Oh Yes Amazon is having a field day! All at the expense of the little bookstore, clothestore and other "non-essential" factors in human existence. Delivery systems are of course essential businesses!
I order my books online directly from a small bookstore in Cambridge, MA. Books are shipped through the USPS. I'm trying to give as much business as I can to local businesses even when I'm ordering online.
I would try but where am I likely to find English books..other than the latest paperback thriller here in France. Paris under normal circumstances has 2 generalist english book ...now closed like the rest. They are all trying to get around the lockdown by what is termed "click and collect" ! They manage to generate only 10% max of their normal revenues.
Since the lockdowns, I have been going out for groceries mostly (altho there is delivery for them I like to get specific products and don't have a smart fone).
However, I have been doing a lot more online purchases including from Amazon, which is quite efficient. I even had to return a product for the first time and discovered how convenient with taking a QR code to UPS with the product - a replacement is on the way.
I remember shopping with cash before the grocery stores had conveyors at the checkout, and rang up the total on a mechanical cash register. I have lived thru many improvements and consider this one just another point in mercantile evolution. In the late 1990s I was surprised by my first debit card from the bank and since then it has become indispensable.
In the 1980s & '90s I wrote a lot of letters to Editors of Newspapers (200 published in that 20 years) Now I only write opinions online. Things evolve, including the written word.
Accept that this particular evolution is rapidly accelerating the isolation of people and the lack of social interaction emphasizes the increasing "consumerist" definition of humanity.
There is amazing bookstore in Denver CO called The Tattered Cover bookstore. It has been around for ages. A renovated old movie theater. They will ship anything anywhere and have an unbelievable selection. Please consider looking into their website.
Amazon is so damn convenient. In addition to mail order products hard to find elsewhere, IтАЩve also come to love the portability of books on Kindle. ItтАЩs painfully ironic that this forum is big on illuminating the dangerous control of oligarchs. I support any and all alternatives! Amazon needs to become the corporate good citizen and ethical employer that Cathy Learoyd describes, but what forces to make that happen?
Uh, they don't have access to the Internet in France? Kindle?
Oh Yes Amazon is having a field day! All at the expense of the little bookstore, clothestore and other "non-essential" factors in human existence. Delivery systems are of course essential businesses!
I order my books online directly from a small bookstore in Cambridge, MA. Books are shipped through the USPS. I'm trying to give as much business as I can to local businesses even when I'm ordering online.
I would try but where am I likely to find English books..other than the latest paperback thriller here in France. Paris under normal circumstances has 2 generalist english book ...now closed like the rest. They are all trying to get around the lockdown by what is termed "click and collect" ! They manage to generate only 10% max of their normal revenues.
Since the lockdowns, I have been going out for groceries mostly (altho there is delivery for them I like to get specific products and don't have a smart fone).
However, I have been doing a lot more online purchases including from Amazon, which is quite efficient. I even had to return a product for the first time and discovered how convenient with taking a QR code to UPS with the product - a replacement is on the way.
I remember shopping with cash before the grocery stores had conveyors at the checkout, and rang up the total on a mechanical cash register. I have lived thru many improvements and consider this one just another point in mercantile evolution. In the late 1990s I was surprised by my first debit card from the bank and since then it has become indispensable.
In the 1980s & '90s I wrote a lot of letters to Editors of Newspapers (200 published in that 20 years) Now I only write opinions online. Things evolve, including the written word.
Accept that this particular evolution is rapidly accelerating the isolation of people and the lack of social interaction emphasizes the increasing "consumerist" definition of humanity.
And shopping as the opiate of the masses.
There is amazing bookstore in Denver CO called The Tattered Cover bookstore. It has been around for ages. A renovated old movie theater. They will ship anything anywhere and have an unbelievable selection. Please consider looking into their website.
Amazon is so damn convenient. In addition to mail order products hard to find elsewhere, IтАЩve also come to love the portability of books on Kindle. ItтАЩs painfully ironic that this forum is big on illuminating the dangerous control of oligarchs. I support any and all alternatives! Amazon needs to become the corporate good citizen and ethical employer that Cathy Learoyd describes, but what forces to make that happen?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-20/jeff-bezos-adds-record-13-billion-in-single-day-to-his-fortune
https://newrepublic.com/article/158050/oligarch-month-jeff-bezos
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bill-gates-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-and-the-rest-of-the-oligarchic-dozen-just-reached-a-disturbing-milestone-2020-08-18
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