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Our website is closed on Sundays

stickerninja.com

48 pointsaendruk16 comments

Neat. This is probably a direct result of the stickermule controversy. Saw a ton of people recommending stickerninja as an alternative in various places.

This was posted in October 2020. Maybe the poster posted it in response, but it appears they've had this policy for a while.

"The stickermule controversy" is really only the most recent and probably most high profile stickermule controversy. They got sued in 2020 for some employment malfeasance and their political affiliations have been known since even before that.

So it's maybe still possible that stickerninja adopted this in response to increased business from people avoiding stickermule, just in a previous round.

Companies taking very public stands for one political candidate or another is probably not a great evolution in our polarization.

I don't see how it polarises.

That said, I don't accept corporations have the kind of personhood that should come with "inalienable rights" to speech as this kind of thing turns from "free and open debate" (good) into "those who have power get to be propagandists" (bad). And I'm saying that before reading the article, so I don't even know if this is a red or a blue (or yellow or green) thing.

Huh. Just realised a thing. If the US constitution is what gives corporations free speech, do US corporations also have a right to bear arms and form a militia?

Edit: Now I have read the page, still wasn't sure why this was potentially political, googled stickermule, never heard of them before.

Your question on right for the corporation to bear arms is interesting but moot. The members of the corporation already have that right.

If that's the case, why is it not moot when it comes to freedom of speech?

A corporation cannot bear arms without a physical person/object (drone?) doing so, whereas speech can be done by the corporation as a purely legal entity. I guess the closest is a corporation can hire someone to do it, but that someone ultimately is a person/drone. Employment is not bearing arms.

Sticker Mule is one of the major internet-order small-batch/on-demand custom sticker/T-shirt/swag suppliers. You may know them from "unixstickers".

Following Trump getting shot, Sticker Mule send out a marketing email to customers encouraging them to buy a T-shirt that "shows you support Trump."

This has caused many Sticker Mule customers to seek alternatives. Sticker Ninja has benefited greatly from this (they are "slammed", as TFA says). Sticker Ninja hasn't done anything political here, and that's sort of the point; they haven't while Sticker Mule has.

I wonder if they’ll disable ordering on Sundays similar to how some Jewish sites disable forms on Saturdays.

B&H most famously closes the entire website

I wouldn't say it's the entire website. You simply can't place orders. All other parts of the site are fully functional on Saturdays.

B&H always keep the website open, regardless of if it’s for Shabbat, or for any of the other Jewish Holy days.

What they do do is block all forms of ordering during Shabbat etc. but they make it clear you’re welcome to browse and (iirc) add items to your cart.

I presume they loose a fair bit sales. It will be interesting to see any data on what happens to the customers who try to buy something on a Sunday and realize they can't. Do they return another day or purchase somewhere else.

They return another day. B&H is a huge store with loyal customers, and they're often the best place to buy specific equipment.

Not only are they closed on Sundays but they're "Sold out for the day?"

I think this is all a little pretentious. They could have a larger team to handle the influx of orders from over the weekend or overnight and make sure stickers don't sell out. Having a larger group of employees doesn't automatically reduce quality or make the work harder for those employees.

If they want to show that they are engaged in a better form of capitalism I think it should be more about employee ownership and profit sharing rather than closing an online business at the inconvenience of customers. Because all that proves is that their version of capitalism has major downsides compared to the inferior form of capitalism.

(I will point out that their messages about being closed on Sundays and their explanation for why they're sold out for the day predate the current StickerMule fiasco, so obviously this happens a lot.)

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