Member-only story
Amazon Prime Isn’t Always The Answer
As a consumer and a mom, I need to show my son that the easiest way isn’t always the best
Four pages. That’s the length of the list of things my 12-year-old needs in his backpack for overnight camp this summer. From synthetic-blend underwear to wool socks to toe-protecting sandals, the packing list is very specific — and perfectly calibrated to trigger a city-dwelling parent’s every anxiety about sending her child off the grid in the wilds of Vermont. Lyme disease! Mosquito bites! Dank drawers on a long hike!
As I make a beeline for the computer to start panic-filling my Amazon Prime shopping cart, my son, the camper, hovers behind me. “Mom,” he says, looking with concern at the logo at the top of the page. He recently read a book called Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain, and I know what’s coming next: “In that book, the author works in an Amazon warehouse,” he explains patiently. “It’s pretty terrible. They wear trackers and if they don’t find the items that we ordered fast enough, they get fired. Can we shop somewhere else?”
He’s right, of course. But I quickly calculate the alternative to Amazon Prime one-day delivery: Take an afternoon off work in a busy week, pick him up from school, and make a run to an outdoor gear store in Manhattan, along with a…
