Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
About an hour later I got a phone a call with a thick accented voice – "John, John, are you home?"
"Who is this?"
"I got your TV, we can come over right now."
Sure enough they pulled up with their van and I got my TV about two hours after I ordered. Unknown to me I had ordered it from a Hasidic run company just down the street from my home in Brooklyn.
https://www.amazon.com/sp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfi...
Fortnightly and biennially are 'every other'.
Your parent already provided the counterpoint, Biennially.
Additionally I'm not convinced by your bicycle => 2 => bi annual logic.
You could equally argue it leads to 2 times a year, because it doesn't happen a half every year just like a bike doesn't have half a wheel.
For your bicycle example that I didn't reply to initially - I don't see what it breaks? Unicycles have one and tricycles three wheels. If i give you a wheel triweekly you have three by the end of the week and can build a tricycle.
"Bi- 2a occurring twice in every one or once in every two (biweekly)"
Biannual is only defined as occurring twice a year though.
So, inflammable.
My large Collins dictionary suggests that biannual means twice per year, while semi-annual has more of a hint at 'six-monthly', i.e. evenly space (which makes sense if you think semi-circle, semi-detached, etc.).
> And I’m American, we don’t use the word fortnight unless we’re pretending to be British.
Ah well there's the problem! ;) But well, yes, of course if you remove the word for something from your vocabulary there's going to be ambiguity when a similar one is used. Or just stick to 'every [other] week' and remove biweekly too.
I didn't claim any strong grammatical structure of 'bi', just consistency between biweekly and biannually, and that 'once per two weeks' was the meaning of a different word, as is 'once per two years'.
No - Amazon pays sellers every other week.
In this case, the only delay is the 7 day holding period after the latest possible delivery date.
For example, if you sell and deliver a product on Jan 1st, you may be able to disburse the funds as soon as the 8th.
However! This example does not hold for the situation described by the GP because no tracking information can be provided to Amazon. In which case, the longest possible delivery period in the shipping method selected will be used.
More importantly, what the seller did as described by GP is big liability, for two reasons:
1. Phone numbers should never, ever, be used to contact the customer directly. They are for the seller to give to the carrier. This is a violation of Amazon's ToS.
2. Sellers should never, ever, deliver directly to buyers. Not only will this hurt their valid tracking rate metric, but it also makes them a very easy target for item not received cases as there is no proof that the item was delivered. The only recourse in a case like this would be through small claims court.
And on a much more minor note, it's unprofessional to visit a buyer in person. Amazon is not eBay.
[0] https://3t122x28ppxb3z3e3u3i0eib-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-...
They can still use the same tracking mechanisms, I mean when I order from the pizza place, they don't contract it out, so why should I care of my amazon seller does?
This is so they can verify you actually shipped the package, and verify it was delivered within the fulfillment promise date range, ie. if you paid for 2 day shipping or whatever.
There are some sellers that have been approved for self-delivery of packages, which are not trackable. In these cases, they usually forfeit all rights to dispute non-delivery claims and more. So, it's pretty risky for the seller.
Last time Yodel had delivered a parcel of $50 to my door (marking it as delivered), which obviously got stolen. You can’t call Yodel - their line is always busy, and the line is not a free number.
Yodel had done that regularly to me, but I could never contact them or do anything about my delivery, since their customer service is horrendous.
Is there any way to set it up in Amazon (or ebay, too) so that their fulfillment never uses a certain delivery brand?
No, unfortunately not. Well, unless you're open to moving outside of Yodel's delivery radius.
eBay has no fulfillment network, so you can reach out to the seller and ask for a different shipping method. You should expect to be asked to cover the cost difference though.
You can also do this on Amazon as well, just make sure that the product you're buying says "ships and sold by XYZ". Send them a message prior to ordering and they'll let you know if they can accommodate.
Amazon support was able to do this for me. They also CC:d me on a really strongly worded email to the delivery company, which I found really surprising.
This was one of the euro amazons with european support staff.
This applies to very few sellers.
Fair enough. I am one of those few sellers and I tend to assume it's more commonplace than it is.
In any case, I don't really understand the desire for instant disbursements. Certainly you eliminate the risk of Amazon carrying a larger balance than necessary, and in rare cash crunch situations it may rescue the day... But beyond that, why is it so desireable?
It might be unusual in the context, its not unprofessional, and in certain contexts associated with a premium service.
It's a very oligopolistic view to say only Amazon and a few big companies are trustworthy logistics providers.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/amazon-o...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3021229/chaim-pikarski-the-amazo...
They say this in the Buzzfeed article:
>But on an economic level, this commitment translates into a 28% poverty rate among Orthodox Jews in New York, according to the UJA Federation of New York. Many Orthodox Jews find employment at religious schools and rely on welfare to support their large families, which have an average of seven children.
This completely ignores that welfare fraud has been a perennial issue in the Lakewood [1] and Brooklyn [2] Hasidic communities. The community knows it can take advantage federal, state, and local programs so they do. The same community has issues with overt employment discrimination [3], and is also known for being one of the more vocal anti-vaxxer communities [4].
I deliberately chose local, Jewish, and official state sources to appeal to your sensitivities. I understand if you aren't from the area and/or have never associated with members of the Hasidic community so I encourage you to review and understand why the NYTimes article was written the way it was.
[1] https://www.app.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/2018/...
[2] https://forward.com/news/351162/wealthy-orthodox-couples-cha...
[3] https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20170814
[4] https://forward.com/news/national/422354/hasidic-measles-out...
As others have mentioned, the Hasidic community is an insular community. I have interacted numerous times in business and I've never had an issue professionally. In matters of business they learn how to behave with customers and run things efficiently. It was why, until the discrimination charges were announced, I kept going back to B&H to spend thousands of dollars on gear over the years. When I was a kid I thought of them like Amish, but instead of farming and barn raising they just happened to sell stuff.
Unfortunately, just like other groups that rely on propaganda to hide abuses, the good rabbis inside it that act as whistleblowers end up attacked. This sickening NSFW/NSFL article [1] is about a rabbi inside the community that decided to speak out against child abuse. He was rewarded with chemical burns after bleach was tossed in his face.
[1] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qbe8bp/the-child-rape-ass...
The table used to calculate federal poverty level doesn't scale correctly to high numbers of children.
You can make rather a lot of money, yet be considered poor if you have lots of children.
Additional children don't cost as much as the federal government thinks.
According to this: https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fp...
A family of 8 is under the poverty level if they make less than $43,430. I'd not consider that to be a "rather a lot of money" if raising 8 children is involved.
Clearly it's not though.
But use your chart to check the 250% level often used as a cut off for services. You can make a 6 figure income and still be considered poor.
It's wrong though, the incremental expense of more children doesn't work that way.
FWIW, I am Jewish myself, as is the source.
[0] https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/brooklyn-eateries-cancel-les...
Edit: hadn't seen an earlier poster's comment on this, my bad.
Edit 2: it's worth mentioning that the fraud/welfare issue is a massive political hot-button topic in Israel: many Israelis resent having to pay taxes to support hasidim who in many cases don't contribute to society: they don't serve in the army, they don't work, they don't go to university, but they have lots of children and get welfare for them and themselves. Current electoral brouhaha over there is at least partly driven by related issues and the overall religious-secular divide. It's fascinating reading!
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/39hzw2 https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/awhm5x
BTW why people won't use OpenBazaar instead?
I strongly dispute your "Amazon is great" statement but I digress. I think I heard about OpenBazaar when it launched but just checked it out again and having no web frontend for a marketplace is total crazysauce. People who are looking to buy something elsewhere from Amazon find those storefronts through search.
Disputes and legal recourse.
I do keep track when I can order, for instance right now they are closed for Succos.
What I got out of it is they spend a lot of time doing intensive Talmud studies, and perhaps that teaches discipline and hones intellectual skills.
Then someone with this background finds themselves struggling to support their family and they realize that with some hustle, they can do it through Amazon.
I believe the only advantage is being near a large city so there's a lot of stuff available to buy at a discount. NYC is a very interesting city. The other possible advantage is that self-starting is an admirable trait amongst the Hasidim.
2) The need to support a growing family from a young age with no formal education, propels many to try their hand at business.
That's about all you need to know about Amazon these days.
I can't speak for the LDSs, since I don't know them.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/theslice/mormon-utah-valley-mu...
Husband runs the business, wife works for the county/town/school for the healthcare and pension.
Not just the men.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2013/01/you...
Spencer W. Kimball said, "Every boy and many girls and couples should serve missions. Every prospective missionary should prepare morally, spiritually, mentally, and financially all of his life in order to serve faithfully, efficiently, and well in the great program of missionary work” (“Advice to a Young Man: Now Is the Time to Prepare,” New Era, June 1973, 9; italics added)."
Oddly enough, the most efficient mission they did (whether they were male or female!) was to simply not make such a big deal of it; being a rather devout Lutheran myself, we quickly agreed there was no need to attempt converting each other - though they were always good conversation partners and with a seemingly genuine desire to be of assistance any way they possibly could.
Apparently, the incoming ones were to an extent briefed on the locals by the departing ones - I had a chuckle being playfully greeted by a new pair of missionaries as "Oh, so you are that stubborn heathen we've been hearing about..."
Missionaries with a well-developed sense of humour.
Brilliant.
i enjoy my home life with my family, but i know of a few other fathers that dont so much and purposefully work overtime.
Also, many Latter-day Saints go on 2 year missions in their late teens/early 20s, where you mostly self-direct your proselyting in the area you are assigned to. Good sales experience, self-starting, persistence, etc.
It's a potent combination for business.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Way-Doing-Business/dp/14555229...
Both the article and many in this comment section are using the term "Hasidic" to refer to all ultra-Orthodox (aka Haredi) Jews. This is not the case.
As the article briefly mentions, Hasidism is a recent (~18th-century) ecstatic religious movement that split off from conventional ultra-Orthodoxy. Non-Hasidic Haredim originally called themselves Misnagdim ("opposition"), but these days are usually called Litvish ("Lithuanian", since that was the stronghold of Misnagdi thought). The two have since reconciled over their combined opposition to later secularist Jewish religious and political trends, and through the efforts/existence of groups like Chabad which blur the binary; but the separate identities are still strong.
Borough Park, the neighborhood the article is about, happens to be majority Hasidic, but also has a substantial Litvish minority which is subject to all of the same pressures and constraints that draw Haredim of all stripes to online businesses.
So aware or not your previous comment was wrong in every way because you cannot or will not separate different meanings of "conservative".
You smeared all with one brush and your subsequent worldview is just as nonsensical as one would expect from such a nonsensical approach to viewing others.
Your comment was the opposite of insight - anyone who read your comment was actively mislead. You are fake news.
It is an interesting fact that (disclaimer, generalizations follow) a community that tends to take charity from the government also tends to vote for a candidate like Donald Trump.
Your reaction to my pointing this out is that my "tone exudes a high level of bias" - when you're the one doing the tone reading.
People are more complex than you make them, and your one dimensional analysis based on a purposeful misconstruing of a word, leading you to smear an entire religious group adds no value to any conversation, and reveals you as a likely a bigot.
Conservatism in the U.S. is pretty anti-social in that regard, which isn't true everywhere, as in other countries it wasn't co-opted by "free market" types
Mods currate the front page, so everything I read here seems like an advertisement.
We also try to make sure that hard-paywalled articles don't appear on the front page, though that's gotten complicated because those publications work differently for different users.
I agree with the other user that mentioned it would be nice to have some indication of hard or soft blocks. I realize that wouldn't be easy, especially to be completely accurate with, but even if it was done for a subset of sites that often appear it would be a nice feature.
If I could buy a subscription that covered all online publications, and for a reasonable price, I would be quite happy. As it is I already have 5 print subscriptions.