Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I don’t have to contribute to it, as much as I can help it.



What do you use instead of Amazon?


Anything else. I live in Switzerland and prefer to use galaxus, Migros, inter discount, mueller, foletti, or buy second hand. Absolutely anything I can to not buy from Amazon even if the alternative is 10–15% more expensive.


What do you hate so much about Amazon that makes the alternatives so much better ? Genuinely ?


What's not to hate? Exploiting workers, union busting, tax evasion, waste, pollution...


Can you give us some evidence that Galaxus warehouse workers are somehow less "exploited" than Amazon's Swiss warehouse workers?

Or is this a deal like complaining about Apple supposedly using slave labor, while blithely ignoring the fact that every other computer and cell phone comes out of essentially the same Chinese factories? If anything, the people who crank out low-end Android phones probably get paid less than Apple's workers. I'm nearly 100% certain they don't get paid more.

I'm skeptical that Galaxus warehouses are worker's paradises, because I did a few stints at warehouse work as a youngster.

You know what? Warehouse work sucks, and it sucked long before Amazon came along.


There are no Amazon warehouses in Switzerland. There is actually no Amazon Switzerland. It’s all drop shipped from elsewhere in Europe because the conditions are more favorable to Amazon there I suppose.

I never said galaxus was a workers paradise. It’s still work. But work at regular conditions, not the exploitative ones Amazon is famous for.

Did you seriously never hear about the amount of workplace accidents rate at Amazon vs other companies? The people who died in the warehouse collapsing a few months ago because there was a hurricane and employees were not allowed to go shelter? The workers peeing in bottles to avoid bathroom breaks and keeping their grueling per hour quotas? The union squashing efforts by Amazon? The notoriously bad working conditions at Amazon (warehouse but also software)?

I’ve never heard that about other Swiss companies I purchase from. It’s probably not paradise. It’s still not Amazon level of hell and exploitation.

On a practical level, Amazon quality is shit, you get damaged or used returns sold as new, returning stuff means sending it to Slovakia out of pocket and waiting weeks for it to be processed (or returned to you because Amazon never accepted delivery), then fighting to be refunded, sometimes stuff gets stolen in your return parcels by the mail service… I really can’t see a point to undergo all this BS and feed Amazon to save 10–20% on the odd thing I buy and can also find from domestic retailers.


> Did you seriously never hear about the amount of workplace accidents rate at Amazon vs other companies?

I hear stories about Amazon, but NEVER about other warehouses. That's the whole point.

> I’ve never heard that about other Swiss companies I purchase from. It’s probably not paradise. It’s still not Amazon level of hell and exploitation.

That does not follow. You've "never heard" anything one way or another, which means that you have no evidence of any kind.

I, on the other hand, have personal experience with working in non-Amazon warehouses. They all sucked.


First search result I get for “Amazon warehouse accident rate”: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/12/study-amazon-workers-serious...

Amazon is also notorious about exploiting workers. I seriously doubt you’ve never heard that claim or read anything about it and think it’s just another normal [warehouse] job.

https://www.vox.com/recode/23170900/leaked-amazon-memo-wareh...


I didn't ask you for more Amazon warehouse stories.

I asked you for evidence that Galaxus warehouses are substantively better.

Since you have provided no such evidence, I conclude that you have none.


I don’t think galaxus publishes their safety track record. We’ve established that Amazon is worse than most companies in terms of safety, worker abuse, union squashing, environment, and quality. It follows that most other companies are better than Amazon on some or all these aspects.

I’m not going to debate this with you any further, you’re free to believe and do what you want.


> I don’t think galaxus publishes their safety track record.

Then you have absolutely no basis for comparison, do you?

> We’ve established that Amazon is worse than most companies in terms of safety, worker abuse, union squashing, environment

We've established nothing of the sort.

> It follows that most other companies are better than Amazon on some or all these aspects.

You have admitted you have no data. What are you basing your claim on? Sheer bigotry? Looks like it!

> I’m not going to debate this with you any further,

Blind assertion with no evidence is not a "debate".


I (sadly) don’t think much of this is isolated to Amazon. I think it’s shareholders that demand this of most corporations.

I honestly think the packaging my Amazon stuff comes in is much more eco friendly than the actual product packaging itself.


The packaging is a very small part of it. I’m talking about the logistics, destroying/incinerating returns, shipping whatever commingled crap and then having insane return rates (which are then destroyed)… not to mention the societal issues like systemically crushing workers rights, hiding accidents to cheat on workplace safety, etc. It’s so bad that Amazon was in the news a few months ago for churning through too many people and running out of suckers willing to be abused by them who haven’t been already and quit.




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: