Amazon’s business model meets Sweden’s labor unions

I'm very interested to see how Amazon's entry into the Swedish market plays out. I used to shop a lot on Amazon back when I lived in the SF Bay Area and thought I would miss it when I moved to Stockholm but honestly that has not been the case. I get 1-2 day shipping from other online retailers in Sweden anyway (like CDON and Webhallen) and there is quite fierce competition between a few of the bigger names in the game which keeps prices low. The only thing I miss about Amazon was their very generous return policy and same-day shipping on some items, but I think the latter is limited to larger markets.

If the quality of item descriptions is anything like Amazon.DE&#x27;s right now, maybe other Swedish online retailers don&#x27;t need to worry too much. It&#x27;s already possible for me to buy from Amazon in Sweden (Amazon.DE ships to Sweden, using PostNord no less), but the listings are poor quality and you can&#x27;t trust it. I only use it as a last resort. (Mind you, I also avoid Amazon because I don&#x27;t like their business practices.)<p>It should also be mentioned that e-commerce is easier in Sweden than in some other countries. The ubiquity of electronic ID, the national address database and rapid bank transfers mean that even if you do not use PayPal, creating an account and ordering with a new website is very quick and requires entering almost no personal details yourself. Many websites even let you pay by invoice.

&gt; Initially, Swedish and Nordic clients will be mainly served from German warehouses — known as fulfillment centers in Amazon-speak — with trucks driving up to Sweden through Denmark, and a fulfillment center operated by local partner Kuehne + Nagel in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna, near Stockholm.<p>During the lockdown here in France Amazon was forced to close some warehouses and filfillment centers under pressure from unions (among other pressures, of course). It was big news for a week or so, and deliveries seemed to pause briefly before being picked up from German warehouses, too. After a week or so we started getting our deliveries again, usually with an extra day of delay because it was being fulfilled from Germany.<p>I suspect they will eventually do a deal with the Swedish unions but that, in the meantime, trucking things in from Germany will allow them to become established.

I live in Stockholm, and order regularly from Amazon Germany already. It&#x27;s free shipping if you order 39 euro or above, which usually delivers things in around a week. Fast shipping of two working days costs 9 euro per shipment.<p>Based on what I&#x27;ve read and this article, it doesn&#x27;t sound like that much will change once it officially &quot;launches&quot; a Swedish site, although maybe Amazon will lower the minimum amount for free shipping or speed up regular shipping time. Re: this article, I can see them being willing to hold off for quite some time.<p>Also to note: During the Covid-19 peak in Sweden, Amazon provided to-the-door delivery using Postnord, which I figured was somewhat of an experiment for when the Swedish site launched. It&#x27;s pretty rare here in e-commerce to get door deliveries - most online shopping is sent to local convenience stores and you need to go and pick up.

Thanks to strong unions and labor laws Sweden is the worker&#x27;s paradise and everybody has a great job. If Amazon wants to entice people to work for them then they must make a better offer than all* existing employers. What is there for the unions to negotiate? Please don&#x27;t bash me for the cynicism. I am trying to figure out the logic behind all of this.<p>* edit: What meant say is that Amazon must offer a job that&#x27;s better than the jobs that people currently have for them to switch.

I order quite a bit from amazon.de to Denmark, hoping this will be a better experience. I do feel quite bad knowing how the german workers are treated at the warehouse&#x2F;fulfillment centers, I am definitely hoping Swedens labor unions can make a dent here while still keeping the price low enough.

I think the union rep from Handels is correct. They&#x27;ll get Amazon to cave.<p>Amazon is the quintessential hill to die on for the unions and the labour laws are incredibly strong in Sweden. Here&#x27;s how I think it might play out if Amazon refuses to sign:<p>- Handels requests collective bargaining<p>- Amazon declines but are sued in court and loses (you are required to bargain)<p>- Negotiations fail and Amazon refuses to sign<p>- The union realises that this is their David v Goliath and blockades the company<p>- Amazon refuses to cave<p>- The union declares widespread &quot;sympathetic strikes&quot;.<p>- in the end garbage collectors will refuse to pick up garbage at their warehouse. Electricians will refuse to service their warehouse. Plumbers will not plumb. Workers, builders, postmen etc will all simply stop servicing Amazon. Companies that deal with Amazon can also be put in a blockade.<p>- Amazon will also receive zero support for from politicians for two reasons, first it&#x27;s not a political matter. Second even the right wing opposition party will know better than to go against the electorate on this matter.<p>It&#x27;s simply not possible to operate a large scale business in Sweden without support of the labour unions (or by having workers conditions that exceed the perceived minimum). If a large scale business wants to operate in the country they _must_ sign a collective bargaining agreement.

Let&#x27;s see how that goes. Everybody in Sweden right now has an uneasy feeling about Amazon, and I have the impression that if people could have a referendum on the matter, Amazon wouldn&#x27;t be allowed in.

Amazon is the kind of company to instead build high speed hovercraft and base them in Poland or park a large warehouse offshore.

Agree that Amazon won&#x27;t upend the Swedish labor market model. But do they really need to do that to operate with a healthy profit?<p>And if they <i>think</i> they need to revolutionize the labor market to be profitable (enough), would they really establish a presence in Sweden then?<p>My feeling is they&#x27;ll establish a business like everyone else and not even try to pull a Toys&#x27;R&#x27;Us.

It will be interesting to see what happens. But right now, nothing has happened...

Let’s hope it work out like toysˋrˋus:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apnews.com&#x2F;6d245065b3faaadc70e6eb77e3e5c20f" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apnews.com&#x2F;6d245065b3faaadc70e6eb77e3e5c20f</a>

The most relevant quote:<p>&gt; If they can operate in Germany, they can operate in Sweden.

Assuming that local production reduces costs, the question seems to become whether they can leverage demand to break the unions or not. This comes from the two further assumptions that they don&#x27;t have any other leverage to do so (outside of corruption) and even though the benefit of satsifying the market presumably outststrips the cost, they will do everything they can to reduce costs anyway.<p>Am I missing anything?<p>I&#x27;ll continue supporting the local competition (for books and media) in any case.

Nordic politicians will cave in like everyone else.<p>Generally it&#x27;s funny how this region (Nordics) is reported in the media as some kinds of rationalist demi-gods, when in reality most politics here are just your regular smokescreen mixed with wishful thinking and a lack of understanding the real world.<p>In conclusion, politicians will do as politicians do nowerdays - drive their own career over the &#x27;public good&#x27;.

Good luck with Sweden&#x27;s one hour lunch break. And the fika breaks every hour as well. Sorry Jeff, no forcing workers to pee in bottles among the shelves[1] in Sweden to drive up the stock price. I hope the Nordic countries wont bow down to Amazon&#x27;s exploits.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;4&#x2F;16&#x2F;17243026&#x2F;amazon-warehouse-jobs-worker-conditions-bathroom-breaks" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;4&#x2F;16&#x2F;17243026&#x2F;amazon-warehouse...</a>

What a weird article. Loads of international companies operate in countries with wildly different laws, standards of living, disposable income, etc.<p>Why compare Sweden with a Polish warehouse workers and not investigate how e.g. Amazon.fr operates? That country at least goes on strike significantly more often (probably more so than the rest of the EU combined). Meaning, one year I noticed them on strike every other week to protest some intended government plan, even though the company had nothing to do with that, plus they only went on strike during the night.<p>&gt; Initially, Swedish and Nordic clients will be mainly served from German warehouses — known as fulfillment centers in Amazon-speak — with trucks driving up to Sweden through Denmark, and a fulfillment center operated by local partner Kuehne + Nagel in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna, near Stockholm.<p>So partly they question if they&#x27;ll operate a warehouse, but at the same time, there&#x27;s going to be a warehouses. Only difference is that someone else does the logistics for them.<p>What usually happens with different standards of living is that the companies raise their prices a bit. Not sure why the article does not go into that.<p>EU is planning some changes in the trucking cabotage laws, see e.g. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.europarl.europa.eu&#x2F;news&#x2F;en&#x2F;headlines&#x2F;society&#x2F;20200630STO82385&#x2F;better-working-conditions-for-truck-drivers-across-the-eu" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.europarl.europa.eu&#x2F;news&#x2F;en&#x2F;headlines&#x2F;society&#x2F;202...</a>. This might (according to articles) make it more difficult to only use truckers from certain countries (e.g. whomever has the lowest standard of living &#x2F; wage). Might also benefit the environment by ensuring companies might reduce the amount of trucking.