Amazon keeps making it easier to continue to do business with them.
Just last month, my annual Prime membership with Amazon got renewed, and every year like clockwork I would agonize at how much it costs (nearly $130 now with tax), come to a realization that I wouldn’t want to live without “free” two-day shipping (you pansy), and resign to continue the subscription. I don’t even watch Prime videos that much; it’s purely for the shipping convenience, which is difficult luxury to break away from.
Recently I’ve come to recognize the human toll it takes to ship an item to me so quickly from Amazon: from the overworked pickers at the distribution warehouse, to the freelance delivery person driving their own personal car to carry the package on its final miles. Ignorance is indeed bliss because it all works wonderfully from the customer’s perspective, but once you understand how the sausage is made, it’s very hard to turn the other cheek. This is why as much as possible, I choose the slow shipping option.
Though sometimes I really need an item in haste, so retaining the two-day option is nice. Perhaps one day I can forsake the Prime membership entirely, but as it stands, I am re-upped for yet another year.
This past week I had to return something I bought from Amazon, the first time in a long time. I was all ready to pay for return shipping cost when I was pleasantly surprised with a new option that Amazon now offers: one can simply drop off items to be returned at a local Kohl’s, whereby they will package and ship it back to Amazon for absolutely free. I’m sure there’s further labor exploitation going on here as well to facilitate this, but for me as a customer, this method to return merchandise cannot be more convenient. Plus, it’s far more pleasant to visit a Kohl’s store than the local post office.
Surely the next innovation is flying drones to pick up our return packages, right?
Warehouses full of cars are cool. Exhibit A.