Flightless Bird: Amazon

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Tv & Film, Music, Comedy

4.6 • 68.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Flightless Bird, David prepares to hit “Buy Now” as he embarks into the world of Amazon, the company that notched up $116 billion in sales during the first three months of this year. Joined by Monica, he looks at how this company has slowly inserted itself into the American lifestyle, from TV and film, to products, to Alexa living in everyone’s house, tending to their every need. David interviews Emily West, an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusets, about how Amazon’s marketing made a brown cardboard box so popular. He also talks to the author of “Fulfillment,” Alec MacGillis about how Amazon’s various factories are changing the face of America, city by city - as Amazon is now America’s second-largest private employer next to Walmart.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm David Farrier, a New Zealander who accidentally got marooned in America, and I want
0:05.9	to grasp what makes this country tick.
0:08.6	Now back in New Zealand, if I wanted to get a new chili bin, a pair of togs or maybe
0:12.6	some jandals, I'd need to go to the shop.
0:15.5	Now chances are none of those words make any sense to you, but my point is if I needed
0:20.4	to buy something, I'd get in my car, drive to a store, go shopping, load the things
0:26.2	into my car, and drive back home.
0:29.5	During America, you don't need to do any of that.
0:32.4	You click a few buttons while you're still in bed, and the next day there's a cardboard
0:36.2	box at the door with all your stuff.
0:37.9	It's some kind of sorcery I don't understand, but Americans call it Amazon, and they seem
0:43.4	to love it.
0:44.8	Especially during the pandemic, during the first three months of last year, Amazon notched
0:49.6	up $108 billion in sales.
0:52.8	The first three months of this year, $116 billion.
0:57.0	Up 8 billion year to year.
0:59.1	This left Walmart in its dust.
1:01.5	I want to know why Americans have gone bonkers for a company whose base sits entire brand
1:06.2	around a cardboard box, and has a logo that looks a bit like an erect penis.
1:11.6	So get ready to go on a shopping spree whilst also feeling terrible about the working
1:16.0	conditions in the environment, because this is the Amazon episode.
1:20.5	This is going to be an interesting one.
	...

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