alt Hacker NewsPerhaps this is just slightly oversimplified
Amazon goes to great lengths to make purchasing exceedingly easy and fast. And with Prime, customers can buy a single, low-priced item with no shipping costs, cf. the Costco requirement to buy in bulk quantities. As one would expect, this convenience and facilitation leads to more purchases. It also results in more packaging, more waste, more emissions, etc.
This was detailed in a 2024 Netflix documentary that interviewed a former Amazon VP who was fired for her environmental activism
https://www.netflix.com/title/81554996
She disclosed, brace yourself, that Amazon encourages people to buy stuff they do not need
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/former-amazon-employee-b...
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/29/amazon-settles-with-employee...
Unlike Costco, Amazon does not disclose data on its environmental impact, e.g., carbon emissions. It's possible Amazon's impact is less than Costco's, Costco's data shows its impact is relatively severe, but if that were true, then why not share the data
Is driving to a warehouse, retrieving items in bulk, paying for them and driving the items home, i.e., offline shopping, as easy as placing an order on Amazon
Of course some HN reply will say "yes", implying that the former Amazon VP's story is false
Let the reader decide who to beileve
Replies
You know how Costco constantly moves some of the usual “staples” they have around the store randomly?
And how Costco can never be relied on having the same item outside of those core products every time you go to the store? Better buy it now since next month they may no longer have it and you need to wait 6mo before you see it again - if ever.
That’s on purpose to induce you to wander the store more and “discover” items for impulse purchasing.
Costco absolutely optimizes as much as it can to induce impulse buys. Pretending they don’t is a weird take. Amazon might make it more frictionless, but every retailer out there is doing this sort of thing. I kind of prefer amazons way of doing it since it doesn’t introduce friction to my buying experience and waste my time.
Costco is also world renowned as a meme for peak American style consumerism. I say this as an executive member who also buys a lot off Amazon. They are just yin and yang of the retailer experience. I don’t really see one as more evil or better than the other - just totally opposite business models.
If you don’t think Costco encourages people to buy things they don’t need you’ve never shopped at Costco.
Anyway, my 55 gallon drum of mayonnaise is starting to go bad, got to make a run.