Online Purchasing

[silverwhisper]

pmann, you didn't actually read the salon article, did you? no, of course not. because you aren't some ignorant fucking corporate apologist. but i do wonder if you aren't being willfully ignorant. because there's no fucking way in hell you could have actually read it and remained as blase about what it had to say as that.

since i suspect you skipped it, here are a few choice quotations.

the article quoth:
at the allentown warehouse, stephen dallal, also a “picker,” found that his output targets increased the longer he worked at the warehouse, doubling after six months. “it started with 75 pieces an hour, then 100 pieces an hour. then 150 pieces an hour. they just got faster and faster.” he too was written up for not meeting his targets and was fired.

also...

the article quoth:
the series revealed the lengths amazon was prepared to go to keep costs down and output high and yielded a singular image of amazon’s ruthlessness—ambulances stationed on hot days at the amazon center to take employees suffering from heat stroke to the hospital. despite the summer weather, there was no air-conditioning in the depot, and amazon refused to let fresh air circulate by opening loading doors at either end of the depot—for fear of theft. inside the plant there was no slackening of the pace, even as temperatures rose to more than 100 degrees.

you ever been to allentown, PA? i went to college not far from there. there isn't a whole lot in the way of jobs out there. this isn't surprising: warehouses are invariably constructed in places meeting 2 criterion: a) cheap land, and b) easy access to the transportation infrastructure. summer in that part of pennsylvania can be pretty humid, too.

and let's talk about the productivity guidelines. physical labor has hard limits to what can be accomplished. it isn't like sales or being an asset manager where a new client can completely skyrocket your quarter: there's only so much that can be done in such work. where do those increases end?

so let's sum up: amazon maltreats its employees & pays them shit. of course a warehouse job isn't gonna pay particularly well* but employees have a justifiable expection that their employer to comply with common sense comfort requirements, never mind the OSHA ones, to provide a safe work environment.

your focusing on the pay thing is a classic case of missing the forest for the trees.

or is this where you reveal yourself to be one of those ayn rand-worshipping morons?

ed

*i have worked for company that actually paid nearly double that for warehouse staff, but they're obviously the exception, not the norm. there are some real benefits to privately-held employers vs public ones.

 

[Lord Pmann]

pmann, you didn't actually read the salon article, did you? no, of course not. because you aren't some ignorant fucking corporate apologist. but i do wonder if you aren't being willfully ignorant. because there's no fucking way in hell you could have actually read it and remained as blase about what it had to say as that.

since i suspect you skipped it, here are a few choice quotations.

I did read it (the first one you posted). But since I don't think that warehouse workers making $24k a year is something about which someone should piss their pants, I dismiss a lot of the shit in the article. (I'm referencing the first article)

I made clear references to the fact that I thought the treatment of the workers was bad, but the pay thing is a stupid talking point. And when an article has such shit viewpoints I tend to ignore the shit I the article as a whole. I don't subscribe to the "chew the meat and spit out the bones" mentality because you have a bunch of fuckwits like yourself choking on bones.

Amazon sounds like a shit place to work. My point was that the pay issue was a ridiculous talking point.

 

[Lord Pmann]

your focusing on the pay thing is a classic case of missing the forest for the trees.

or is this where you reveal yourself to be one of those ayn rand-worshipping morons?

ed

*i have worked for company that actually paid nearly double that for warehouse staff, but they're obviously the exception, not the norm. there are some real benefits to privately-held employers vs public ones.

My focusing on the pay was the fact that it was a shit way to represent something in an article. If their problem is the conditions, then that's a real problem. The pay is not a problem.

Slave days are over, beeyotch. If you feel like you're being treated like a slave, fucking leave. I have a hard time believing OSHA wouldn't be fucking them with fines left and right if the conditions were truly this bad.

I work at a company where our warehouse workers make good money, starting about $42k and going up to $60k or more. It seems overpriced to me, but that's what they feel it is worth.

 

[GrrlFriday]

Is it possible to leave, though, and find another job?

 

[bailadora]

Is it possible to leave, though, and find another job?

Interesting question. If there's not much in the way of employers, one's choices might be very limited. It then becomes a question of what lengths you're willing to go to pursue that (hopefully) better job. For example, if you've lived in one location all your life, but there's nothing but shit jobs around, are you willing to relocate somewhere where there might be better prospects for your particular skillset? For some, the answer might be yes while others would rather just put up with the shit at work in order to retain familiar surroundings (ie proximity to family, etc).

"Just find another job" sounds easy on paper. In reality, not so much.

 

[GrrlFriday]

I was thinking more of being a carer for someone who's very sick, or being the sole breadwinner (or both...) - something that could happen to anyone.

 

[bailadora]

I was thinking more of being a carer for someone who's very sick, or being the sole breadwinner (or both...) - something that could happen to anyone.

There's that, too. The sole bread winner thing is how I ended up moving 1800 miles from my hometown after living in the same place for the first 40 years of my life.

It was a very tough decision to make. Grab the financial opportunity, or try to find a job in a very small market that wouldn't pay nearly what he had been making before, simply for the sake of keeping the family in where we had always lived, where we had well established lives, family and friends. It wasn't an easy choice to make, by any means.

 

[silverwhisper]

pmann quoth:
my focusing on the pay was the fact that it was a shit way to represent something in an article. if their problem is the conditions, then that's a real problem. the pay is not a problem [italics mine].

if that's true, why was the only thing you talked about? literally, it was the only thing in your post.

look, if talking about things like this isn't why you're on lit, that's fine, we're all here for different reasons: hey, no big deal.

but if this is something you're into discussing--and i'll be honest, i'd gotten the impression you are--then let's do it properly.

pmann quoth:
slave days are over, beeyotch. if you feel like you're being treated like a slave, fucking leave. i have a hard time believing OSHA wouldn't be fucking them with fines left and right if the conditions were truly this bad.

bail quoth:
"just find another job" sounds easy on paper. in reality, not so much.

bingo.

it isn't always as easy as that, pmann. why do you think people work for walmart when those guys are complete fucktards? nobody wants to work for walmart: it's that they don't have a choice.

additionally: large employers pay a lot in income taxes to the local community, and the local government is often loathe to come down on them. they also sometimes get involved in (read: make campaign contributions) local politics, which buys them a lot of influence.

ed

 

[NippleMuncher]

it isn't always as easy as that, pmann. why do you think people work for walmart when those guys are complete fucktards? nobody wants to work for walmart: it's that they don't have a choice.

additionally: large employers pay a lot in income taxes to the local community, and the local government is often loathe to come down on them. they also sometimes get involved in (read: make campaign contributions) local politics, which buys them a lot of influence.

ed

IME, your average Walmart employee would be unemployable anywhere else. As for the company, it is evil incarnate, who has made millions at the expense of honest working folks. Thankfully, there have been a number of communities around these parts who've stood up and protested against this particular megalith from entering their neighborhood, they don't want the store or the clientele it attracts.

 

[silverwhisper]

funny thing, i've interviewed job candidates that work/worked for walmart. sometimes, it's just bad circumstances.

ed

 

[bailadora]

Since this thread has already derailed, might as well take it further!

This information about Amazon and other companies brings up an interesting dilemma for me. I try to be socially conscious and to avoid patronizing companies that treat their employees unethically. But we're also a single income family, and price point is a huge factor in where I buy.

How does one maintain a social consciousness on a very tight budget?

 

[Emerson40]

I was having a conversation with the girlfriend today about online purchasing, and I'd like some outside perspectives if you don't mind sharing.

What kinds of things do you and your spouse buy online? From fad to useful, hobby to necessity, what kinds of things are you looking for?

Do you buy in bulk? What kinds of consumables do you buy? (pet food, light bulbs, water filters, ???? )

Do you prefer online shopping to brick and mortar shopping?

I purchase / have purchased online:
flights / hotels, music, books, most household items, electronics, a few subscriptions (to a few magazines that offer robust, content-rich, paperless editions of their printed material), tickets for events / shows, tools, an occasional group-on, wine, a few pieces of art last year, a bicycle, pizza delivery, and enrollment in programs / activities such as swimming and dance lessons for the kids and some education courses

I don't purchase online:
clothing (size and fit can vary so much), food groceries (anything that has a sell-by date, or freshness is a consideration when purchasing such as fruit & veg, meats), medications, or the hiring of mercenaries or tradespeople.

 

[Cumference]

I've never bought a car, a house or toilet paper online.... But pretty much anything else.

 

[NotHisLady]

I was just reading through all of this and it's very interesting. I do some online shopping--mostly event tickets and hotel reservations but also books and anything I can't easily get close to home. I was close to ordering some live crawfish but decided they were a bit pricey.

With apologies all around, there is something I'm completely stuck on here though--

...The toilet paper goes in the bathroom closet. It's stacked about 4 rolls high, 3 deep and 9 wide...

---4 by 3 by 9? Isn't that
(blonde doing math, please step back behind the line)
a little over a hundred rolls (108?)
That's for an entire YEAR???

 

[desertslave]

I hate almost all shopping. I'm NOT the browsing type (unlike Himself); I view most shopping trips as mercenary missions--define the objective, get it accomplished, and get the hell out. The only exceptions are for books or going to a hardware store. I enjoy book shopping because I always find treats that I hadn't considered (although Amazon is getting better with their suggestions), and I just plain love hardware stores...the smell of fresh lumber, all the eye candy in the garden section, and looking at tools for things I can bend to my evil purposes.

That said, I rely on Amazon for the majority of my book purchases simply because of ebooks, and I also buy many other books and 99% of my music from them, plus the occasional oddity (replacement pitcher for my blender, new bowl for my mixer, etc.)

If I could do Amazon for groceries (without a premium price) I'd be right on it. I'm fairly certain we would save money since there would be a much simpler, non-browsing list. We're ALL bad about "oh look, that would be tasty" impulse buys.

I HATE clothes shopping! Nothing ever fits right, I suffer from sticker shock and my personal style doesn't change much. I've taken to doing a fair amount of sewing for myself instead. If a pair of jeans wears out I sob and sulk, and buying new ones is much like a walk to the gallows. For other items like shirts, socks and skivvies, I'm mostly online.

I do like fabric and fiber shopping. There's no accurate substitute for color and feel online. BUT I've made many net purchases after obtaining swatches and samples. I also buy film for my/son's camera online, paints, brushes, paper, yarn, glass rods (for my bead making), dyes, hard-to-find tools, storage solutions, and even computers .

 

[neci]

bathing suit, emu oil, huge sparkly sex toy, plug in sex toy, perfume, seed.

 

[NippleMuncher]

Thanks to all for your comments.

 

[Lord Pmann]

I was just reading through all of this and it's very interesting. I do some online shopping--mostly event tickets and hotel reservations but also books and anything I can't easily get close to home. I was close to ordering some live crawfish but decided they were a bit pricey.

With apologies all around, there is something I'm completely stuck on here though--



---4 by 3 by 9? Isn't that
(blonde doing math, please step back behind the line)
a little over a hundred rolls (108?)
That's for an entire YEAR???

Yes. That's 3 packs of 36. We don't always use that though. For instance, we bought 3 packs this year. However, every other year we will probably have to buy only two packs. Does that make sense? Were you thinking that amount of toilet paper was too much or too little?

The caveat to doing this is that it looks like, when you are checking out at the retailer, that you do nothing but shit yourself silly.

 

[Lord Pmann]

look, if talking about things like this isn't why you're on lit, that's fine, we're all here for different reasons: hey, no big deal.

but if this is something you're into discussing--and i'll be honest, i'd gotten the impression you are--then let's do it properly.

Of course I am here to discuss. I felt bad for derailing NM's thread though, but he seems cool with it, so I have no problem discussing and will write a response later.

 

[GiggLeGasm]

So.. when you came home this year, did you rotate the newer toilet paper to the bottom of the pile? I would think that the pressure of the top rolls, and possibly even the paper towels, would cause tissue breakdown and your underlying tissue could be damaged.

 

[GiggLeGasm]

Since this thread has already derailed, might as well take it further!

This information about Amazon and other companies brings up an interesting dilemma for me. I try to be socially conscious and to avoid patronizing companies that treat their employees unethically. But we're also a single income family, and price point is a huge factor in where I buy.

How does one maintain a social consciousness on a very tight budget?

and 'ON' topic -

This.

I try to buy from local vendors. I actively avoid practices that are in disagreement with my beliefs. I try to support companies that represent a morally responsible practice.
All that, and I'll still run to WalMart for my Kashi and KIND bars. It's a dollar cheaper! and don't tell me that it's only a dollar. I have three sons. They eat as if I had a dozen.

 

[NightL]

So.. when you came home this year, did you rotate the newer toilet paper to the bottom of the pile? I would think that the pressure of the top rolls, and possibly even the paper towels, would cause tissue breakdown and your underlying tissue could be damaged.

I click to view the last message - I read the above and think, this so has to be about pmann - then scroll up

 

[jakereeder22]

That is probably a good thing...

I must be the only person who buys sex toys the old fashioned way. In dark sunglasses and disguise. . Kidding, but I do like to have had them in my hand to know what I am truly getting so I only buy in nn nckkxkdkdnnss dbnnx

 

[Emerson40]

I can't believe there's such an art to toilet paper storage, or that you people have put so much thought into it.

Fuck me.

I suspect that next to boxes of ammo, bog wipe would be quite popular with the looting survivors, post zombie apocalypse.

Perhaps pmann has been watching too much Walking Dead. I don't think that IBS sufferers keep a 12 month supply in the cupboard, between the Christmas decorations and stacks of monogrammed, decorative towels.

Just think of the potential shoe storage lost...

Strange fellow.

 

[Lord Pmann]

When the apocalypse happens and you fuckers are dragging your arses around like dogs with worms, you won't be laughing then. I'll be sitting in my house, in my monogrammed robe and classy slippers, laughing as I burn toilet paper just for shits and giggles. You'll be knocking at my door just wishing you had 108 rolls of toilet paper to soothe your weary arses.