Amazon and its Market Dominance

By Finn, Grade 6

We all know Amazon. It’s the world’s biggest online shopping website. With all of its products, it’s no contest. But this does have its downsides. In order to keep it’s dominance, it puts a heavy toll on its employees and the company itself. Let’s talk about how Amazon’s marketing tactic is bad for its employees and other businesses.

Let’s start with the businesses. In order for any business to stand a chance online, they have to go through Amazon. And since they are on Amazon, Amazon has access to their sales data. For example, if a small tool store sells screwdrivers really well, Amazon can notice that and get the screwdriver from the manufacturer and resell it at a better price than the small tool store, basically crushing them in their own market. This is part of Amazon’s tactic. Amazon obtains businesses in order to crush the competition and then crush the businesses. This works in the long term for more profits. This happened to diapers.com. Amazon wanted to buy diapers.com, but they refused. So, Amazon started to sell really cheap diapers, bullying diapers.com into being bought. And it worked. Diapers.com gave into Amazon, and they are now obsolete. But this is just the beginning of Amazon’s tactic for market domination. This also affects the workers.

Let’s go back to the small tool store. Every time a screwdriver is bought, someone in Amazon is probably running across the huge warehouse just to get it and start the process of shipping the screwdriver to you. You’ll think this worker will be willing to do this and serve the company well. You would be wrong. This worker is miserable working here and I can’t blame them.

The working conditions in Amazon are ridiculous. Throughout the entire work day, they are being timed and monitored. This is because their managers are expecting their workers to have it to you within the time limit, any means necessary. This means backroom breaks ruins your rates, breaks are limited, and if you mess up your rate even by a minute, it’s not unlikely that a manager is going to speak to you. And if you mess up from simple human needs like bathroom breaks, there’s a chance that you’ll get fired. And there’s a line for jobs at Amazon, so when you get fired, someone takes your place and the cycle starts again.

So now you’re thinking “This is ridiculous! How do we stop this?” And I’m afraid it’s not so easy. The thing protecting Amazon from being a monopoly and be able to be taken down is Consumer Welfare laws. These laws basically allow anything from being a monopoly as long as the consumers are getting something out of Amazon’s marketing tactics, like with diapers.com and how Amazon crushed them with their own product. So, Amazon is unfortunately going nowhere.

But there is still hope. These ridiculous tactics have gained attention over the years, and now key people and past protests are now taking charge. Talk show hosts Hasan Minhaj and John Oliver who had affected events in the past have raised awareness of this issue. So hope is not completely lost. If we all come together to take down this giant, amazing things can happen. So, next time you use 1 day delivery on toilet paper, please think twice.