9 minute read
The Future of Amazon
By: Jordan Missig PR Manager
In the past, when you ordered something online you would normally get your product in a week’s time from the day you purchased it. Amazon has sped up that process and has your orders delivered to your doorstep in just two days or even showing up on the very same day (if you have Amazon Prime and placed your order in the morning). So how does a product go from warehouse shelf to doorstep in a matter of two days or less? It is all about logistics. Amazon has trucks that carry more than 2,000 boxes at a time. Not only that but they use a variety of other transport carriers like Fedex, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service for ground transport. According to www.cnbc.com, “Amazon spends tens of billions of dollars a year and employs nearly 250,000 workers in U.S. warehouses. Amazon ramped up its shipping capabilities, with at least 50 of its own airplanes that can carry up to 30 containers worth of packages, 300 semi-trucks, and 20,000 Amazon vans for last-mile delivery.”
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It’s amazing how a company like Amazon, which was started in 1994 as an online marketplace for books, has turned into an online super mall. USF student and Marketing major Christopher Kelley said, “It has created a positive for adding many jobs for people to work. It’s a good thing for a household of two working adults who have kids and have limited time. But a negative that comes from Amazon is that it takes away from many retail stores and their customer business.” Over the past couple of years, more and more stores have closed their doors. According to www.adweek.com, “As online store sales have increased exponentially, Amazon has been credited with single-handedly killing Borders, Toys R Us, Sears, J. Crew and countless other stores that have filed for bankruptcy and closed their doors for good.” Retail stores like Walmart have been able to avoid financial mismanagement and are keeping their prices low; it knows that in the long run, it can actually add to their profits and not require the hiring additional workers during holiday seasons.
For the future, Amazon is planning on coming out with cashier-less supermarkets. According to www.cnbcnews.com, “Shoppers can walk in, scan the Amazon app on a turnstile and purchase products without waiting in a checkout line. Cameras and other sensors throughout the store monitor which items you take with you and charge you automatically when you leave.” Amazon has recently opened its first cashier-less supermarket store near its headquarters in Seattle and are soon looking to expand these stores across the nation.
Patience is
Action By: Eve Odum Staff Writer
Fast food. Google. Amazon Prime. Grocery Pickup. Picture courtesy of pexels.com
All of these save people time while also destroying patience. Google aims to load their pages in under a half-second but recommends a two-second page load at max because “57% of people leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load,” according to www.bluecorona.com. As Eva Bruno, a secondary English education major, pointed out, humans have been finding shortcuts to production since the 18th century during the Industrial Revolution, which means “the wait time for material things greatly lessened.”
In a world with instant gratification, people have started wrongly associating patience with passivity, resignation or inhibition. But the virtue of patience does not simply mean sitting back and watching life happen. It is a state of action. It is indeed possible to move and grow while in a period of waiting. It is during this time that you can develop emotional power and, like a lion, know when to attack.
Patience is choosing to stay calm and collected in the face of frustration, suffering or hardship. Multiple times in the Bible, patience is paired with endurance and perseverance. It is during suffering that you must keep your anger at bay and demonstrate patience. Occasionally, impatience can be good. It can work to motivate us to find more efficient alternatives and sometimes get to the goal faster. But the majority of the time, impatience drives us to make decisions that go against our normal sense of judgement.
So, what does bad impatience look like? Making rash decisions. Honking your car horn in traffic. Leaving slow lines at the grocery store. Progressing a relationship to intimacy too fast. Or ending a relationship because of uncertainty of the future.
A simpler way to recognize impatience is through frustration. Two key triggers are learning something that will take longer than anticipated and realizing it might cost more than expected. “When I sense that I am becoming impatient I take that as a message from the universe to slow down,” said education professor Cindy Sloan.
Once you find yourself in an agitated state, there are some simple techniques to combat this. An obvious one is to take a few deep breaths. Bruno says, “I try to remind myself to just exist in whatever moment it is that I'm currently living in, and even to savor it, because at some point it will be over.”
Meditation is also a fantastic technique to develop patience and fully appreciate the present moment. Sloan said that, “We could all benefit from creating space to intentionally slow down, unplug, and be more present.”
There are ways to foster patience within you before experiencing trials. Improve your time management skills. Read self-help books; USF freshman Seth Joder suggests ones on Buddhism and Taoism because they are easily applicable. Bruno sets short term goals that lead up to the larger one.
If you’re feeling risky, you could practice your patience by choosing the longest line in a store, picking up a new hobby or making a trip to the DMV. Choosing to stay calm and patient in a stressful situation is empowering. Patience gives you the ability to have emotional freedom. No, it’s not easy, especially in a culture used to instant instantaneousness. That’s why it must be practiced in order for you to be happier.
Patience is not procrastination, rather it is an active state that draws “inwards towards a greater wisdom” and allows you to regroup and choose how to respond, according to www.psychologytoday.com. Mastering this virtue can lead to good self-discipline and less regrets being made. When you are patient, it causes less stress because you aren’t focused so much on gratification and you’re enjoying it when you’re in the moment. You may also find yourself being more flexible with plans because when they change it won’t throw you into such a tizzy. And overall, you will have better health!
Don't Settle,
You're Worth It.
You're Worth It.
Photo courtesy of www.quietrev.com
By: Mary Mathieu Staf Writer
Being in a relationship with someone can be difficult, whether it be a family member, friend or a lover. Maintaining relationships is even harder. After spending so much time and dedication to certain relationships, we may find ourselves with few other relationships in our lives. This becomes an issue because if this main relationship in your life becomes unhealthy or stagnant, then it is difficult to let it go out of fear of being alone. It is important to value certain relationships over others; however, it is equally important to have more than one relationship. Life is about constantly finding new people to grow with. Dedicating your time and energy to one individual may be wonderful and rewarding in the moment. But when things change, the relationship may not be everything you had hoped for. Love of any kind is beautiful but it also has consequences, especially when it pertains to relationships. Therefore, it is important to choose who you invest your time, energy and love in wisely. Change is feared by most but it is inevitable. Changes in relationships can either be for better or for worse. An example of a good change in a relationship is when someone becomes engaged to the love of their life. The two partners went through the awkward dating phase together and will continue to grow together for the rest of their lives. On the contrary, if a couple has been dating for a while and one partner admits that they are not ready to settle down, this has the potential to alter or ruin the couple’s relationship. After discovering this, the relationship would be stagnant and could prevent any future growth from occurring. It is necessary to get out of this relationship, because the purpose of any relationship is to promote growth in both individuals. It is important to note that this is easier said than done. After spending so much time with someone, it is hard to break away and ignore your feelings for him or her. Feelings can be profound and often prevent us from making rational decisions even if it means we would be better off. This is the main reason relationships are complicated, for feelings are the basis of them. Humans prefer to do what is easier rather than harder and are willing to settle in stagnant relationships for this reason. Another situation where people feel obligated to settle for the relationships they have is if they are in an abusive relationship. Being an abuse victim ruins one’s self-esteem and destroys any hope they have of making a better life for themselves. They learn to ignore any feelings of discomfort or hurt they have, because they are taught that their feelings and opinions do not matter. This constant invalidation an individual receives leads them to believe that they are not worthy of anything better. They figure that if they were to leave the toxic relationship, then they would be alone because no one else would want them. In this situation, the victim feels stuck and obligated to stay in the abusive relationship, especially if there are children involved since he or she wants to ensure the safety of their kids. This kind of relationship makes one not only feel lonely while they are in it but also after they escape it. It leads to trust issues and doubts in any future relationships they have. This reveals that relationships are very powerful and have the potential to either better an individual or destroy him or her. The choice to leave a toxic relationship is never easy and leads to feelings of isolation and fear. Therefore, it is necessary to help victims of abuse, for it can help save a life. All in all, people stay in toxic relationships because they fear that they do not deserve better. Another fear that stems out of unhealthy relationships is being alone, for these relationships tend to be so time consuming and jealousy often prevents the victims from forming any other close relationships with other people. Without these relationships, the victim not only feels stuck but also alone, since they have no one else to turn to in times of need. This is not a happy life, because we are all communal beings. Being in a relationship with one person may be nice to begin with but it does not allow us to grow and to achieve our full potential. To do so, we must be in as many relationships as possible, for each relationship we have allows us to develop our own ideas, beliefs and perspectives further. When we broaden our horizons, we not only gain a sense of who we are but recognize what is important to us. By doing so, we will form many new and amazing friendships that will make us recognize that we should not settle, because we are worth it.
