Amazon got us hooked on one day delivery, now small businesses are paying for it

Amazon's marketplace provides fast, free shipping for a lot of products. That's definitely a competitive advantage they have invested heavily in. I don't see the point of condemning Amazon because people who aren't in their marketplace can't provide the same fast, free shipping. Of course they can't, they didn't build a distribution network. Is the point of this article that Amazon is to blame because people who try really, really, really hard to do the thing Amazon does can't do it as well as they do?

If you're trying to sell things to people, and it turns out what they care most about is the level of fast, free shipping Amazon marketplace offers, then you have several options: join Amazon marketplace and pay their toll, or create your own marketplace and compete with Amazon, or compete on some other aspect of your product and hope that customers care about that more than shipping.

We can (and probably should) blame Amazon, but at the end of the day it’s you and me on the end of every transaction. Consumers need to be more thoughtful about who and where they buy from, along with the consequences of their choice. I avoid Amazon at all costs. I try to shop through local suppliers (or even - gasp - in-person). I understand when I buy from smaller retailers knowing it will cost to ship and most likely take longer.

As a side point, it seems crazy that the family mentioned in the article decided to abruptly stop selling through shops and suppliers? I wonder did they test their online sales first?

Not a terribly big fan of Linus, but I came across this clip recently, which tells his story on the same subject. Specifically he tells about how Amazon holds the seller responsible even in cases where an order is "Fulfilled by Amazon", yet something goes wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyz3VO3JNUg

It's funny how Trump undermining USPS to hurt Amazon in the end helped Amazon and hurt small business. Pure genius!