Last Thursday, two Amazon employees came into my building to pitch a great opportunity: Allowing my staff to deliver Amazon packages, while they’re on the clock. No, really!
Amazon wants “mom and pop” businesses to receive 25 to 50 packages per day. Then, our staff members would deliver those packages within a six-mile radius. In return, my business would receive $2.50 per package.
From an article at Tech.co dated May 12, 2022:
“For over a year, Amazon has quietly been paying local businesses in rural America to deliver its packages.
“Since its rollout, the trial – officially known as the ‘Amazon Hub Delivery Partner Program’ – has largely evaded the public eye. But according to business owners involved, the program has recently been approved for greater funding and is set to exit its pilot phase over the coming months.”
Amazon has destroyed the “mom and pop” shop landscape by undercutting nearly every brick-and-mortar business on the planet on price. They often sell new items at my cost!
I routinely have people call my shop to ask if we have an item in stock and how much it is. Then they say it’s cheaper on Amazon… despite the fact that the price is printed on the product. I’m not charging more than Amazon. They’re deep discounting products as loss leaders to get customers into their eco-system of Prime, Kindle and Alexa.
And now they want our team members to deliver their packages?!
In the words of Michael Scott, “No, God! Please, no. No! No! Noooo!”
That same day, I’m driving home, listening to the latest episode of Simon Sinek’s podcast, “A Bit of Optimism.” He’s talking to Seth Godin about marketing. Sixteen minutes into the episode, Godin says this about Amazon:
“The original name of Amazon, which they still own, which still redirects to them, is Relentless.com. Jeff’s (Bezos) entire point of view is he wants to be direct marketing driven and transactional. The turnover at Amazon is so high that it cost 25% of their company’s total profit last year. More than half the people who are hired lasted less than 60 days. In some cities, they are worried that they have run out of human beings to hire who haven’t already worked at Amazon and quit.”
Things that make you go hmm.
Marc Bowker is a small business owner in Lima. He originally published think on LinkedIn. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
