For residents of minority urban neighborhoods, access to Amazon.com’s vast array of products—from Dawn dish soap and Huggies diapers to Samsung flatscreen TVs—can be a godsend. Unlike whiter ZIP codes, these parts of town often lack well-stocked stores and quality supermarkets. White areas get organic grocers and designer boutiques. Black ones get minimarts and dollar stores. People in neighborhoods that retailers avoid must travel farther and sometimes pay more to obtain household necessities. “I don’t have a car, so I love to have stuff delivered,” says Tamara Rasberry, a human resources professional in Washington, D.C., who spends about $2,000 a year on Amazon Prime, the online retailer’s premium service that guarantees two-day delivery of tens of millions of items (along with digital music, e-books, streaming movies, and TV shows) for a yearly $99 membership fee. Rasberry, whose neighborhood of Congress Heights is more than 90 percent black, says shopping on Amazon lets her bypass the poor selection and high prices of nearby shops.
Tag: Prime
Any Amazon Prime customer can now buy Dash buttons | Mashable
It’s been five months since Amazon announced the Dash button, a physical device slightly larger than your thumb that lets you orders more goods with a single tap. Now, the Seattle tech giant is taking the Dash button out of the invite-only stage and making it available to all Prime customers for purchase.
Prime customers can purchase Dash buttons for $5 each starting Wednesday; the company will credit you for the cost of your first button.
The company is also expanding the number of available button types -– one for each brand partner -– from 18 to 29. The additional 11 brands include Ziploc, Dixie tableware, Hefty trash bags, Finish dishwashing detergent, Depend diapers, Ice Breakers Mints, Orbit gum, Greenies dental chews, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products, Digestive Advantage probiotic supplements, and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% whey protein.
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