My wife mentioned wanting to buy a couple of books from Amazon. Easy to accomplish and they’d arrive in 2 days, at most. We have a book store down the street, but delivery is more convenient.
But what’s the cost? What am I giving up?
We’ve heard about the horror stories of the inhumane environment in the warehouse always seeking more. More efficiency, more orders shipped, more expectation.
It’s great, until it isn’t. Until it isn’t sustainable. It isn’t infinitely scalable.
An alternative option would be to buy online from a local bookshop, or bookshop.org that supports independent bookshops everywhere.
It won’t arrive in 2 days, but it will keep the local bookshop running, and probably the independent coffee shop next door. And they pay rent, and taxes, and create local jobs which reduces crime.
She did this, and when the book arrived it sat in the shipping envelope for days, untouched. So speed wasn’t important after all, but the community is, and that’s not a commodity. If the community fails we all lose.