead.

If I'd had £250 a week disposable income in my twenties I'm pretty sure I'd be dead by now. If everyone earnt that kind of money they would have no reason to try and better themselves and we'd be a nation of nobodies.

Why do you keep mentioning people wanting to better themselves via work? The world will always need people to do unskilled work and to me they are jobs which are just as valid. Some people simply want to do a shift and go home; nothing wrong with this at all. If everyone was chasing the dream we'd be ****ed as it is physically impossible for everyone to have everything. But just because people are not actively pursuing a life of Jamie Oliver cookery books in a Barrett Homes semi it does not imply they should be shat on financially. If you want a member of staff in an unskilled position to do a good job and be loyal to you pay them a decent salary, give them some security and be nice to them.

 

[yxee]

yes. Your point?

Legislation is not a replacement for economic prospority. You can't just make everything better by forcing companies to pay £10/hour to everyone, they will just (1) raise their own prices to protect their profits and (2) lay people off in accordance with however many fewer goods they sell as a result of the higher prices.

You can print and give everyone in the country £1 million, it would make them millionaires but it wouldn't make them any better off than they were before.

 

[Springal]

Most of Amazons tech + engineering staff are based out of Dublin. I work in that sector and they are basically hand picking talent from the UK at the moment

 

[Guinness Boy]

To be honest you'd need £80 a month disposable to be a season ticket holder or regular at the Amex and that's before you've done ANYTHING else.

 

[Soulman]

Why do you keep mentioning people wanting to better themselves via work? The world will always need people to do unskilled work and to me they are jobs which are just as valid. Some people simply want to do a shift and go home; nothing wrong with this at all. If everyone was chasing the dream we'd be ****ed as it is physically impossible for everyone to have everything. But just because people are not actively pursuing a life of Jamie Oliver cookery books in a Barrett Homes semi it does not imply they should be shat on financially. If you want a member of staff in an unskilled position to do a good job and be loyal to you pay them a decent salary, give them some security and be nice to them.

Fair post, and my agreement comes from a poster that is perceived as a right winger.

 

[Commander]

Why do you keep mentioning people wanting to better themselves via work? The world will always need people to do unskilled work and to me they are jobs which are just as valid. Some people simply want to do a shift and go home; nothing wrong with this at all. If everyone was chasing the dream we'd be ****ed as it is physically impossible for everyone to have everything. But just because people are not actively pursuing a life of Jamie Oliver cookery books in a Barrett Homes semi it does not imply they should be shat on financially. If you want a member of staff in an unskilled position to do a good job and be loyal to you pay them a decent salary, give them some security and be nice to them.

Unskilled jobs are just as important as highly skilled jobs, absolutely. We need people in all levels of work or the country wouldn't function. But if everyone earned the absolute minimum of £250 a week after tax, rent, bills and a bit of savings then the proportion of people doing unskilled work would be far too high for us to prosper as a country. I'd immediately quit my job and do something with no stress, for a start!