Amazon - best thing ever or nightmare

[the chickenvilla]

Amazon is coming to Canada - they did not announce the city of their choice yet - and will create up to 50 000 jobs in Canada. Sounds great - right?
But what is with the other side? Our little local book store is closing after over 20 years - they can not compete with Amazon and sales have gone down so much - that they have no choice as closing down. How many little stores are closing and will close "thanks" to Amazon. And what about this jobs? Non of this people will get a job at Amazon - one city will " win" and the rest of the country will loose.
I never bought anything from Amazon and I will stick with that.

[Ontario Chick]

I don't think it would make any difference if Toronto (the last city in the running) got the "Amazon" or not, people will shop online wherever the shipping centre is located.
The retail business is changing constantly and those who do not adjust will not make it, see Sears, regardless of size.
One interesting development, some of the online businesses are now opening "brick & mortar" places.

[Skinny rooster]

I think there is a misunderstanding, Amazon is not coming to Canada, they were looking for a city to set up in and Toronto is the only Canadian city left on the list. Given that the president said he will punish any American companies that send jobs out of the states, Toronto has about as much of a chance as Amazon setting up in my barn. (Which I would totally let them do for the bargain basement price of only ten million).

I'm with you guys, I like to buy from a store.

[kenya]

Well the younger generation rarely steps out of the house everything is done online. So you either adjust your selling techniques or go under. People thought e books would do away with regular books but in fact e books are becoming less popular. I guess people like to have something tangable that could stay on the self for years and you could still pick it up anytime and read.

[baronrenfrew]

books has always been a tough business. Amazon didn't kill books, people's purchasing choices did. goodbye encyclopedias, thesaurus, dictionary, paper maps, etc. Now its also easier to write a book: from the movie Julie and Julia everything was typed on carbon paper; now we all tap away, cut and paste, spell check etc. so there is a lot more manuscripts written.

The same choice we all make when we choose a supermarkets vs the little butcher, baker, deli, and veggie market. Now the long hours of supermarkets and the drop in smoking killed most corner stores. And I didn't mention Wal-Mart or Home Depot. Goodbye record store. Goodbye to many "greasy spoon" breakfast places and Hello McDonald's and Tim's.
Shopping malls hit the downtown stores, now ebiz hits the malls.
The business world is a race and there's always someone working on a faster car.

You vote with your wallet: where do you spend your money?
(The only time I went to Wal-Mart in the last year was to buy paper for my computer as they were my only choice in Renfrew, otherwise they don't get my vote.)

[Skinny rooster]

Actually the coolest thing happened at Christmas, I was shopping at Carlingwood mall in Ottawa and there was a record/CD store in the mall!!!!! I asked the lady if it was only for Christmas, she kinda got upset with me and informed me that they have been there almost two years. I didn't know, I didn't shop there last year. Any way probably a niche market for people (like me) who enjoy browsing through music for that rare find. The prices were out of this world, I bought some c.d.s.,

[baronrenfrew]

Esso (Exxon) has the worst environmental track record, and Royal Dutch Shell (oohh airmiles) isn't a whole lot better; whereas Petro Canada (Suncor) is one of the best for R&D for cleaning up tar sands and other waste.

We are all choosing whether to buy "cheap" bird feed or get the non-gmo or organic stuff.

We've already had this discussion with the cost and mark-up of car parts.

I gave Carla a hard time before Christmas as she bought the cheapest plastic toilet seat, so we just brought it back for a more expensive wooden one (I'm such a hardass) so I can burn it when it eventually breaks.

Goodbye movie theaters and drive-ins, and goodbye movie rental stores, hello Netflix and streaming.

The "average" person buys twice as many clothes as in the 1970's (thanks Reagan, shop for the economy) so now we rent space to keep our extra junk.

I think its fair to say that none of us are "average" as average people don't keep chickens.

[Killerbunny]

Comment when I took a broken digging fork with a warranty on it back to the store because I broke it.
"What were you doing with it?"
"digging potatoes"
"Why can't you just buy them at the store like the rest of us" - said very unpleasantly.
I can deal with not being average!

[Brebis]

I was at a Cheesemaker meeting in the States about 15 years ago and one of the American Cheesemakers made the comment that “the best thing to happen to a Dairy is selling to Walmart, and the worst thing to happen to you is to sell to Walmart.” Or Costco or Trader Joes or....they all want to sell local and craft products but force such low prices and conditions its brutal.

I see even WholeFoods is in trouble after being bought by Amazon, Lean, just in time stocking and distribution has left their nice shelves empty and high paying customers unhappy. To be fair to Amazon, the system shift happened just before they bought it but they haven’t made it better...

Everyone gets squeezed between the large competitors and you don’t have much choice anymore despite ones good intentions to try!

It is nice to see some trying though!

[Ontario Chick]

Back to Amazon warehouse possibility in Toronto, in general terms on positive side, if my book ships from Toronto (yes I buy books on amazon) rather then Seattle, that has got to cut down on transport, although if they all come from China who is to say if there is a difference.
Not quite sure about all the well paying jobs they are promising, after all they will be mostly filling orders and packing, and of course they will be looking for money from the govt. so we are all going to be paying for those jobs anyway, just spreading the pain I guess.