Struggling with personal finances and not being ‘rich’ is one thing but when the world’s richest man rubs this in personally by saying “thank you for paying for my space trip”, it takes the debate between ‘rich’ versus ‘poor’ to another level. Soon after Jeff Bezos , the world’s richest man, enjoyed his space trip and thanked Amazon employees and customers for making it happen, Amazon customers in the US are reportedly cancelling Prime subscriptions.
The reason is simple. There’s no bitter feeling about Bezos enjoying his space trip. But the fact that Bezos decided to thank employees and customers on Twitter for funding his trip is making Amazon users fume.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this … thank you from the bottom of my heart very much,” said Bezo after completing his trip.
Interestingly, this “thank you” message did not go well with Amazon customers in the US. As per a report by Business Insider, people are not happy with Bezos bragging about how he made his space trip possible with the money from customers and the hard work of Amazon employees. This message from Bezos made people in the US angry after media reports highlighted how Amazon delivery partners are forced to urinate in water bottles because they can’t afford the time to find public toilets and use them due to the ‘insane’ work pressure. People are also angry about how Amazon treats its warehouse employees– the people who are actually doing all the tedious scutwork that helps Amazon deliver products within the promised timeline.
“You guys, I just canceled my Amazon Prime membership and feel GREAT about it. I am over paying to shop on a website and/or for a zillionaire’s rocket ride. Just had to tell the world I guess,” said a customer in a Facebook group.
Another customer was quoted in the report by Business Insider saying, “First, it was realizing how this company negatively affects the publishing industry. Then, it was discovering the abysmal treatment of the warehouse workers. Next, a growing awareness of my own consumerism that was really starting to gross me out.”
“The whole thing was such a spectacle of a single person amassing so much wealth that they simply have lost touch with the reality for the average person,” said another Amazon customer.
