July Reads

[Lip Service]

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit and all that 

July is here, the height of summer reading.

Feel free to comment on your latest reads

[rapa]

Forget not to "RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT" first thing you say after midnight tonight.
August cometh!!!

[Mandy Muffin]

My rabbit, rabbit, rabbit will be my selection from the Amazon Prime's free lending library that I am authorized to borrow from as of 12:00 midnight tonight.  (That is 3:00 AM Seattle, Washington time.)  Although my Amazon Prime allows me unlimited free shipping and huge selections of movies, TV programs and music, the best feature is the free monthly book. I am worried that Amazon is so customer friendly and generous on their profit margins, that Wall Street may desert them.  I would like to see a retailer make it in America with the attitude that the customer is king; the stockholder comes second.  Time will tell. 

[officerripley]

 From what I,ve heard about amazon, the customermay come first and the stockholders second but their employees come in dead last.  Several reports have come in about how their workers at their distribution ctrs., etc. are treated horribly, that,s why they,re able to get stuff out to the customers so fast. That,s why i try to buy as little from them as possible, sometimes i,m sorry i bought a kindle. Oh well, they,re like most other corporations, worship the almighty dollar, dontcha know.

[Mandy Muffin]

My selection is from a new Amazon service, Amazon Crossings, a publication of foreign titles that Amazon have had translated and available for English readers.  Here is the web site: http://www.apub.com/imprint-detail?imprint=3  I selected "Rain Girl" by Gabi Kreslehner which has been translated fro the German. 

As far as Amazon and their employee relations is concerned, I do know that they are under severe pressure from unions who want to organize them. Having spent a number of years working in union relations, I can attest that a union tactic is to propagandize poor working conditions as a ploy to organize plants. So far, none of their facilities have been organized.  I don't know if any of the attempts have come down to elections. But if Amazon doesn't want unions it is to their advantage to maintain a high level employee satisfaction. I do have a close relative who works for them in Tennessee.  He is an older worker (late 60s) and absolutely loves his job.  Also, when they opened the warehouse near my home in Kentucky the reports were that there were a 100 applicants for every job available. 

[Mandy Muffin]

Obviously, this is not the proper forum for discussing Amazon's employee satisfaction/dissatisfaction but if there is any interest in seeing the extent of Amazon's 84,000 job array, here is a web site on their employees and opportunities in the company.  You may notice that they were named the #3 best employer in America for female engineers.  http://www.amazon.jobs/

[Lip Service]

I know a number of people who work at Amazon (not in the warehouse).

The unanimous feeling is that they like the company and the work atmosphere, in particular the gender equality.

Amazon is under big pressure from investors to start turning a profit. They have a commanding market share but put all their profit into redevelopment

[Mandy Muffin]

After reading the Amazon story, "The Everything Store" I have been impressed with their business model. Their motto is to build the best customer service store on Earth. That is hard to argue with. Most business gurus suggest that companies that are successful plan for long term growth, not a quick profit.  But Wall Street is very impatient, as many companies have been forced to turn a profit to stay alive in the near term.  Jeff Begos does have the comfort of knowing he is the genius behind the product and will be give more leeway that some other CEO. 

Unfortunately, the end result in their distribution model is probably to run a complete warehouse with robots, and a few technicians controlling them. Getting unionized would put a real crimp into that  plan, as every move probably would have to be negotiated. They better watch out or the drones may organize:

[rapa]

:)

[Lip Service]

Here is a more detailed article on the impatience of their investors to turn profit.

It is well known that the free-shipping-subscription is a huge money loser for them but it attracts a lot of business too

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/817921-investors-patience-with-amaz...