Big Ed's PlaceBullies, Business, and Amazon
In The Ugly One, John had to teach Billy how to stand up to bullies. It’s a hard lesson–one that I struggled with, and one I hope my kid does not have to struggle with.
For the fundamental problem with bullies is that they don’t respect others. They push others around because they can. Not because the others deserve it (though there are studies that show that they will go out of their way to justify why their victims do deserve it) or because it’ll make the world a better place, but because they can.
This is particularly problematic in intimate relationships. In my uneducated opinion, much of spousal abuse, child abuse, and other dysfunctions are the result of one party sliding into the role of a bully. They push their partners around to get what they want because they can and don’t see the others as true people or loved ones.
Well, frequently bullying shows up in business. Why treat your workers right if you can push them around? That was the attitude in the late 19th century that drove unions into existence and is much of the anti-union backlash today. Walmart has crammed down their suppliers, forcing them to reduce their own profits and give them to Walmart or go under. Microsoft did it to many of their early competitors–shoving them out of business by sometimes shady means. There are many many other examples.
And now Amazon is doing it to me.
The issue is simple. I live in Colorado, if you hadn’t figured that out from where I’ve set most of my stories. Last week, the Colorado legislature passed a law requiring online retailers to collect sales taxes. Amazon retaliated by closing all affiliate accounts for everyone living in Colorado. You can read more about it here and here.
Now, there are arguments that it’s a dumb law or a bad move by the Colorado legislature. I’m not so sure about that. You see, sales taxes are really paid by the purchaser. It’s just been convenient in the past to have the businesses collect them for the government. This was admittedly burdensome in the catalog sales era of even two decades ago.
But these days, it’s trivial. In fact, Amazon itself collects VAT taxes in Europe for the Governments there. They calculate and include sales taxes in the bills for some of their business partners in the states. Target.com and other sites manage to do it. Furthermore, the CO law gives Amazon an out–they can notify the buyers of what their purchases are and tell them to pay the tax. So, Amazon just has to keep track of your purchases over a year (they already do that) and send you a summary at the end of the year (they already send you ads several times a year).
However, by not collecting sales tax, Amazon gets a small price advantage over the bricks and mortar stores that have no choice.
Now, there are some who will still disagree with this law. I myself think it’s a bit shaky to define Amazon as a Colorado business. But the important point is–it has nothing to do with affiliates. Firing their affiliates did not affect the state’s ability to collect the sales tax one bit, unlike similar laws in North Carolina and other states.
It was purely to send a powerful political message to the CO legislature. “Mess with us and we’ll cost your citizens $37million.” In other words, it was the work of a bully.
Furthermore, it was done without any respect for their affiliates. Instead of enlisting them to lobby against the law, or providing advanced notice that they were going to shut down accounts, they just did it. The letter they sent out attempted to blame it on the legislature, but that’s clearly bullshit to me. If you’re being fair to your business partners, you give them warning. You don’t just screw them. That’s the work of a bully–yanking accounts without warning without regard for the disruption (or possibly to intentionally create it?).
Now I had a small stake in this. I was an Amazon Affiliate because I thought folks might be interested in learning more or possibly even purchasing some of the items I review. This certainly wasn’t for the money–I earned a whopping $2.80 from it (though anything that helps defray expenses is good). I saw it more as a service to you, the readers.
For I see this site as being more than the stories. I’ve had a long strong interest in human sexuality and as a result have accumulated a substantial personal library. I also have found films and music that just seem to fit the mood and sense I’ve tried to create here. There’s plenty of porn in the world. There are a lot fewer thoughtful, evocative, sexually themed works that are any good. Reviews are one way I can provide a service in helping sort the good from the bad.
But since this is not a service that my livelihood depends upon, I do not need to put up with bullying. Even if Amazon decides to reinstate their affiliates, I have no desire to do business with them. I will be reassigning my affiliate links as soon as I find appropriate homes. These will first and foremost be businesses that do not have qualms about working with adult sites (unlike iTunes who believes that all adult content must be banned from their store and from the iPhone). Second, they will preferentially be Colorado-based companies. We locals gotta stick together when we can.
Anyway, I realize that nothing in this post is particularly sexy or illuminating. It’s much less of a ‘musing’ as a polemic. But thanks for understanding.
A reasoned, thoughtfully presented rant, Ed.
Amazon remains one of my favourite online stores, but that’s speaking as a consumer, not as a business partner. One day they’ll be overtaken by someone else, and it may well be that a reputation as a bully might, if not precipitate the fall, contribute towards it.
Thanks, Steve.
I too appreciate many of Amazon’s offerings as a retailer. I also know that sometimes we have to work with businesses that are bullies. But the rant was still necessary.
I think I hate bullies, but my sympathies here are with Amazon as opposed to Colorado. But maybe this is because I think that States have outlived their usefulness. Of course I’m also very much against nations. Too many governments foster too much misery.
My sympathies might have been with Amazon if they’d done me the courtesy of telling me ahead of time that they were contemplating the move. I would have been happy to help them. But instead of treating me and the other CO associates as partners, they treated us as pawns.
That complete lack of respect makes all the difference.
According to an article in The Huffington Post, Amazon did inform its affiliates of their decision.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/amazon-reacts-to-colorado_n_490028.html
*After* they closed our accounts, they sent us a letter. Not before, and not before the legislation passed. It was a ‘why we’re screwing you’ letter.