“Though Amazon promotes its Handmade category as a haven for small businesses, sellers say that in reality, they must navigate the company’s opaque system more or less like those selling factory-made products.”

Earlier this year, OneZero senior editor Sarah Kessler talked to independent sellers about how they operate on Amazon’s “artisanal” Handmade platform. They revealed that it’s a major challenge: Amazon does little to support them, and their bespoke offerings are forced to compete against mass-produced items sold by large manufacturers.

All of this came to mind on the occasion of Amazon’s Prime Day event, which actually stretches across two days this year. The Raven Book Store, a shop in Lawrence, Kansas, and the publisher of How to Resist Amazon and Why, took aim at the company’s promotional material — which touts the Handmade program — with a barbed tweet: “Support small businesses on Prime Day by shopping at small businesses, not Amazon.”

Read Kessler’s full story here:

How Amazon Lures ‘Artisanal’ Sellers and Hangs Them Out to Dry