It's that time of year again. The holidays are almost upon us, and Amazon has once again taken some of our listings down for no discernible reason. That’s no surprise though; after all, it is common knowledge now that Amazon is constantly destroying small businesses like ours. It should also come as no surprise that Amazon is still treating its workers terribly (what, you thought that Amazon might start treating its employees better just because there’s a pandemic going on?). Unfortunately, despite the president’s hatred of Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, it seems that the federal government will continue to let Amazon get away with its unfair business practices and mistreatment of its workers. That means that it’s up to the rest of us to force Amazon to change its ways. Of course, that won’t be an easy task. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made traditional, in-person shopping a risky endeavor, so Amazon is seeing even more traffic than usual this year. However, the pandemic has also highlighted society’s need for better business practices from corporate giants like Amazon.

Amazon didn’t exactly have a sterling reputation when it came to the treatment of its employees going into the pandemic, and it hasn’t done itself any favors on that front since the pandemic began. Amazon’s focus on efficiency has led to its employees being injured and even dying. So, naturally, Amazon has done little to keep its employees healthy during the pandemic. In fact, Amazon has handled this threat to the health of its workers, who are considered “essential” during the pandemic, so poorly that 1,800 Amazon employees around the world have signed a petition demanding better safety precautions in the workplace. Some of the workers’ complaints include not being given enough time to wash their hands, a lack of sanitation in warehouses, and not being given enough masks and hand sanitizer to reduce the risk of workers transmitting the virus to one another. To make matters worse, Amazon continues to suppress its workers’ attempts to unionize, attempts which, if successful, would likely lead to Amazon being forced to provide better benefits and protections to its workers.

In addition to treating its workers like replaceable cogs in a machine, Amazon also destroys small businesses. This has always been a problem with Amazon, but it has been exacerbated by the pandemic. A recently released report on how small businesses are doing during the pandemic shows that 45% of small businesses have earned half or less than half of their typical revenue during the pandemic. A Forbes article discussed a survey of 2,000 small business owners, which found that 2 out of 3 of those small business owners considered giant corporations like Amazon and Google a threat to their bottom lines. Don’t worry though, the article says, “if you can’t beat them, join them” (the “them” being Amazon in this case). Or, to put it more simply, either sell through Amazon, abiding by their rules, or be crushed.

Magic Weighted Blanket. Made in America since 1998.

Of course, as we at the Magic Weighted Blanket have discovered, even working with Amazon won’t stop them from hurting your business on a whim. We’ve tried selling our blankets through Amazon, and we used to get a decent amount of sales through Amazon’s platform. However, this year will mark the second time in the last few years that Amazon has taken down many of our product listings. The reason (at least, according to Amazon)? Unsubstantiated medical claims that we made about our products. We don’t make medical claims in our product listings, so we were naturally confused and reached out to Amazon to find out what needed to be changed. Not only did we receive no help from Amazon, we searched their listings and found many other weighted blankets (with product listings similar to our own) that had not been taken down by Amazon. And we’re hardly the only business that Amazon has hurt. Don’t believe us? Just check out this list of companies that Amazon is killing as it expands into new markets.

Something must be done to keep Amazon in check and, unfortunately, that something likely won’t be coming from the government any time soon. The pandemic has made Amazon one of the safest and most convenient options for consumers right now. However, we must show Amazon that they aren’t as “necessary” as they think they are. This article by the Guardian offers a guide to retail shopping without Amazon, even during the pandemic. Amazon may seem unbeatable, but consumers have far more power than Amazon when they band together. It may be difficult, but now is the time to show Amazon that it doesn’t own the world just yet.

Article credit : Clayton Davis