question about Amazon Rising ?

[Chrissanth12]

I just finished watching this CNBC show--nothing new. Warehouses are sweatshops (that pay $12.50 per hour), and Amazon has ruined the book industry. The part about books was especially light on facts, and accused Amazon of running everyone else out of business. Of course B&N and Target and Walmart didn't have a thing to do with it. But apparently King, Rowling and Patterson all hate Amazon. Kind of interesting, just to see the inside of the Amazon warehouses, but not worth an hour (or 45 min after you ff through the commercials).

[GlenBarrington]

Sorry, but it is my belief that when one company can "destroy" an entire industry, then that industry was built on a VERY shaky foundation. If an entire industry can't adapt to a single company that has found a niche that industry isn't exploiting, then that industry has incompetent leadership.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by Chrissanth12

I just finished watching this CNBC show--nothing new. Warehouses are sweatshops (that pay $12.50 per hour), and Amazon has ruined the book industry. The part about books was especially light on facts, and accused Amazon of running everyone else out of business. Of course B&N and Target and Walmart didn't have a thing to do with it. But apparently King, Rowling and Patterson all hate Amazon. Kind of interesting, just to see the inside of the Amazon warehouses, but not worth an hour (or 45 min after you ff through the commercials).

I wonder how many sales King, Rowling and Patterson have through Amazon?

[Alohamora]

I don't know how they can say the industry has been ruined. From my perspective as a consumer, the book industry has never been better. Maybe there's more dreck to wade through, but the reward is finding more delightful new books and series to enjoy.

I only hope that the authors I like are well rewarded and keep turning out more excellent material.

BPH look like a troup of dinosaurs standing in the way of progress.

[theducks]

Look at what happened to Sears (Roebuck).

The had the Catalog (mail order) sales top spot. They had some of the best quality tools and appliances (some standard brands modified their designs to fit Sears requirements before attaching the Sears branding. Sears had engineers look over the product design and suggest demand, changes)

(Montgomery)Wards stomped them on Phone Catalog orders with the use of technology. No need to detail every aspect of an order. Returning user: Auto filled in (they asked for confirmation on shipping details). Catalog number: They confirmed with the details, asked if color or size.
Sears:every last thing had to be said and confirmed on a phone order.

Sears HAD the product, Warehouses and distribution, including 'Pickup points'
They had their heads buried and a death grip on the 'old ways'

Same goes for A T&T , nickel and dimeing for any of the bells and whistles or forcing purchase of bloated 'packages' that are standard with other carriers (disclosure: Ducks is a share holder). I finally switched to a Local carrier that provides wired line service (with DSL) for 2x what Ma Bell wanted for just LOCAL calling. (No VM, CID or long distance Toll calling) Ducks is not a heavy phone user, but CID and extended calling is a modern, basic usage.

Amazon (and my ISP) offer what the user wants, and at a fair price. They don't play 'used car salesman' with their customers

[frahse]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Sorry, but it is my belief that when one company can "destroy" an entire industry, then that industry was built on a VERY shaky foundation. If an entire industry can't adapt to a single company that has found a niche that industry isn't exploiting, then that industry has incompetent leadership.

That would be the case if the deed had indeed been done.

I think it is more a case of greedy people including Amazon doing their thing.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

I don't know how they can say the industry has been ruined. From my perspective as a consumer, the book industry has never been better. Maybe there's more dreck to wade through, but the reward is finding more delightful new books and series to enjoy.

I only hope that the authors I like are well rewarded and keep turning out more excellent material.

BPH look like a troup of dinosaurs standing in the way of progress.

Yep .

[barryem]

Amazon didn't hurt the print book industry nearly as much as Gutenberg hurt the scribes copying books by hand. Thank you Gutenberg. Thank you Amazon.

i just did a little searching for charts showing the growth of books before and after Amazon and i didn't find a lot that was helpful. My limited knowledge of the industry might be part of the reason I didn't. However I did find a chart showing that the number of new books each year has risen dramatically since Amazon. I think it's probably a safe bet that that also represents a decline in quality but I still think it's a good thing. I've read quite a few self published books and while some weren't very good a few were very good.

I think the book industry is probably pretty healthy from a reader's point of view. It's obviously going through a lot of changes and that's bound to make some people unhappy. I'm personally thrilled.

Right now reading is easier, better and cheaper than it's ever been in my 77 years. And it just keeps getting better.

Barry

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Chrissanth12

I just finished watching this CNBC show--nothing new. Warehouses are sweatshops (that pay $12.50 per hour), and Amazon has ruined the book industry. The part about books was especially light on facts, and accused Amazon of running everyone else out of business. Of course B&N and Target and Walmart didn't have a thing to do with it. But apparently King, Rowling and Patterson all hate Amazon. Kind of interesting, just to see the inside of the Amazon warehouses, but not worth an hour (or 45 min after you ff through the commercials).

Yes...Amazon is such a horrible employer that they pay for their warehouse employees to get college degrees.

https://www.amazoncareerchoice.com/home

Shari

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by shalym

Yes...Amazon is such a horrible employer that they pay for their warehouse employees to get college degrees.

https://www.amazoncareerchoice.com/home

Shari

Technical training and 2 year degrees, not college degrees. And this is becoming common practice among Fortune 500 companies. It increases productivity to further train their employees. It's not a charity.

[crossi]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Technical training and 2 year degrees, not college degrees. And this is becoming common practice among Fortune 500 companies. It increases productivity to further train their employees. It's not a charity.

So it helps both parties. That's all the better.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crossi

So it helps both parties. That's all the better.

No exploitation there.

There is also this:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/21/why-...0-to-quit.html

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Technical training and 2 year degrees, not college degrees. And this is becoming common practice among Fortune 500 companies. It increases productivity to further train their employees. It's not a charity.

How is that a bad thing for the employee? How does that make Amazon 'bad'? You are implying both of those things.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Technical training and 2 year degrees, not college degrees. And this is becoming common practice among Fortune 500 companies. It increases productivity to further train their employees. It's not a charity.

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

How is that a bad thing for the employee? How does that make Amazon 'bad'? You are implying both of those things.

I didn't read what haydnfan wrote as implying that either was a bad thing. Yes, it would be nice if they were willing to pay for the full 4 year university degree but technical training and 2 year degrees paid for by someone else are hardly a bad thing. Nor do I see it as a bad thing that companies are investing in their employees though I agree it's not a charity since the company is expecting a return on their investment.

Personally, my employers over the years have paid for quite a few computer and network related courses which have made me a more valuable employee (IMNSHO). The disadvantage is that this training had also made me more subject to headhunting by companies that prefer to hire their peons fully trained. I've talked to several companies that wanted to hire me but were not willing to continue investing in my ongoing training -- the type of idiots that don't realize that most skill sets, especially those involved in technical fields, are on a Red Queen's racetrack where you are running like hell just to stay even. You may have a bowlful of alphabet soup worth of degrees and certifications after your name on a business card but if you don't keep your skills up to date, they are get pretty useless.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I didn't read what haydnfan wrote as implying that either was a bad thing. Yes, it would be nice if they were willing to pay for the full 4 year university degree but technical training and 2 year degrees paid for by someone else are hardly a bad thing. Nor do I see it as a bad thing that companies are investing in their employees though I agree it's not a charity since the company is expecting a return on their investment.

Personally, my employers over the years have paid for quite a few computer and network related courses which have made me a more valuable employee (IMNSHO). The disadvantage is that this training had also made me more subject to headhunting by companies that prefer to hire their peons fully trained. I've talked to several companies that wanted to hire me but were not willing to continue investing in my ongoing training -- the type of idiots that don't realize that most skill sets, especially those involved in technical fields, are on a Red Queen's racetrack where you are running like hell just to stay even. You may have a bowlful of alphabet soup worth of degrees and certifications after your name on a business card but if you don't keep your skills up to date, they are get pretty useless.

I've never felt that my employer had a responsibility to keep me up to date with technology, that's my responsibility. Your employer doesn't always have your best interest in mind when it comes to training.

Way back when, Google was famous for giving employees one day a week for their personal projects. This lead to quite a few products for google (google mail and google groups both started out as personal projects) and helped them keep top talent people who wanted to work on cool things. Of course, they dropped that some years ago which may be why Google hasn't done much innovation in recent years.

When a company starts to be focused on next quarter's bottom line, this sort of thing tends to go away.