this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Wednesday, alleging the company secretly stopped providing its fastest delivery service to residents of two predominantly Black neighborhoods while still charging millions of dollars for a membership that promises the benefit. 

The complaint filed in District of Columbia Superior Court revolves around Amazon’s Prime membership, which costs consumers $139 per year or $14.99 per month for fast deliveries — including one-day, two-day and same-day shipments — along with other enhancements

In mid-2022, the lawsuit alleges, the Seattle-based online retailer imposed what it called a delivery “exclusion” on two low-income ZIP codes in the district — 20019 and 20020 — and began relying exclusively on third-party delivery services such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, rather than its own delivery systems.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

They mention targeted attacks against drivers in these zip codes. If it's really about race, why stop at those 2?

Not that they should hold out on their promise to subscribers but I don't buy the race angle

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah, to me this reads less like a specifically racist choice and more so a tangent of POC being left/forced to live in impoverished areas, the latter of which will go hand in hand with higher crime rates. I sympathize with the frustration to the decision, but I can't think of a good argument for forcing Amazon to put it's employees at risk.

[–] Arbiter 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The thing is they shouldn’t be selling prime subscriptions to people in those zip codes then, since they advertise the fast shipping as a reason to subscribe.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

I certainly agree with that - if the service can't be provided, they shouldn't be taking money for it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

There should definitely be a notification to people in those areas that rush delivery will not be available. There are other reasons to buy prime, so I don't think it should be completely unavailable, but residents should be able to make an informed decision.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

This is exactly it, and this is the point that is often missed in a great many discussions on modern racism and discrimination. Amazon is not refusing to deliver there because those people are black. They refusing to deliver because their drivers got attacked. The fact that those neighborhoods are mostly black has nothing to do with it. It is a correlation, not a causation. The root causes the same though, it was probably a red line neighborhood back in the mid-1900s and never recovered.

Amazon should make it clear to people buying prime in those areas though, that rush delivery will not be available and if they want to buy prime they will get all of the other benefits but not fast delivery.

[–] FlyingSquid 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why would slower deliveries stop targeted attacks?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I may have read it wrong but my understanding was Amazon pulled back their own drivers from those zipcodes and delegated their packages to other carriers

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, I didn't read and I should have.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Should've spent more time with my kid instead of the computer.

[–] FlyingSquid 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm sorry... are you saying I'm not parenting my child? Because I posted that yesterday in the morning. You know, when kids are doing school?