Amazon Closes Down AmazonSmiles. Greed or Realism?

[Anderton]

So...no more giving a few bucks to St. Jude's when I buy something from Amazon. Here's Amazon's official statement on why they closed down AmazonSmiles. Overall, the program gave out $500 million, but they say the average donation per charity was $230. Well, given that there were around 1 million eligible charities, I can do the math.

 

An article in the Verge lamented the marketing speak about how Amazon was going to continue doing great things in other areas. Here's what the Verge's author would have preferred to see:

 

Dear customers:

 

Times are hard. Manufacturing costs are up, prices are skyrocketing, our customers are balking at the increased cost of Amazon Prime, we’re facing a variety of lawsuits, and lawyers are expensive. As a result, even though our sales are up 15 percent year over year, our shareholders are getting nervous. So we’re looking for ways to cut corners — such as laying off about 18,000 of our employees and dropping our charitable AmazonSmile program so that we can keep every penny of what you spend on our site.

 

Sorry about that.

 

All our best,
Amazon

 

Amazingly (for me), I don't take that cynical a view. Anyone who spends money on charity wants it to do the most good, and the money was coming out of Amazon's bottom line. If they think they can do a lot more good in other ways, more power to them. But that's "if."

 

Still, I think they had alternatives if they were concerned about being "spread too thin." They could have chosen a couple dozen charities that are deserving of the bucks (i.e., have a super-high ratio of money that goes to programs compared to fundraising), and given people the option to choose one. But the cynic in me says it's not that someone at Amazon didn't think of that, it's that they wanted to keep every last penny.

 

So what is it? Greed or realism? Am I being too snarky to think they're being greedy? Or am I too kind to think that it probably did end up not making a difference, and they have a better idea?

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Oh yeah I got the same notice.  I feel bad for Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary, best known as the home of the BLT (Baloo the Bear, Leo the Lion, and Shere Khan the Tiger).  These are the 3 who were rescued from an abusive owner and have been living out their lives together at Noah's Ark.   Well, only Baloo is left now.   Leo got sick and died first.  Shere Khan lived little longer.

 

https://noahs-ark.org/animals/BLT/

 

They still have other animals under their care.

 

I've nothing to say about Amazon at this time.

[KuruPrionz]

I've bought one thing from Amazon. 

I'm not boycotting, I just see no reason to use them. 

 

I donate sellable items to to thrift stores. They are not going to stop donating to charities. Goodwill and Starvation Army are dedicated to their cause. 

Our local Assistance League store is jaw dropping, the volunteer team there has everything in good order, beautifully labelled, well priced and they pass 70% of their donations along to Goodwill because they only want to have really nice stuff in their relatively small store. 

[dmitch57]

Something about the "spread too thin" reasoning sounded slimy to me. They didn't need to go as far as the Verge's suggestion, but they could have been more forthcoming.

[Stokely]

I take a pretty dim view on it, considering the head of the company is the world's richest person.   "Times are hard, had to buy less yachts this month" is what that sounds like.  But it's his money.  Most people seem ok with .1% wealth accumulation accelerating.
 

Saying that it "didn't have as much impact as we'd like" is definitely slimy.  Really?  So now you'll make sure it has no impact at all?

[bill5]

When I learned of Amazon's political contributions, I stopped using them, but the smile thing was a nice touch. 

[RABid]

I'm wondering if there were a lot of people who never did pick a charity.

[Joe Muscara]

22 hours ago, Stokely said:

I take a pretty dim view on it, considering the head of the company is the world's richest person.   "Times are hard, had to buy less yachts this month" is what that sounds like.  But it's his money.

I'm not defending him nor the shutdown of Amazon Smile, but FYI, he's "only" the executive chairman now. Meaning he probably has little to do with day-to-day stuff and only cares if his portfolio is generally doing well.

 

As far as Amazon Smile, there are claims out there from supposed former Amazon employees that Smile was a program created to drive sales fairly cheaply, costing Amazon less than affiliate sales. It was developed by their Traffic Optimization Team. FWIW, here is a post that's from Reddit.

 

 

Lately I have been making a more conscious effort to try to buy from other sources, especially if I can find the site of someone who makes the product I want and go direct. I was thinking about this and I remembered that I have been donating to a local no-kill pet shelter we love via Smile and thought, "well, I'll have to keep that in mind." Thanks for saving me the trouble, Amazon. We donate directly to them all the time and they are even beneficiaries in our will, so we'll just focus on that from now on.

[dmitch57]

1 hour ago, Joe Muscara said:

It was developed by their Traffic Optimization Team. FWIW, here is a post that's from Reddit.

OK, that is the most depressing thing I've read all week. Depressing because it's totally believable.

[Anderton]

If that's why they did Amazon Smiles, then it makes no sense to stop doing it. Now they'll just have to go back to paying Google, they don't get the tax writeoff, and they don't get the marketing fodder. And the charities don't get any money. Sounds like a lose-lose to me.

[RABid]

The biggest thing Amazon has going for me: A lot of people in small towns remember when WalMart came to town. They offered good jobs with good pay and sold products for good prices. Once they conquered the town and ran most everyone else out of business they raised prices, cut pay, and made workers miserable. Now a lot of people hate going to Walmart (granted that a lot of people still go there) and the only alternative is Amazon. I would love to shop at Costco every week. They are rated in the top 5 for both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. I'm a member, but the nearest Costco is 90 miles away. So, it is go to WalMart or order from Amazon. I shop Amazon. I try to buy local, but this week I bought a printer, 3 reams of paper, extra ink, a 3 hole punch, a 3 ring binder, and some tabs. I could have gotten everything from Office Depot down the street, and paid $180 more. That much savings and not having to go to Walmart makes me a forgiving person towards Amazon.

[Stokely]

Getting further afield in topic, but yeah I really like Costco.  Problem for me is that it's so damn busy all the time.  My wife loves big shopping crowds and always wants me to go with her on the weekend.  I'd literally rather drop bowling balls on my toes.

Just got new glasses from Costco.  My county won't let them sell liquor (like the Costco 10 miles up the road in Orange county?!)  but that might be a good thing considering the low prices  I'm trying to cut back.   

Walmart is pretty awful.  So much stuff and so little of it I actually want or can use.   The newer Walmarts are better than the old ones with the narrow isles.

I remember being on vacation in northern Georgia and we went looking for a grocery store...this is where you'd expect to see little corner general stores, but we found an Ingles.  I was not expecting something like that, that was amazing. 

It's really hard to not buy from Amazon.   The weird thing about working from home is that you'd think I'd be itching to go out driving and shopping.  The reverse is actually true  I drive a little ways to the gym (sue me, I have an hour lunch to work out! and FL weather!) and to gigs and that's about it.

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Stokely said:

 The weird thing about working from home is that you'd think I'd be itching to go out driving and shopping.  The reverse is actually true  

 

I'm with you. The problem with going out is that there are all these humanoid bipeds running around. 

[Stokely]

I'm not sure it's entirely healthy (for me at least).   Covid had a part to play there.  I'm not "scared" to go out--not like my elderly aunt, she has spent the last 3 years basically in her bedroom (won't get vaccinated) and I learn today that she finally caught covid...geez.   I've made a bit of a point to get out more, but I really hate driving in traffic...and Orlando is rife with it.  The band is very key in that!  I like shopping for clothes at the mall when it isn't crowded, but it's actually too far the other way.  I grew up in malls!  The entire Dillards mens dept had one customer (me) and one salesperson the last time I was there.