Deirdre Twomey
Kurt Karlson
ENG 170
24 February 20
Has our definition of shopping been altered?
There are 310 million Amazon accounts in the world. You have to live under a rock to not have heard of Amazon. Amazon is a convenient way for people to shop online without leaving the comfort of their home. This means that Amazon has changed what we once meant by shopping.
The reason you are hearing this is because Amazon is not the shopping society has come ato know. Shopping is defined as the action or activity of purchasing goods from stores. When you shop, you have to get in the car, drive to the store, walk into the store, place your items in your cart, pay at checkout, bring your items home, unload your items out of the car and into the house, and then put your items away. With Amazon, you don’t do any of that. Amazon is not a store that you can drive to and purchase items, Amazon is a store on a website. Not as many people drive to stores anymore and pick up what they need. Everyone sits in their pajamas in bed and orders items off Amazon. According to Postman, author of Technopoly, “One significant change generates total change” (18). Amazon relates to this because before we had online shopping everyone left their house and drove to the store; however, now with Amazon and free two day shipping for prime members, no one leaves the comfort of their homes anymore. Anything anyone needs they can get in no time.
Amazon is attractive for two reasons. One, for people who are too lazy and don’t want to leave their house, they can have items delivered right to their doors. Two, people have a chance to purchase an item they can’t find in stores. For example, there are many Amazon products that aren’t sold in stores (i.e, Amazon Alexa). Two mediums of Amazon is the way Amazon is designed and the quick service Amazon has. Amazon is set up where you can’t order anything without creating an account first. Then, they make you enter your credit card information. Once you enter your information, it will be on your account forever. This makes consumers realize how easy it is to purchase items. While consumers are browsing items, they notice a “prime” symbol next to many items. This means, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can order these items with free two day shipping. You also have access to music and Amazon’s streaming service. This proves even more that Amazon is not the shopping we grew to know. Second, Amazon delivers packages VERY quickly. IF you are a prime member you will receive your package in two days. If the item isn’t prime, then you will receive your item in a week at the most. The design of Amazon also makes it easier to shop. There are categories for everything (i.e books, movies) and you can choose a specific category to search in so you find better results. These mediums aren’t very similar; however, you can’t have one without the other. You can’t order packages without creating an account and you can’t create an account without a credit card. The limitations of Amazon is that you may not be able to afford subscribing to Amazon Prime because it costs $119 per year.
There are benefits to this new kind of shopping. For example, if you are too sick to drive to the store but really need items for the next day, you can order items off of Amazon. Another example is if you need to buy presents for people, and don’t have time to drive to the store because you work a lot, you can order all of your presents off Amazon. Also, if we are being honest, a lot of items you find in the store you can find on Amazon; however, the items may be more expensive so we have pros and cons. Americans also like convenience. That’s why we have other technologies like Grubhub, Doordash, and Ubereats because we don’t want to leave our house to pick up food. According to Postman, “No one goes to a movie to find out about government policy. No one buys a record to find the baseball scores. No one turns on the radio anymore for soap operas or presidential addresses” (92). Not as many people drive to the grocery store to buy their groceries. Whole Foods has teamed up with Amazon so you can order food from Amazon through Whole Foods and Whole Foods will deliver your groceries. This is beneficial for people who are handicapped and live alone, for the elderly, people who live in far from grocery stores, or for people who just don’t want to go into the public. Also, 5-15% of Amazon packages are returned. You can now return any Amazon package to Kohls and they will ship the package back for you for free. This means that you have to leave your house and drive to a store to return your package, so it looks like you’re going shopping either way. Another way Amazon is beneficial is if you need to buy clothing but no stores carry your size. For example, if you need a 3x or 4x, Amazon will have that for you in a specific brand. That saves you the trouble of having to go out to try on clothes that don’t fit you.
Society as we know it has changed what we mean by shopping. There is online shopping, grocery shopping, retail shopping and many more. Society is changing, and we as individuals have to evolve with it. Amazon changes what we once meant by shopping. Maybe that isn’t the worst idea in the world.
Work Cited
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books, 2006.
— Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage Books, 1993.