Amazon out of North America!

Amazon, not content to ally itself with the alleged theft of freelance writers’ work, is now gearing up a full-on putsch toward the Canadian “market.”

With localized E-commerce sites in Germany, Japan, and other “foreign markets,” Amazon is a leader in serving customers the way they want to be served. Right?

Yes. For “foreign” customers. Canadians, however, are merely an unusual variety of American as far as Amazon is concerned.

Some nabob named Marven Krug gives himself enough rope:

He’s already shot down a suggestion to have Canadian-specific pages within the larger Amazon.com site. “That’s ridiculous. Canadians don’t see themselves that way.”

Not before the War of 1812, at least.

As ever with clueless American imperialists, the philosophy here is “We’ll take your money, but you have to walk, talk, and act like us to earn that privilege.”

Posted on 2001-05-21