The benefit of grassroot campaigns is their ability to focus attention on things you wouldn't necessarily be aware of. Medical issues, human interest issues, work and politics. If a problem is affecting a number of people and isn't being addressed by those who should, banding together to present a unified voice can have a powerful impact.
The downside of grassroot campaigns is their ability to focus attention on things that you wouldn't necessarily be aware of. I'm watching the still-running boycott of eBay by a group of power-sellers and perhaps you are, as well. While boycotts in the past have targeted companies or institutions that people have little sympathy for, I'm really confused at the hate for eBay. In truth - is there really any point at getting angry at eBay for altering their pricing structure...something that they are well within their right to do?
The details of the boycott can be read here – the group organizing the campaign only wants a boycott of eBay to extend for one week (2/18 – 2/25). Some news organizations have already pointed out that eBay listings dropped significantly but the MN reported this morning that eBay didn’t feel that much impact at all. The group organizing the strike may decide to continue the boycott, according to the MN article. Let this be a lesson to us all.
eBay is like any other web site or large Internet company. Some people like them and some people hate them. But a business is still just that: a business. It isn’t a malicious factory of moustache-twirling villans who plot to conquer the world on their lunch break. But you have people who don’t understand that concept. In minds of some, it seems – a protest is the answer to every problem. That philosophy is hitting a brick wall and to that I say: Bravo!
Let everyone who thinks more of themselves than they ought to experience a little virtual de-pantsing - That’s the lesson we learn from people organizing this campaign. People get weird ideas about how the world works, sometimes and that can prompt them to try and impose their will in places and ways that are completely inappropriate. Would you try doing this at your local grocery store? Rather than simply taking your business elsewhere, you organize a protest, go on a hunger strike, pass out flyers and put together a town hall discussion to try and explain to Safeway or Vons or Ralphs that not taking your coupon or carrying your favorite brand of cat litter harms you in some way?
Probably not – hopefully not. Because you first of all know that by acting unreasonable or crazy, you sacrifice any hope of proving your point. Like the lady who called into 911 because a Carl’s Jr. got her order wrong. Further, you know that in business, there is a limit to what recourse you have when you don’t like the way one business operates. You’re welcome to take your business elsewhere and you are welcome to set up a competing business that offers the benefits another business might not. Organizing boycotts over issues that simply don’t matter in this day and age, especially when you have numerous other alternatives, is cah-ray-zee!
I mean, doesn’t this just smack of blowhardism? Doesn’t it say “I have too much time on my hands”? People who can’t set up their own online store but have enough energy and talent to put together a national protest against the very business that makes their enterprise possible – does it get any more counterproductive? If I were eBay, I’d let this boycott run its course and then cancel every membership that was involved. I’d say “Thanks, but I would rather not do business with you – feel free to set up your own online store.” I’m being a little rambunctious – eBay’s handling the issue with much more poise than I would, in a similar situation.
Let’s review: eBay blew the doors off of online retail with its business model back in the mid-to-late 90s. I would suggest deserves quite a bit of credit for making selling items so simple to do. Anyone else out there who thinks they can do as much business, better than they can, is welcome to try. I don’t want to sound too much like an eBay shill – I’m very ambivalent toward them, myself – but I feel a certain distaste for the automatic assumption that a big company is necessarily a bad company. In this case, it definitely feels like the inmates are trying to take over the asylum, with predictable results.
There are other options for selling your crap on the Internet. Craiglist, Amazon and even XSBay.Net - an alternative to eBay started by a friend of mine – you can sell your stuff here if eBay makes you so angry. I’m not endorsing this site or any site – I’m not saying eBay is great or that XSBay is better than eBay – they are what they are. Finding yourself in a situation that you don’t like is just part of life – what you do after that is what defines you as a person.
Hopefully, after this debacle dies down, some of these organizers will take a hard look in the mirror and recognize that they made themselves look like fools. Showing this much ability to organize, plan and execute, but being unable to develop your own independent web business says so much more about you than it does about eBay. Publicly and repeatedly – you are biting the hand that feeds you and we all know how well that turns out. Work with eBay or take your business elsewhere – stop wasting my time by asking me to care about things that aren’t important.
No comments:
Post a Comment