Back To Old Fashioned Brick & Mortar Shops?

 An interesting debate is brewing.

Most days there are a slew of political press conferences shown on television. Some interesting and some not. Too many for sure except today's was rather interesting.  An announcement of plans forged by Greenpeace, Unions and Trade.

The main point being that Amazon hardly  pays any local taxes, apparently doesn't give its worker fair working conditions and the main one in my opinion, that it causes a lot of environmental damage by the sheer volume of packaging materials used.  

Let's hope they can convince the government to flex its muscle as at the moment all and sundry are shopping around the clock with the online giant while brick and mortar shops have had to shut down during this pandemic. Doesn't seem fair, does it when one also takes into account that hardly anything of the money spent online will flow into the national coffers.  Makes you think, doesn't it yet...

But who is the main culprit in speeding up the loss of brick and mortar jobs? Amazon is merely the enticing carrot dangling in front of the impatient shoppers. Yes, we are too blame with our incessant need to have everything the minute we snap our finger or in this case, press our finger. Since the advent of smart phones, the ease of shopping has gone off the charts.

Bob and I also leave our money at the portals of this online giant but at least ( ! ) we try and put a few obstacles in our way. We don't own a credit card ( on purpose ) and thus have to go and buy a gift card before shopping online. Not perfect but at least it gives us pause to contemplate if we really need what we wanted to buy. Even this way there are a few items gathering dust which we really thought we must have but clearly didn't.

Fair trade isn't just for producers but should also apply to  a fair playing field for all. It is the brick and mortar shops which employ us and provide the social safety net which we all have come to rely upon. A happy medium clearly has to be found, and soon before our collective click & shop addiction is irreversible...