The train of thought is
1. The economy is making me nervous.
2. You're right to be nervous.
3. Then what are your short positions, since you're so smart?
I know it was a long essay and I skimmed most of it myself. But the author definitely mentions this and even has a picture from the 1895 book you linked to.
1. Out-of-stock substitutions. It depends on which low wage workers is picking the substitutes. They always pick items that are either bigger or more expensive than what we ordered if they can but that doesn't always mean better.
1a. Out-of-stock, no substitutions. I suspect that this also depends on the worker. Before the pandemic, I just don't believe that the store is completely out of the items and any suitable alternatives. I think the worker just got lazy.
2. Shopping by pictures can be deceiving. We once ordered greens from the produce section. What we ended up with was enormous 2 foot stalks of greens rather than the "normal-sized" product. It wasn't the store's fault. It's just hard to tell the difference from a picture.
3. Not receiving part of the order. There have a few times from different places that we did not receive our whole order and we had to return (45 minute drive one way) to the store to get it. It was just store error and we weren't that diligent about checking every single bag before we left the store.
All that being said, I think it is generally better than shopping in store. I think it's less emotional and more planned and therefore almost always cheaper.
Most of the basis for a free society breaks down when people lose basic morals.
Whether you choose to believe in God or not, many of the framers of our Constitution and those who penned the Declaration of Independence believed in the Supreme Judge of the World, the Creator etc. and based their morals upon that belief.
When those morals become less than the norm for society, many problems arise.
YouTube is trying to curate their content. Any site that stays around for a while and wants to attract top advertising dollars does it. Reddit curates to an extent. Facebook is in all kinds of trouble for not curating.
We used to believe in the morality and the decency of business in this country, not just assume if someone else is trying to make money that they are trying to cheat us.
Making profit and serving your fellow man are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are more likely to be mutually inclusive.