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On this Cyber Monday, let's pledge to buy from local businesses that support our communities. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Skip Cyber Monday--Support a Real Local Business
The online shopping day is just another ploy by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to siphon sales from real stores
Nov 22, 2018
"Cyber Monday" is coming up--get out there and buy stuff!
You don't actually have to "get out there" anywhere, for this gimmicky shop-shop-shop day lures us to consume without leaving home, or even getting out of bed. Concocted by Amazon, the online marketing monopolist, Cyber Monday is a knock-off of Black Friday--just another ploy by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to siphon sales from real stores.
Seems innocent enough, but behind Amazon's online convenience and discounted prices is a predatory business model based on exploitation of workers, bullying of suppliers, dodging of taxes, and use of crude anti-competitive force against America's Main Street businesses.
A clue into Amazon's ethics came when Bezos instructed his staff to get ever-cheaper prices from small-business suppliers by stalking them "the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."
John Crandall, who owns Old Town Bike Shop in Colorado Springs, is one who's under attack. He offers fair prices, provides good jobs, pays rent and taxes, and lives in and supports the community.
But he's noticed that more and more shoppers come in to try out bikes and get advice, yet not buy anything. Instead, their smartphones scan the barcode of the bike they want, then they go online to purchase it from Amazon--cheaper than Crandall's wholesale price.
You see, the cheetah is a multibillion-dollar-a-year beast that can sell that bike at a loss, then make up the loss on sales of the thousands of other products it peddles.
This amounts to corporate murder of small business. It's illegal, but Amazon is doing it every day in practically every community.
So, on this Cyber Monday, let's pledge to buy from local businesses that support our communities. For information, go to American Independent Business Alliance: www.amiba.net.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion" (1998). Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
"Cyber Monday" is coming up--get out there and buy stuff!
You don't actually have to "get out there" anywhere, for this gimmicky shop-shop-shop day lures us to consume without leaving home, or even getting out of bed. Concocted by Amazon, the online marketing monopolist, Cyber Monday is a knock-off of Black Friday--just another ploy by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to siphon sales from real stores.
Seems innocent enough, but behind Amazon's online convenience and discounted prices is a predatory business model based on exploitation of workers, bullying of suppliers, dodging of taxes, and use of crude anti-competitive force against America's Main Street businesses.
A clue into Amazon's ethics came when Bezos instructed his staff to get ever-cheaper prices from small-business suppliers by stalking them "the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."
John Crandall, who owns Old Town Bike Shop in Colorado Springs, is one who's under attack. He offers fair prices, provides good jobs, pays rent and taxes, and lives in and supports the community.
But he's noticed that more and more shoppers come in to try out bikes and get advice, yet not buy anything. Instead, their smartphones scan the barcode of the bike they want, then they go online to purchase it from Amazon--cheaper than Crandall's wholesale price.
You see, the cheetah is a multibillion-dollar-a-year beast that can sell that bike at a loss, then make up the loss on sales of the thousands of other products it peddles.
This amounts to corporate murder of small business. It's illegal, but Amazon is doing it every day in practically every community.
So, on this Cyber Monday, let's pledge to buy from local businesses that support our communities. For information, go to American Independent Business Alliance: www.amiba.net.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion" (1998). Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
"Cyber Monday" is coming up--get out there and buy stuff!
You don't actually have to "get out there" anywhere, for this gimmicky shop-shop-shop day lures us to consume without leaving home, or even getting out of bed. Concocted by Amazon, the online marketing monopolist, Cyber Monday is a knock-off of Black Friday--just another ploy by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to siphon sales from real stores.
Seems innocent enough, but behind Amazon's online convenience and discounted prices is a predatory business model based on exploitation of workers, bullying of suppliers, dodging of taxes, and use of crude anti-competitive force against America's Main Street businesses.
A clue into Amazon's ethics came when Bezos instructed his staff to get ever-cheaper prices from small-business suppliers by stalking them "the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle."
John Crandall, who owns Old Town Bike Shop in Colorado Springs, is one who's under attack. He offers fair prices, provides good jobs, pays rent and taxes, and lives in and supports the community.
But he's noticed that more and more shoppers come in to try out bikes and get advice, yet not buy anything. Instead, their smartphones scan the barcode of the bike they want, then they go online to purchase it from Amazon--cheaper than Crandall's wholesale price.
You see, the cheetah is a multibillion-dollar-a-year beast that can sell that bike at a loss, then make up the loss on sales of the thousands of other products it peddles.
This amounts to corporate murder of small business. It's illegal, but Amazon is doing it every day in practically every community.
So, on this Cyber Monday, let's pledge to buy from local businesses that support our communities. For information, go to American Independent Business Alliance: www.amiba.net.
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