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thewordis | 13 years ago

Reasons to buy from Amazon:

* Cheap

* Consistent

* Fast shipping

* Good product availability

* Good return policies

* Vendor and item ratings

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mcantelon|13 years ago

Yes, when it's a matter of convenience vs ethical soundness convenience will win every time.

msg|13 years ago

Convenience is an ethical soundness, it just isn't usually taken that way.

Shifting commerce to digital and personal, just-in-time shipping, and customer-centric are good. Ugly business practices, creepy data mining, and DRM are bad. If you want to wave your hand at "conveniences", why wouldn't I wave my hand at "philosophical quibbles"?

Amazon is a mixed bag. For me, it's more good than bad. Putting your blinders on to the good for the sake of argument is not convincing.

Tichy|13 years ago

Is it really unethical to buy a DRMed ebook? Seems to me I only hurt myself with it - unless you count the bigger picture that I am contributing to a future where everything is DRMed. But I think the latter might be overblown. Even if people buy DRMed books, free books still exist.

Not sure about the sweatshop story, but at least with ebooks the workers have to sweat only once, when they ship the kindle.

vijayr|13 years ago

I don't remember who it was, but someone said "the thing that we are most afraid of, is inconvenience"

benguild|13 years ago

Agreed. And buyer protection + great customer service. (Zappos level)