Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/11/usps-says-amazon-should-pay-9.html
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It’s about time they charge Amazon and other internet retailers more for shipping. USPS runs the last leg to many rural and residential locations for these multi-billion dollar corporate giants. It’s easy for Amazon to promote free shipping when it’s on the tax payer’s dole.
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Yeah, I actually agree with this. USPS is kind of undercharging.
There’s also that big international shipping loophole.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/31/wont-believe-much-china-cheats-u-s-post-office-shipping-costs/
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I . . . I actually don’t disagree with this. Okay. I need to go lie down for a while . . . something’s not right with the world.
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As usual, Trump has no liking for (or understanding of) a Win-Win deal.
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Wasn’t Trump’s original statement made, not so much because he thought the USPS was acting unwisely, but because Bezos and/or Amazon in general was not acting as a supportive tool of the regime?
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Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, etc
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Just FYI…
Congress still has authority over the U.S. Postal Service . The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to fund its operations
Your argument is invalid. Propaganda trying to support the dead and dying industry that is brick and mortar. If this was a big box store USPS would not be seeing a dime of transportation costs. If anything the online retailers increase profits for the postal service.
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Close. Bezos also owns the Washington Post, so attacking Amazon is revenge by proxy.
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Without USPS shipping we’d be in serious trouble in Hawaii; I believe Alaska and Puerto Rico are in the same (ahem) boat. I hope the big retailers don’t simply stop using USPS because their reasonable prices go up ever so slighty, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that were to happen.
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But it’s not, is it? Whether they’ve worked out the best deal or not, I can’t say, but I don’t think it’s at the tax payers’ expense. My understanding is that the government has set up incredibly high standards for the USPS (well beyond private corporations - e.g. pension funding) and yet constantly complain despite the fact that USPS meets those standards without any tax funding.
I am always happy to learn, though, if someone has info that shows otherwise.
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Amazon should apply a shipping surcharge on delivery of Trump election gear that originates in China.
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I would hazard a guess that he figures any win-win deal is a missed opportunity to win bigger.
Every deal should have someone penetrating, and someone being penetrated.
If you think that such a penetration-penetratee arrangement could have two winners, you do not understand wholly Trump’s thinking.
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Alas, I think we’ve all been penetrated by this menace masquerading as a President.
I’m not sure that I will ever be able to look at a mushroom in the same way as before, either.
As an Amazon vendor with multiple other sales channels, we choose to buy our postage directly, so I don’t know if this will affect us, but to put it in perspective, we are a small business, with 1 full time person (me) and four part timers. We do 25-40 orders a day and we pay upwards of $4k in USPS postal rates per month. We also offer free shipping on most orders, so most of this comes right out of our pocket. Over half of Amazon’s business is small third party vendors like us.
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Amazon is just going to pass these fees onto the customer. It means Prime membership fees go up and minimum order amounts go up. Amazon’s free shipping isn’t free.
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Amazon Prime is addicting and predatory. It has been proven it makes people radically alter their spending habits in order to stay hooked on its perks. It fuels mindless consumption and probably fuels climate change simply by pushing more random stuff into people’s hands.
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Yep, another tax increase for Americans. We got to pay for that wall somehow.
But how would you know when it’s right?
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