Article by Abigail Schrader (24.09.2026)

It is questioned and debated whether Jeff Bezos became rich at the expense of his customers, employees, neither or both. As his multi-billion dollar company, Amazon, is his main source of wealth, it will remain the central focus of this essay. I contend that his enterprise is a success at the expense of his customers, employees, and the people of the world. His productivity expectations affect his employees, causing physical and psychological harm. Moreover,  Amazon offers many low quality products, whose poor quality is hidden under fraudulent reviews. Lastly, Amazon incentivises rapid and excessive consumption, leading to increased waste, carbon emissions, and long-term environmental harm, affecting not only Jeff Bezos’ customers and employees, but our entire planet’s population.

First, let us consider Amazon’s impact on employees. Amazon is one of the world’s largest employers, providing 1.5 million jobs worldwide. Amazon employees are provided consistent income and receive health benefits; however, one may still ask: do these job opportunities justify exploitation, excessive productivity expectations or dangerous working conditions? Creating employment opportunities does not remove one’s responsibility for employee wellbeing. 

Amazon’s consumption model requires extreme efficiency in labour systems that place intense physical and psychological pressure on employees. To keep up with  the high quotas stemming from same day shipping expectations Amazon closely monitors employees and demands high productivity and intense labour. Employees must achieve their given quotas or face termination. According to CNBC, “Amazon relies on sophisticated algorithms to track productivity rates among its warehouse workers, logging the number of packages they pick, pack and stow each hour. If workers take a break from scanning packages for too long, Amazon’s internal system will log it as “time off task” and generate a warning, which can lead to firings.” This model prioritises speed and efficiency at the expense of the employees safety and wellbeing, especially during high demand periods. 

The graph below illustrates how serious injuries spike around the time of Prime Day, Prime Big Deals and Cyber Monday, exceeding normal weekly levels. This was not only a one-time thing but a pattern that repeated across two years. The increase in consumer demand increases the stress the workers are under to fill high quotas and sustain quick shipping. These expectations directly affect workers wellbeing, which is proven by the injury increase. 

While it is true that warehouse work can be dangerous, the comparison shown in the graph below shows that Amazon's injury rates exceed industry averages. Not only are the injury rates of Amazon far higher, but the average across all four years is over double that of the other warehouses (Amazon≃ 6.7, Other Warehouses≃ 3.1). This, alongside the previous graph, proves the issue is with Amazon's structure and pressure regarding quotas and efficiency, rather than an overall danger in the warehouse industry.

Prioritising high productivity over employees' wellbeing is not unique to Amazon, but resonates with historical patterns such as those of the Gilded age. For example J.D Rockerfeller’s enterprise, Standard Oil. Standard Oil controlled the refining of 90 to 95 percent of all oil produced in the United States. He became rich through prioritizing efficiency, controlling transportation and distribution systems and eliminating the competition, which is comparable to Bezos’s operational structure, as they both built their companies on efficiency and market dominance. During this period, industrial production demands created long hours and dangerous working conditions, exploiting employees to maximise corporate growth. Amazon is mirroring this historical pattern, where concentrated economic power and efficiency-driven systems place pressure on workers. 

Next let us consider  Amazon’s impact on customers. Amazon’s model prioritizes quantity over quality.  Customers do not receive top-quality items any longer. Due to Amazon's market dominance, many smaller, local businesses have been destroyed, not being able to keep up, affecting the community negatively. Furthermore, Amazon has started to prioritise knock off items, rather than name brands which you can find at many stores. While options are not a bad thing, as long as these items are good quality, Amazon has admitted to having fraudulent reviews, deceiving the customer. Moreover, because of Amazon's addictive algorithms, customers are led to overconsume. They are being led to waste money on products they do not need, and are additionally of bad quality.

Lastly, let us consider Amazon’s impact on the environment: Consumerism is encouraged by the ability to buy instantly, buy excessive amounts at once, and buy more than is needed. Amazon's customer experience prioritises seamless shopping, constant availability, low prices and fast delivery.This business model is fuelled by overproduction of cheap products. “One Amazon warehouse reportedly throws out 130,000 products a week, including some products that are brand new”. These products have often been returned, still in perfect condition. Patrick O'Brien, a retail analyst at analytics firm Global Data, claims "The problem for many sellers on Amazon is that if their goods don't sell, they are faced with the possibility of having to continue to pay rent for them or to make a one-off payment for their return or their disposal". It is actively cheaper for third parties to pay for Amazon to destroy their goods, rather than to buy them back and dispose of them themselves”. 130,000  products a week is equivalent to 6,760,000 per year:  6,76 million products wasted per year because of overproduction to fuel consumption. These figures represent only one warehouse in the UK. Worldwide, Amazon has over 350 fulfillment centers If this warehouse’s waste is typical, then across 350 global fulfillment centers, Amazon could be discarding roughly 2.3 billion products annually, though actual numbers may vary. 

Such large-scale waste has significant environmental consequences, particularly in terms of carbon emissions. Every product wasted still requires raw materials and energy to make, package and transport. Many of these products have been shipped across the globe, increasing Amazon's carbon footprint with these needless shipments (if these products are destroyed). Furthermore, Amazon enabling consumers to buy products in multiple sizes at once, to ensure a sale, illustrates how overconsumption works: each shirt requires raw materials, packaging, and shipping. If some are returned and eventually destroyed, all that energy and material is wasted, increasing CO2 emissions. These emissions lead to an astronomical carbon footprint, meaning that all the resources, energy, and emissions involved were ultimately wasted, contributing directly to the growing impact of climate change. 

Now, returning to the matter at hand, how this overconsumption is at the expense of customers, employees and people of the world. While profit is a common goal for all companies and Amazon’s methods provide convenience, Amazon’s business model warrants critical examination. Globally,  one in three people are currently directly affected by climate change. Amazon’s overproduction, shipping intensity, and waste-driven consumption model will accelerate the impact of climate change. The livelihoods of farmers and outdoor workers are directly affected by droughts and heat. Coastal communities are forced to move because of the flooding of their homes. Amazon is contributing potentially to extreme and deadly heat, sea levels rising and food and water shortages. Overall, Jeff Bezos’s wealth can be seen as coming at the expense of both customers and employees, and society as a whole, due to the environmental and systemic costs created by Amazon’s rapid-consumption model.

In summary, Amazon’s model of rapid consumption and waste has created significant environmental and social consequences, and will continue to do so if left unchecked, affecting not only employees and customers, but everyone. His work negatively affects his workers in the warehouses who struggle to keep up with high quotas resulting from his need for efficiency. Additionally, While employees and customers experience some immediate benefits, the environmental and societal costs extend far beyond them, affecting communities globally. Every product that is wasted, every unnecessary shipment that is prompted by this pro-consumer stance, only contributes to emissions that intensify climate change, impacting people worldwide. The consequences are already prominent for farmers and coastal communities. The question now remains, why customers still use Amazon, although it has such negative impacts.

Picture Source: 

“Amazon Rebrand 2025.” Static Dezeen, static.dezeen.com/uploads/2025/05/amazon-rebrand-2025_dezeen_2364_col_0-1.jpg.

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