We Are Modern Amazon-ians, And It’s Not as Cool as It Sounds

It’s an understatement to say that Amazon has been dominating online retail these past few years. In fact, the company has made huge leaps in the retail market as a whole with its market value rocketing to $355.9 billion by the end of 2016. According to Business Insider, Amazon’s market value at the time was greater than that of eight major brick-and-mortar retailers including Walmart, Target, and Macy’s combined. With the launch of services such as Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Echo, Amazon has become a one-stop shop for the solutions to all of our modern-day dilemmas. Whether your shampoo ran out, your dog broke its toy, or you have a burning desire for organic tater tots, Amazon can deliver whatever you need on the same day you order. However, the luxury of accessing everything you could possibly want in just a few clicks doesn’t come without a price.

In recent years, Amazon has been the scourge of brick-and-mortar retailers, putting tens of thousands of shops out of business and wrecking the job market in the process. Amazon amassed an immense customer base of at least 80 million Amazon Prime members in the U.S. alone in 2017, according to the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Data from the Institute of Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) reveals that 64 percent of American households possess an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $99 a year. These customers, attracted by Amazon’s conglomeration of services and efficient shipping, rarely go back to shopping at traditional stores.

A serious issue arises when Amazon cuts prices to the point where brick-and-mortar retailers can’t compete, forcing their doors to shut and their employees to find work elsewhere. The problem is that these unemployed retail workers then have little chance of finding employment in the retail business. While brick-and-mortar stores require a physical presence in the sales process, online stores have a lower demand for workers, therefore hiring fewer people than traditional stores. The ILSR estimates that small brick-and-mortar retailers employ roughly 300,000 people, whereas Amazon only employs about 146,000, less than half that number. Amazon is always hiring as it expands, but there is still a devastating net job loss since the number of workers hired is just a fraction of the number of workers laid off as smaller businesses downsize or go out of business. Amazon’s cutthroat business tactics in 2015 produced a net loss of an estimated 149,000 jobs.

The few that are hired by Amazon are left to suffer from unfair wages, which, according to the ILSR, are often up to 15 percent less than similar jobs in the same region.. This increase in low-wage jobs is not only bad for the workers, but also harms our economy as more money goes to large corporations rather than small businesses.

Amazon’s overwhelming success in the retail market should be kept in check.Without interference, Amazon will continue to expand its platform and accumulate wealth, leaving hundreds of thousands unemployed in its wake and promoting an influx of low-wage jobs. This would have devastating impacts on the economy, job market, and small businesses as a whole.

Consumers can begin to remedy this by supporting small businesses. While there are obviously some disadvantages to shopping at small businesses rather than online retailers such as Amazon, the long term economic benefits outweigh any inconveniences “shopping small” might cause. Supporting small businesses doesn’t necessarily mean only shopping at obscure, hole-in-the-wall places. Even shopping at larger chain stores with physical locations such as Target and Barnes & Noble is a start. If we want to protect small business and the fairness of our economy and prevent the loss of further retail jobs, it is important that this change in the way we shop begins soon.