There’s a new petition doing the rounds begging people not to shop with Amazon until they pay the “Living Wage” to their pickers and packers. Currently a few thousand people have signed up pledging not to spend £1.7m on Amazon this Christmas.
Except that that’s not really the case. Amazon Anonymous have asked those signing their pledge what they’d normally spend on Christmas presents. In reality most people don’t buy all of their presents on Amazon so the amount of business Amazon will miss out on is probably way less than £1.7m.
It’s also worth noting that Amazon Anonymous make no distinction between sales by Amazon and sales by third party sellers, who whilst some of which may use FBA, plenty will pick and pack their own Amazon orders and no one knows what those retailers pay their workers.
With an expected £22.3 billion Christmas spend in the UK this year (according to YouGov), even withholding £1.7m in sales from Amazon is such a tiny amount no one will notice. However it makes for a good headline for the activists.
I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t argue that all employees deserve a decent level of pay, no matter where they work. The questions that really need answering are would you as a retailer want to pay higher FBA fees and would you as a consumer want to pay a higher cost for either the product or the delivery charge to get the goods you want to buy?
What do you think the solution is? Is Amazon right to build warehouses in areas of low socio-economic opportunity giving people the chance to earn a wage, or is this just preying on the vulnerable who have no choice? Will you be signing the pledge to avoid shopping at Amazon this Christmas and/or will you stop using FBA until Amazon pay higher wages?
4 Responses
I don’t know what they pay the delivery drivers who work for Amazon Logistics but judging by the poor quality of drivers it can’t be much. Amazon Prime use to mean guaranteed next day delivery when they used DPD and Royal Mail etc. now they don’t even try to deliver much of the time, you just get an email saying they tried to deliver despite being a business address with people here throughout the whole day. I think Amazon are heading for a worse shambles than YODEL in the past with Amazon Logistics this year, they already can’t cope so no way will they manage the Christmas peak.
I would have more sympathy if Amazon Anonymous called for boycotts of Amazon until the latter stopped using the dreaded Yodel. But then Amazon part-own Yodel (4%?) – so are not likely to abandon using the worst delivery company in the UK.
I empathise with people who want a living wage, but boycotting Amazon at this time of year will hit the many self employed third party sellers who trade there, who ALSO want a living wage.
I haven’t bought anything from Amazon for over a year (it’s not that hard!).