1. Glassdoor for the pandemic
With some jurisdictions permitting businesses to reopen, I wonder whether the employees of those businesses feel safe going back to work, or if they have no choice.
I do need to buy more things as the pandemic stretches on (so many things, ranging from my kettle to my mesh laundry bag, have broken somehow!), but if I have the option, I'd rather buy from somewhere that respects their employees' health and safety.
I'd very much like to have a single centralized website where workers post information about how well their employer actually is keeping them safe, so customers can make informed decisions about where to spend their money.
I mean, they could do this on Glassdoor too, but I haven't seen it yet for the businesses I've searched for.
2. Shopping search engine for boycotters
There's a lot in the news lately about how Amazon is making tons of money from the pandemic, but has horrible working conditions.
I've found that if I search the internet for a product description without having a specific brand or source in mind (for example, light cotton pyjamas or 4-cup coffee filters), I get results primarily from Amazon, and to a lesser extent from Walmart (which also has bad working conditions). If I exclude Amazon from the results, I most often get wholesalers, retailers from other countries, and other such unsuitable sources.
This happens even when I use search engines other than Google. It's way harder than it should be to find an ethical place to buy things when you don't already know where to buy them!
As I've mentioned many times before for many other reasons, I'd very much like to have a single comprehensive search engine of all online shopping. But I'd also like to have it set up to help people boycott.
You could boycott a specific retailer by excluding them from your search, but it would be even more helpful to be able to boycott by cause. For example, search for light cotton pyjamas and exclude sources with bad working conditions.
"But what if they all have bad working conditions?" Then you've done everything you can and don't have to knock yourself out looking for the ethical source that doesn't exist.
Of course, the complexity is that this would only work if they could index literally all retailers.
2 comments:
You might be interested in this: Athena: Delivering Democracy.
It's a group of Amazon employees working together to improve conditions. They are not asking people to boycott, but they are planning to use the power of Amazon consumers, especially Prime members, to create change.
Oh, that is useful, thank you! If Amazon could be made to be ethical (big if, I know) that would be even more helpful for everyone
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