Amazon is ending their customer charity program. For those who don't know, AmazonSmile meant that 1% of your purchases automatically went to the charity of your choice. It wasn't much, but it was something. In my time as a member, I've “donated” over $200 to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. Even though I realize it probably says something bad about me, I'm going to be 100% honest and admit that was pretty much it in terms of my charitable contributions anywhere. It's not that I don't believe in charity, it's that I don't budget for it, and I doubt I'm the only person. PHA isn't one of those big, flashy charities (many people don't even know pulmonary hypertension exists), but the yearly email statement I received in December stated that they received ten of thousands of dollars in contribution from AmazonSmile just in 2022.
I hope they didn't build their budget for this year with the expectation that any of that money would appear again.
According to Amazon's own page, this program resulted in over $400,000,000.00 in charitable contributions in the last decade. FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.
This, however, according to their own email, was not the “impact” they had hoped for.
Because this isn't about doing good. It's about maximizing profits, and supporting only their own pet causes, likely at a lower rate overall. If the point of the program, as they say in their own email, was to “make it easier for customers to support THEIR favorite charities” (emphasis mine), then it was a successful program. Ending it is about Amazon being able to keep that 1% for themselves, and maybe donate it at their own discretion, though nothing binds them to that.
Approaching HALF A BILLION DOLLARS of contributions wasn't the “impact” they claim to have hoped for. Does that even make sense?
Of course it doesn't. This is about keeping those profits for themselves. The charities they support will be the ones that suit their own needs, whether it's for the good press of writing a check for a fraction of the total amount they would have contributed to all the organizations who benefited from this program to a single charity, resulting in a great photo opp with one of those oversized checks printed just for the camera, or it's contributions to lobbyists (technically charities) that will advance their own causes in the government–undermining labor laws, reducing corporate taxes, and otherwise insuring the safety of their very favorite charity: Amazon and its shareholders.
Amazon is capitalizing off the good will they built for themselves over the last decade. Now that they have achieved the public image they were aiming for, they are quickly pulling back on all the customer and community service policies they used to work by. Not only are you no longer giving to your favorite charity, you're also not getting the shipping that you paid for. You're not getting the customer service that you were accustomed to. And Amazon is keeping more money for themselves, allowing them the ability to afford the customers they will lose who can afford to stand by their principles, while continuing to profit off the rest of the people, many of whom live in rural areas where, because of unfair competition, Amazon is literally the only source they have for many items that are, in some cases, essential.
Most of us can't afford to simply quit Amazon. I've been a customer for almost a quarter of a century at this point, and I wish I could just cut the cord completely. But I assure you, I have started doing some very serious soul searching before clicking that add to cart button, and I have started researching all the options that I have when I can find an affordable way to order from elsewhere.
There was a time when, naively, I used to think, “oh, but Amazon is different,” because I was manipulated exactly the way they intended–how can a business that donates a portion of all my purchases to not just charity, but to one I actually picked be bad? I bought the propaganda, but we're at the stage of the game where they stop hiding, because there's more money to be made from being completely open about their intentions. And for the foreseeable future, they will be their most despicable, because they are in the process of stretching out and seeing how much they can get away with before it backfires. We know that, over a decade, four hundred million was a drop in the bucket for them with regards to their bottom line. But they have decided that they benefit more from the cash than from the good will that comes from their pittance program to make customers feel better about their purchasing. That's a very dangerous phase, because they will do something truly atrocious over what is simply pocket change compared to what they pull in. And they'll keep doing it until the backlash finally hits. Then they will quickly apologize and make a gesture of public penance, while taking note of how much more they are making from all the other terrible things they have done that they aren't “apologizing” for.
Think about your alternatives, and #SayNoToAmazon every chance you can get. (Hash tag suggestion if you want to spread the word.)
