posted 2007/07/23 at 15:32
For a long time I avoided the temptation to make an Amazon.com wishlist for myself. I always felt easier giving my family a hard-copy list of stuff that I knew they could buy locally, and I never felt like I had much of a chance of having any of my readers buy me stuff off of my wishlist. Indeed, so far my family members and I are the only people who have bought stuff off of the wishlist, although if you'd like to be nice and get me something, well, here's my Wishlist. (Have I mentioned that I haven't had that much money coming in lately?) Still, for the most part I've been using my wishlist just as a list for myself, to tag items that I'd like to buy once I have the money for them. (Given how I stopped collecting every single Björk and Tori Amos put out once I went back to college, and that I'd like to rectify that situation some day, there's always going to be a lot of stuff on that list.)
Anyway, a few months ago I had this very strong hankering for gummy bears. I loved gummy bears as a kid, but I haven't been able to eat them since I went vegetarian since nearly all gummy bears (and other gummy candies, for that matter) are made with gelatin, and gelatin is a big no-no for me. I tried looking around town for possible vegetarian substitutes, but I couldn't find anything that even came close. (The closest Whole Foods Market to me is in Ann Arbor, and there isn't a Trader Joe's that's even within day-trip distance.) I knew that Amazon sold groceries, though, so I took a chance with them, and sure enough they do sell vegetarian gummi bears, albeit only in bulk packs. Still, I figured this would be a nice treat to have at some point (by the time I found them my hankering for them had somewhat abated), so I put them on my Amazon wishlist for future consideration.
Now, in recent weeks I've been looking at my wishlist a little more than usual, mostly because Urge Radio's been introducing me to a lot of musicians whose work I really like and whose CDs I'd like to buy at some point. Normally when I add something to my wish list, I go through and review all the items that were already on the list just to remind myself of the stuff I'd like to have. This normally isn't too big a deal, except for when an item I had on the list goes out of stock on me unexpectedly. However, recently I was somewhat mortified when I went to check out my wishlist, and saw that in addition to buying those vegetarian gummi bears from Amazon, I could now buy one "used and new" box of them, much like you can buy "used and new" CDs and DVDs and such from Amazon's partners and affiliates. I don't need to click on that link to be told that this "used and new" offering is a new offering, but still, ever since then I've kind of been walking around thinking about how Amazon might try to sell me used gummi bears, and what form they might possible come in. (Sorry, but I didn't want to be alone in thinking of those images.)
My point in mentioning all of this is that although I admire Amazon for a lot of things, they still seem to have some lapses in thought. You would think that they would have the sense to realize that no one's really in the market for used groceries, and that they're putting uncomfortable images in people's minds by even suggesting that used groceries might be available for sale up there, and so they should put up a little flag in their page-rendering software that changes the "used and new" link for grocery items to just read "new." I suppose I should just be glad that I came to this discovery over vegetarian gummy bears and not, say, all-bran cereal. (Okay, that was gratuitious on my part, I admit.)
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon