Amazon alternative Archives - Paul Mackenzie Ross

Another Alternative to Amazon

May 8, 2013May 8, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

With the threat of our beloved and run-down pub, the Tumbledown Dick, being turned into a McDonald’s restaurant somebody pointed me in the direction of a very interesting book – The McDonaldization of Society.

The book, first published in 1993, is written by sociologist George Ritzer and looks at the increasing rationalisation of the world as conducted by big bureaucratic organisations such as McDonald’s. The processes used by the fast food giant streamline the production and delivery of burgers & fries, impose the division of labour, force a formal manifesto and make the company’s “character” impersonal and technocratic…

Beetroot Books

May 8, 2013May 4, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

The Money-less Man - A Year of Freeconomic Living - from Beetroot Books In my quest to find alternatives to Amazon, my latest discovery has been an interesting one.

A couple of weekends ago I made a brief trip to Avebury in Wiltshire, a picturesque little English village and home to an impressive neolithic henge monument.

Once I was home that same Sunday evening I had a sudden flash of inspiration and wondered what Britain’s leading Druid, Philip Carr-Gomm, was up to these days…

Hive: Books Arrived

May 4, 2013February 16, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

Hive Network As previously posted, I was recently looking for an alternative to Amazon. The thought process came about after I was accused, quite reasonably, of putting money into Amazon’s pockets when there were serious questions to be asked about their ethics and morality. The main points of contention are that:

1) Amazon have been accused of paying very little UK tax on billions of pounds worth of turnover (2011 – £3.35 billion turnover with a “tax expense of £1.8 million according to the BBC)

2) If that’s the case then small businesses are being subjected to unfair competition (Because they pay full UK taxes on their profits and their Goliath-sized competitors do not)

3) High streets are apparently suffering because of online retailers and some of those are based in tax havens

4) Buying from local businesses puts money INTO the local economy. Purchases to big corporations ensure that money is drained OUT of the local economy.