Selfsufficientish.com

i hate myself. just one clicked and sent off another birthday present to nephew via the demon amazon and sitting here feeling worthless and ....oh what the heck. it was the easiest and cheapest thing to do to get what he wanted to him in time rather than spending the whole day making something he won't like and that will cost me more and he wont appreciate and will be there a week late. rant over. amazon is despicable for being so efficient and clever and not paying taxes on it's VAST profits and i am helping them.

It's a familiar problem... I've got no answers, sorry.

" ...easiest and cheapest thing to do ..."

Sounds like common sense to me, Sue. Taxation is Inland Revenue's problem.

Mike

i know but ...

safronsue wrote:i hate myself. just one clicked and sent off another birthday present to nephew via the demon amazon and sitting here feeling worthless and ....oh what the heck. it was the easiest and cheapest thing to do to get what he wanted to him in time rather than spending the whole day making something he won't like and that will cost me more and he wont appreciate and will be there a week late. rant over. amazon is despicable for being so efficient and clever and not paying taxes on it's VAST profits and i am helping them.

I can certainly relate---I can't help it---I really like amazon. I can get far more for my meager dollars there, and I really do like buying used rather than new. It gives a nice feeling that I am, in some extremely tiny way, helping keep one more thing out of a landfill.

Edit-Plus it keeps me far away from shopping malls and city traffic. I loathe shopping in any large city.

Just ordered two Charles Dowdings books on Amazon they were quite cheap, bought them for about 23 euros including postage. I am sitting here in my mobile home, miles away from anywhere you could actually buy a book, I too hate shopping, shops, especially shiny shops with bright lights and loud music, got a nice cup of tea, sitting by the stove and got exactly what I wanted without getting hot, stressed and coming home empty handed. I agree, let the Revenues wherever they are sort it out, leave us proles to our lives.

having recently ventured to the big smoke - well the nearest city I'm back to mail order being the way forward - we spent a fortune on parking, the shops didn't have what I wanted even though I knew they sold it, and there were all these *people* - what can I say, we dont get out much.

I shop local - fortunate to live in a village with good independent shops, and a good town nearby with good independent shops. anything else... mail order.

safronsue wrote:i know but ...

I know too.
I was made redundant last year and some of the people that I worked with went to work for Amazon, we have one of there disribution centers about 15 miles away. This was in the lead up to christmas. I'd found a job elseware so didn't even think about going there but kept in touch with some of the others. They reported back that the wages were bare minimum and no one was kept on after christmas which coupled with their subsequent "creative accounting" with the tax left me cynical about amazon, but if they are cheap then people will use them.


Pete

I'm definitely an amazonaholic!

I agree with Red about the shopping experience. Amazon is so much easier.

I'm an ebayaholic too...luckily, selling as well as buying! I sell books on Amazon as well when I'm at home.

Sadly, it's the nature of the future - online shops can sell cheaper than physical shops, and you can shop from the comfort of your own home rather than having to battle through people, pay for parking, pay for petrol to get there and get tempted by other things along the way. It's good to go to independent shops or artisan shops for something specific, but for general items, something like Amazon is way ahead. Etsy and folksy are great for artisan/handmade goods.

The other thing I noticed when i was at home in the summer was that a lot of shops are getting into the habit of employing surly assistants who don't smile at you and who grunt when asked a question. I'm used to it here - generally because they think i won't understand anything they say, but when i get home it would be nice for a smile and a hello sometimes. Surly/moody assistants aren't going to help shops to sell their goods. I don't mean going to the American ideal and having overly-helpful and ridiculously happy assistants who want you to believe you're the most important person on earth, but just a hello, how are you, little smile...would all make shopping a little more pleasant.

Here, there's a website called Taobao. It's like Chinese Amazon. I shop on there quite regularly.

safronsue wrote:amazon is despicable for being so efficient and clever and not paying taxes on it's VAST profits and i am helping them.

Like a lot more businesses, they pay tax where it's most efficient to do so - like a lot of the richer people in the country. So they are not supporting where you live but they are keeping some other state in business - well marginally.

That's the trouble with internet shopping - you don't know where the business is based or where it pays its taxes. But if it keeps a few people in a job for some time then some tax is being paid at point of dispatch in the form of PAYE and a few people are not claiming state benefits for a period. Swings and roundabouts.

If the shops sold what you wanted when you wanted it and it was easy to find then there would be no call for Amazon and all it's online shopping family.

I'm gulty of Amazon activity too, and as for fleabay well.......

Flo wrote:
That's the trouble with internet shopping - you don't know where the business is based or where it pays its taxes. But if it keeps a few people in a job for some time then some tax is being paid at point of dispatch in the form of PAYE and a few people are not claiming state benefits for a period. Swings and roundabouts.

If the shops sold what you wanted when you wanted it and it was easy to find then there would be no call for Amazon and all it's online shopping family.

These are the reasons amazon is so popular. They do sell what you want, when you want it.

The tax thing - It'd be interesting to see how much tax would be lost if Amazon pulled out of the UK completely and all its employees were suddenly unemployed and therefore not paying tax. It's got to be a case of 'take what you can get'.

Also guilty of amazonaholism, but often I do try to make purchases from the marketplace where I can get used items from small traders and feel good that I'm supporting recycling.

..

Mithril2 wrote:Also guilty. I also use ebay for books. In fact, 'The Selfsufficient-ish Bible' arrived today It's a tome of a book, isn't it! Should keep me entertained for ages

Enjoy...its fab