One of the ways technology and consumerism interact in our culture is this: Technology is ever advancing, it seems, in its ability to give us exactly what we want, as fast as we can possibly get it and at the cheapest possible price.
Once upon a time, for example, we shopped for goods at small local stores. Then came the rise of the so-called “big box” retailers whose massive purchasing power made it difficult, if not impossible, for many mom-and-pop shops to compete.
Then came amazon.com and the brave new world of Internet commerce.
At first, Amazon was about books. But that didn’t last long. In the blink of the Internet retailer’s eye, suddenly Amazon sold everything—usually without state sales tax. And shipped it to your door. In our household, we’ve been getting diapers shipped to us for a couple of years now, because Amazon can deliver them more inexpensively and more conveniently than anyone else. We almost never run out of them, because Amazon keeps us seemingly magically supplied.
Slowly, however, some states have wizened up to Amazon’s no-tax policy, and many have passed laws that will soon require the online retailer to begin collecting taxes—nixing one of its major competitive advantages over brick-and-mortar rivals.
But when one door closes, another sometimes opens. Slate.com technology writer Farhad Manjoo recently wrote about Amazon’s new strategy to compensate for that new hurdle by offering same-day delivery in many metropolitan areas. Manjoo writes,
Amazon has a new game. Now that it is has agreed to collect sales taxes, the company can legally set up warehouses right inside some of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation. Why would it want to do that? Because Amazon's new goal is to get stuff to you immediately—as soon as a few hours after you hit Buy.
Regarding the influence that Amazon’s new marketing strategy may have on local businesses, Manjoo says,
It's hard to overstate how thoroughly this move will shake up the retail industry. Same-day delivery has long been the holy grail of Internet retailers, something that dozens of startups have tried and failed to accomplish. … But Amazon is investing billions to make next-day delivery standard and same-day delivery an option for lots of customers. If it can pull that off, the company will permanently alter how we shop. To put it more bluntly: Physical retailers will be hosed.
Manjoo concludes his assessment of Amazon’s ambitions by saying,
Physical retailers have long argued that once Amazon plays fairly on taxes, the company wouldn't look like such a great deal to most customers. If prices were equal, you'd always go with the 'instant gratification' of shopping the real world. The trouble with that argument is that shopping offline isn't 'instant'—it takes time to get in the car, go to the store, find what you want, stand in line, and drive back home. Getting something shipped to your house offers instant gratification that's even more instant: Order something in the morning and get it later in the day, without doing anything else. Why would you ever shop anywhere else?
It’s hard to argue with Manjoo’s logic here. In a world that conditions us to embrace instant gratification as the norm, why indeed would we shop anywhere else?
Perhaps more importantly, it’s just another example of how technology and consumerism continue to reinforce the already dominant culture value that the most important thing in life is getting what we want … as fast as we possibly can.
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