I suppose I should be grateful to Amazon. The giant behemoth which employs almost no one pledges to make my life better by eliminating the “inefficient” cashiers at Whole Foods (“Amazon buying Whole Foods in bold move,” June 17).
Not only this, but the computer will somehow, magically, determine the price of the items while I am shopping. Does no one see this as theft? Theft of the jobs of hard-working people. Theft of the right of the consumer to have a fixed, determined price?
A well-meaning friend asked the other day if I really wanted to pay more in order to have local retailers. My incredulity matched his own. Of course I would do so, on each and every occasion. Of course I would pay more in order to employ local people, have taxes paid into towns, and to have a place where the items could be returned or serviced.
I guess it comes down to what we desire. To me, it’s obvious on the face of it that local people, things, and products are better than those imposed by giant companies pretending to be retailers.
Most letters such as mine end with the writer saying something to the effect that he or she laments the way things are, but that he will be OK, having built up a big retirement fund or something similar.
My question for them is: What good does even money do if we slowly become the prisoners of massive businesses which care nothing for us, our community or the greater good?
Samuel Crompton
Hadley