Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Amazon Will Be the Death of Me

Having a degree in marketing, I am completely aware of what Amazon.com is doing to me. So why am I powerless to resist? I have bought more CDs from them than I care to say, yet they keep pulling me back in. It doesn't help that they have a freakishly large selection, worthwhile reviews, sound clips, and the notorious “recommendation” feature. I will buy a CD, and before I know it, five more are recommended to me. So I check them out. After all, these aren't hackneyed, random recommendations. They are usually dead-on. Half the time I find another CD I absolutely love, and add it to my cart. “You like The Stills,” Amazon coos. “Well then check out Plus Minus or Elected, they're good too.”

“Sure,” I say. Next thing I know, I'm buying another CD. And then there is the free shipping offer with a $25 purchase. So I have to buy more than one. And they ship so fast, too. Damn them!

There just has to be a line. Amazon has gotten into the habit of sending me follow-up emails with a list of further recommendations. Sure, I could ignore these, but I'm tragically curious. What if ignoring these recommendations is depriving me from some revolutionary new music experience? So I click away, listen to some sound samples, do a little research, and end up hooked on another CD.

Why is this a bad thing? Well it's not, exactly. It's just that it all adds up, money wise. I'm not driving myself into the poor house or anything, but I could do with some self control and stick to a tighter budget. Maybe I should blame commercial radio, being so lame and all. They have driven me to this, with their overplayed, soulless music and annoying Djs. I have no choice but to seek solace on the Internet.

I'm not going to fight it. Amazon has won. That's just the way it is. Who am I kidding, trying to break free from their delicious grasp? Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to look up some more West African Funk. I love you Amazon.

8 comments:

grace said...

i, too am powerless against the forces of amazon. i also just love amazon uk. i have spent far too much money on both sites.

that $25 free shipping! the fabulous recommendations! they're evil, evil geniuses... or geni. what's the plural, anyway? is it like cactus and cacti? or penis and peni?

BUGGER blogger said...

grace: and anus to ani? and uterus to uteri?

Jer said...

I'm going to make an attempt: geniuses, cacti, penises, anuses, uteri

Kristen said...

I'm sticking with uteruses. No partictular reason, just personal preference.
BTW, have you been recommended a band called The Rasmus?

grace said...

eh, i don't really care what the plural of these words are, i just think it's funny...

like peni cracks me up. i don't know why.

Jer said...

K: Amazon hasn't reccomended The Rasmus, but I checked them out since you mentioned them. They sound like somewhat evolved 80s butt rock. Kind of like The Darkness, except they make me laugh -- at least their video did.

Kristen said...

yeah, the diff. btw. the rasmus and the darkness is that the rasmus are serious about their music videos (agreeably laughable) -- I mean, who doesn't want shadowy pom-pomed cheer-leaders dancing around in their angsty-song music video? Wait... Oh, yeah, I asked because amazon's recommended a couple of cds that you've mentioned before... then again, I don't really buy a lot of Cuban jazz, so we probably don't hear about a lot of the same stuff :)

Jer said...

AFROcuban jazz, dear. :)