Job Losses From Online Shopping

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Everything we use comes from China, even what you are wearing as you read this piece. One farmer at the market told me the garlic in little stockings in grocery stores, also comes from China.

Anyway, it is a long way from Canada and U.S therefore, China loads Italian, American and French designer clothes, steel, army uniforms, flags, winter boots or Halloween costumes into shipping containers that dance on the sea until they arrive at our ports.

They are transferred to goods (freight) trains which bring them to inland provinces like where I am. Long distance trucks also move goods to land-locked places. Sounds boring, but this is the process that leads to you, the target. You’re already buying Christmas gifts at the mall or online.

So, what does shipping have to do with online shopping? Local shops. There are empty shops at the mall that have been empty for almost a year. They went out of business because the cash register was not ringing as much as it should. Online shopping must be one of the reasons.

This brings us to the process that started in China. If there are less shops because we buy bicycles, pots and sheets online, trains and trucks will also see a decline in the cargo they carry. Amazon and other online retailers will keep popping the champagne because those shipping containers go to their warehouses.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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