Amazon the Retail Antichrist


This isn’t about an “evil” Amazon; it’s about Americans who love to shop. Amazon merely capitalized on our culture. The billion-dollar company gives us an immediate response to our wants. 

 For me, living 15 miles from a store makes Amazon an easy one stop shop. According to GeekWire Amazon created more jobs last year than 46 states. What’s not to like? Amazon dialed up American’s buying culture, and we answered. The dark side?  

 For one thing, some of our local stores are fighting for their fiscal lives.


The old ways and the old days of shopping are changing. Progress is like that. What will we miss in the years ahead?   
My first real job was in a retail store. I learned to handle the occasional rude customer. I learned how to be responsible for inventory and money, while multi-tasking as a clerk, janitor, and stocker of shelves. My $2.00 per hour was well-earned. As technology replaces people, what happens to those first-time jobs?


But it’s not just the jobs, it’s the cultural psychology of American’s need to buy.

I’m old enough to remember when our culture wasn’t so consumeristic. We were producers—selling to other countries what was made in America.

Many younger people consider going to the mall or shopping online a way of life.

We outfit ourselves to look a certain way and create lifestyles that rely on consumer spending. Is who we are been reduced to what we buy?
Grandma used to say life was a river that could carry you places you might not want to go. Ironic, that Amazon is also the name of a mighty river. Do we know where this river is heading?



First dentistry was painless.
Then bicycles were chainless,
Carriages were horseless,
And many laws enforceless.
Next cookery was fireless,
Telegraphy was wireless,
Cigars were nicotineless,
And coffee caffeineless.
Soon oranges were seedless,
The putting green was weedless,
The college boy was hatless,
The proper diet fatless.
New motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religion — godless.

Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943)



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