Should Amazon Consider The Race Of Its Customers?

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While the headline of this Bloomberg article makes it sound like it would be a tabloid clickbait article, it is actually pretty interesting. Obviously Amazon doesn't collect data on the race of its customers but would doing so even be a good idea?

There’s no evidence that Amazon makes decisions on where to deliver based on race. Berman says the ethnic composition of neighborhoods isn’t part of the data Amazon examines when drawing up its maps. “When it comes to same-day delivery, our goal is to serve as many people as we can, which we’ve proven in places like Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.” Amazon, he says, has a “radical sensitivity” to any suggestion that neighborhoods are being singled out by race. “Demographics play no role in it. Zero.”
 
I'm asian, I like asian things, I won't be offended if amazon suggest asian culture things to me.

But then again I'm not going out there to find out the next thing that offends me is, but rather I'm just simply living my life.

Concerning what's listed above though, I think demograph has zero to do with it. I think it's the market strenght of the area, and also the rate of returns.
 
I'd say no.... because while race might influence you due to cultural reasons, there are many other factors. Putting in race specifically, seems like it's narrowing it unnecessarily.
 
I would say no. You avoid a lot of pitfalls if you don't. Can't claim to be racist for example.
 
Only if there is a choice for races: "ALL of the above" :)
 
Geef said:
Only if there is a choice for races: "ALL of the above" :)
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You got me thinking about 23 and Me. I have a relative that works in the lab that does testing for that and she showed me the profile it generates. Interesting stuff that I'm thinking of trying.
 
They don't deliver to those areas because they determined the cost to provide that service isn't worth the potential benefit to their business. From the tone of the article, it seems the areas are being left out for their socioeconomic make up than their racial make up. But, let's not pass up any opportunity to insert race into an issue.
 
They aren't bringing same-day service to those areas because people in those zip codes aren't Amazon Prime customers. People in those zip codes aren't Amazon Prime customers because ______________ (fill in the blank).
 
I could see some services not rolling out to some areas due to the proven probability that bad stuff would happen to the people working that area. Imagine Amazon flex rolling out in a less than nice area, how do you think a very nerdy white guy like myself would fare in a super ghetto place primarily of "other" race? (proof that we can't even talk about things like this openly, if I said black... people would automatically assume I'm a racist)

Math doesn't lie and it's not racist, but there are retards out there that would prefer to bury their heads in the sane all so they can be politically correct on the matter. I really don't give crap either way, stereotypes (both good and bad) exist for people of every color, it's not like they just randomly popped up out of nowhere, there's a REASON.

I'm a nerdy white guy, and like nerdy white guy things -- talking about it, or observing other things other groups like apparently makes me racist. Boo hoo.
 
evilsofa said:
They aren't bringing same-day service to those areas because people in those zip codes aren't Amazon Prime customers. People in those zip codes aren't Amazon Prime customers because ______________ (fill in the blank).
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because according to Chris rock many people in neighborhoods like that spend all their money on rims!

Chris Rock comedy gold:
 
dethklokworkorange said:
They don't deliver to those areas because they determined the cost to provide that service isn't worth the potential benefit to their business. From the tone of the article, it seems the areas are being left out for their socioeconomic make up than their racial make up. But, let's not pass up any opportunity to insert race into an issue.
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You're right here, but it underscores the unspoken racism (more generally, xenophobia and exclusive tribal identity) that still runs in the veins of humanity. There is a fact that there is a disproportionately larger number of people who exhibit Congoidal features who are poor. To say that some put themselves in that situation is fair to conclude, but that a larger proportion of those with very recent African heritage are putting themselves in that situation than any other race seems like an absurd assumption. What this issue with Amazon is underscoring is that there are those who are unfairly discriminated against based on their appearance because they are the ones by and large in these neighborhoods which are skipped, even when race has absolutely no bearing on that decision.
 
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I would prefer if they worked on gender first. I have kids and do most not the online ordering. To take advantage of their best deals I had to enroll in "Amazon Moms" but I'm not a woman. Now I get all these "Mom" suggestions, and no not things for the kids. :(
 
lol walnut? I like things based upon my personality and that is not determined by this here person's skin color
 
Don't think they really have to... If anything it would create less accurate targeting.

While in some cases race could actually lead to better targeting... Hair care products can differ due to race, not culturally but physically.

Yet the few instances where targeting race could be used without being completely racist or biased could still be targeted based on typical big data methods... % of people who bought A also bought B etc

Seems like going by actual purchase/shopping data would be more accurate then just race.
 
NExUS1g said:
You're right here, but it underscores the unspoken racism (more generally, xenophobia and exclusive tribal identity) that still runs in the veins of humanity. There is a fact that there is a disproportionately larger number of people who exhibit Congoidal features who are poor. To say that some put themselves in that situation is fair to conclude, but that a larger proportion of those with very recent African heritage are putting themselves in that situation than any other race seems like an absurd assumption. What this issue with Amazon is underscoring is that there are those who are unfairly discriminated against based on their appearance because they are the ones by and large in these neighborhoods which are skipped, even when race has absolutely no bearing on that decision.
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The only way a customer's appearance effects Amazon is if they appear capable of using the Internet. The people you mention are surely discriminated against in numerous ways, but the shipping practices of a giant online retailer is not one of those. I live in the middle of nowhere, an area I doubt will ever be covered by same day shipping. But that's because there isn't as high of a concentration of Prime users with a large disposable income as portions of the largest cities.
 
I guess at the end of the day, if the article was arguing that decades of racist policies have led to these areas of poverty, that would be fine. But trying to attach Amazon to that racism is too much of a stretch. Correlation does not equal causation.
 
No offense but there is a certain ammount of people on the USA that tries to make everything into a race argument. You don't see that in most other places of the world, regardless of how mixed we really are.
 
trentchau said:
I'm asian, I like asian things, I won't be offended if amazon suggest asian culture things to me.
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You're asian though, like "cis gender white guy shitlords" you don't offend easily. But just wait until your black female friend gets stereotypical black products suggested to her. That's not going to end well. People don't need data mining to shop, they can find the products they want easily enough.
dethlokworkorange said:
I guess at the end of the day, if the article was arguing that decades of racist policies have led to these areas of poverty
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Decades of racist policies caused the poverty? *rolleyes* No personal accountability for the life choices of the people that do stupid things, make stupid decisions, and wreck the neighborhoods they move into... so who are we blaming? I suppose the "racist policies" that are responsible were implemented in a conspiracy by "the man", aka white males, again, is that right? You do have a point though, because if you think about it, places that have never been subject to white colonialism or rule have been tremendously prosperous, like Liberia.
 
Wow right out of the gate - the article's authors hit with white and black. Agenda much? If you go to poor rural white West Virginia or Kentucky, I'll bet you Amazon treats those areas just the same as poor black urban areas.

As a business it's all about how much money they think they can get out of you - I seriously don't think any good business operator cares about any color other than green.

It's the people that are most biased that tend to see "bias" in others.
 
Why are we even talking about this? So many people nowadays go digging around looking for problems to blow out of proportion to drive clicks and ads when there is absolutely nothing of interest going on. You buy shit, amazon ships it to you. End of story.
 
trentchau said:
I'm asian, I like asian things, I won't be offended if amazon suggest asian culture things to me.

But then again I'm not going out there to find out the next thing that offends me is, but rather I'm just simply living my life.
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I'm sorry but if Amazon started suggesting chopsticks and rice cookers or those pointy hats like they wear in Vietnam, a lot of asian people are going to have a problem with it.

It's one of those things in life we have to accept, like attractive people having more Facebook friends, or japanese porn always involving an octopus and a vacuum cleaner.
 
DPI said:
I'm sorry but if Amazon started suggesting chopsticks and rice cookers or those pointy hats like they wear in Vietnam, a lot of asian people are going to have a problem with it.

It's one of those things in life we have to accept, like attractive people having more Facebook friends, or japanese porn always involving an octopus and a vacuum cleaner.
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The second part of your statement is how I live. I just accept it. I don't go out trying to find the next thing that offends me due to circumstances beyond my control. I don't think Amazon would ever just suggest rice field conical hats, but to be honest that's kinda hilarious. I got a robert Downey Jr from Tropical Thunder vibe from that.

As a person who did marketing though for an advertising firm for a while, I will say we did look up demograph information along with MSA, Zip Code, and most importantly wealth. When we setup a campaign it was never about race, but it was about culture, and we saw a difference in culture. Rich black guy like tiger woods? It wasn't that he was black, but that he was affluent and in an affluent zip code so our advertising was more for Chimay or Stella Artois. More Urban philadelphia MSA, well we did a little bit of Stella, but also more things like advertising courvoisier or bud light.

If it means anything you guys, when a very popular bi polar drug made a major campaign in 2008 we installed it everywhere in 47 states. It wasn't aimed at blacks, whites, etc.....so hey we all have problems :)
 
Ducman69 said:
You're asian though, like "cis gender white guy shitlords" you don't offend easily. But just wait until your black female friend gets stereotypical black products suggested to her. That's not going to end well. People don't need data mining to shop, they can find the products they want easily enough.

Decades of racist policies caused the poverty? *rolleyes* No personal accountability for the life choices of the people that do stupid things, make stupid decisions, and wreck the neighborhoods they move into... so who are we blaming? I suppose the "racist policies" that are responsible were implemented in a conspiracy by "the man", aka white males, again, is that right? You do have a point though, because if you think about it, places that have never been subject to white colonialism or rule have been tremendously prosperous, like Liberia.
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I feel like you're missing my point about people missing the point. While I don't necessarily agree with that opinion, I was trying to suggest a hypothetical position one could take while writing an article. However, now that you mention it, I feel people who smugly champion personal responsibility as the magic bullet for all of life's woes are as equally ridiculous as those who have no personal responsibility, and blame all their woes on "the man".
 
I'd imagine any large retailer these days online will track a certain demographic in one way or anther based on purchases, to a certain extent.

Shipping would be dependent on just where you are related to their policies.

I generally buy all sorts of things in the past cooking, instrumental or vaping etc,etc related.

Most of the large retailers just seem to base it on your buying habits myself.

If someone has bought something that appears to be racially related several times in the past, why would suggesting something that is similar and possibly better along the same lines be a problem ?
 
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