Amazon.com Inc

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Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 per second. He does this by running a company that works people so hard,[1] they barely have time to pee – not by being a genius.[2]

Amazon is an American multi-national technology company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It ranks 53rd on the Forbes 2000 list of the world's largest companies.

Amazon's focus areas are e-commerce marketing, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It also owns Amazon Publishing, Amazon Studios (film and TV), produces consumer electronics lines including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices, and is the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services (IaaS and PaaS) through its Amazon Web Services subsidiary.ref

Inequality in Supply Chains

[3]    Transparency: 0%   Workers: 4%   Farmers: 4%   Women: 0% 

Ethical Rating:[4]    Score: 0/20 

Living Wage Employer: Living Wage Foundation Living-Wage.svg

Corporate Political Engagement Rating:[5] Transparency International    E  

Climate Policy Rating:[6] InfluenceMap  B+
Amazon lobbies US climate change policy positively; it has recognized the economic imperative of responding to climate change, and appears to advocate for ambitious climate regulation. However, Amazon does not transparently disclose its climate policy positions. It is one of the largest companies to not respond to CDP’s Climate Change Information Request in 2017.InfluenceMap page

Overview of the Present

Amazon has fundamentally changed the way we shop. It is now much more than a retail business.
Amazon Web Services controls around 45% of the world’s cloud-computing capacity, and provides the web infrastructure on which thousands of other huge businesses and vital organisations are built – with customers ranging from Netflix to the CIA to the Ministry of Justice.
50% of US households subscribe to Prime. Almost 50% of online sales. Employs 560,000 staff worldwide.
Amazon is blamed for driving traditional retailers out of business. It is accused of:

  • Business Malfeasance: copying other firms’ products and services, and then driving them out of business.
  • Labour Malpractice: treating staff very poorly.
  • Tax Avoidance: avoiding tax by all legal means possible.
  • Market Domination: not wanting to dominate the market – but to own it.

Last week, Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, warned that technology companies such as Amazon had "too much market power – in the hands of too few". Market dominance was "not helpful to the economy or to the wellbeing of individuals".
Amazon is focused on further expansion – new countries, new products – and making even more money.

Where Next?

Surveillance: "Rekognition", software program - 40% of false matches were for people of colour.@31:00, Webpage

  • Jun.20.2019: Amazon wants to sell “surveillance as a service”. In case Amazon’s surveillance capabilities weren’t extensive enough with its Echo, Ring, and Key products, not to mention all the data Amazon routinely collects on its customers, the company recently received a US patent to provide “surveillance as a service.” Alison Griswold, NBC News.
  • May.22.2018: Amazon aiding in government surveillance, ACLU says. Amazon is marketing facial-recognition technology to govt agencies, raising privacy concerns and threatening communities already unjustly targeted, the American Civil Liberties Union said, calling on the retailer to get out of the surveillance business. Kate Gibson, CBS News.

Government Procurement: Top Amazon boss privately advised US govt on web portal worth $billions to tech firm. Amazon privately advised the Trump administration on the launch of a new internet portal that is expected to generate $billions for Amazon, and give it a dominant role in how the US govt buys everything from paper clips to office chairs. Amazon is also the frontrunner to win a separate $10bn cloud computing contract with the Pentagon, known as Jedi, which will in effect move the Defense Department’s data on to a commercially-run cloud computing system. Amazon already operates a cloud service for the US intelligence community, including a contract with the CIA. In 2017, Amazon won a $5.5bn contract that made it the chief supplier of goods, including stationery and books, to tens of thousands of local govts and municipalities across the US. Stephanie Kirchgaessner, The Guardian, Dec.26.2018.

Healthcare + Pharmacy: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan have teamed up as a way to "get experience in the sector and then double down". Amazon has been long been eying the USA's fat and juicy health market, and the move sent shares in the health insurance and pharmacy sectors into a tailspin.[7]

Financial Services: Amazon has already laid the foundations to push further into financial services...

  • Mar.09.2018: Amazon's Checking Account Push Shows Next Target: Swipe Fees. Jeff Bezos changed the way America shops. Now, he wants to change how it pays for things. With a foray into financial services, Amazon.com Inc could disrupt the decades-old card payments system, a move that could save the retailer $250m a year in swipe fees if just 15% of customers switch to its new account. That could be bad news for the likes of Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc, as well as a host of other players. Spencer Soper, Jennifer Surane, Bloomberg.

Is There A Solution?

Lina Khan, of think-tank New America, believes that Amazon needs to face antitrust regulation, but current law is not equipped to deal with it. Without regulation, Amazon will "continue to extract wealth that other businesses are creating. A rule that prohibited it from competing with the businesses that use its platforms would eliminate a lot of the core conflicts". For example, Amazon could provide the Amazon.com marketplace, but not its products.[8]

Don't Buy From Amazon. See The Guardian's excellent article: How to avoid Amazon: the definitive guide to online shopping – without the retail titan. Amazon’s sales have hit £8,800 a second, while concerns persist about its tax affairs, treatment of staff and effect on small retailers. Here’s how to buy everything from technology to beauty to books without it. Hilary Osborne, Poppy Noor, The Guardian, Apr.27.2020.

Amazon Loves You

Amazon knows where you live, who you live with, your current location (if you use an Amazon smartphone app), what TV shows you watch, what music you listen to and what websites you visit. Amazon's expertise in data analytics means it can move into almost any sector – which is what makes it so frightening for rival businesses.[8] The Institute for Local Self-Reliance said "that power means people don't know if there's something they're missing".
We live in an age of surveillance; data-collecting devices are everywhere. Amazon acquired Ring in Feb.2018, a maker of video doorbell and home security cameras - and promptly filed a patent that combines doorbell cameras with facial recognition technology.[9] You can bet your bottom dollar all those video streams of you, your home and your life, are going to be kept in Amazon's ever-increasing data store - forever.

Business Reach

Of the top 10 US industries by GDP (information, manufacturing non-durable goods, retail trade, wholesale trade, manufacturing durable goods, healthcare, finance and insurance, state and local government, professional and business services, and real estate), Amazon has a finger in all but real estate.[10]

Death by Amazon: Bespoke Investment Group, a large market analysis firm, have had an index tracker called the "Death by Amazon Index" since 2012, which tracks firms they consider most vulnerable to Amazon, or "have the touch of death".[8]

Amazon has a restaurant delivery service, a music streaming service and an Etsy clone called Amazon Handmade. It makes hugely successful hardware and software; it makes movies, television shows and video games. It runs a labour brokerage for computer-based work and another for manual labour. It publishes books, sells books, and owns the popular social network site for book readers GoodReads.com. It sells diapers, baby food, snacks, clothing, furniture and batteries. It sells ads, processes payments, and makes small loans. It is the unexpected owner of a huge number of websites – everything from the gaming livestream site {em|Twitch}} to the movie database IMDb.

  • Aug.20.2018: Amazon ‘eyeing Homebase stores for warehouse use’. Amazon could try to snap up some Homebase stores as it seeks to find warehouse locations in urban areas suitable for “last-mile” deliveries to homes. The American internet retailer is said to be running the rule over a tranche of 42 Homebase stores that are being disposed of as the troubled DIY retailer seeks to restructure its operations. However, one large warehouse developer told The Times that taking on some Homebase stores could be complicated for Amazon as it would have to apply to councils to get permission to change the use from retail warehouse to distribution warehouse space. “That could be tricky with councils who do not want to give up their retail space and then you have to see if you can even do a deal with the landlord on rents,” he said. Deirdre Hipwell, The Times.
  • May.03.2018: Amazon in battle for biggest Indian rival Flipkart. Amazon is intent on tightening its grip on India’s booming ecommerce market after apparently making a formal offer to acquire a 60% stake in its biggest local rival. The move sets up a battle for control of Flipkart, which was set up in 2007 by Sachin and Binny Bansal, two former Amazon employees. Flipkart is already in talks with Walmart Inc, the American supermarket retailer, to acquire a majority stake thought to be worth up to $12bn. Robin Pagnamenta, The Times.

Business Practices

Amazon "innovates" by picking the best product, copies it, sticks an Amazon logo on it – then cuts the price in half. It then twiddles its thumbs, waits for the company to go bust, then puts the price up. Banning the sale of competitors' products helps its own sales. The damage Amazon does to competitors, partners and workers is appalling.[8] It has been accused of displacing jobs in the locations where it builds its fulfilment centres,[11] treating warehouse workers like robots,[12] aggressively undercutting rivals[13] and squeezing suppliers and producers.[14]

Whole Foods is a prime example (pun intended). First, Amazon cut prices to lure shoppers in; and now it is charging suppliers more for shelf space – and asking them for bigger discounts to "earn" the space. From Apr.2018, suppliers turning over $300,000 a year must pay a 3% fee whenever their products are reorganised on shelves, or added to new stores.[14]

Amazon pumps a few $millions into startups – then turns around and releases its own clone. The point is to exploit the startup's ideas, creativity, innovation and energy, without having to pay a steep bill for it. The knock-on effect is that startups aren't getting funded because Amazon might one day compete with them, which would directly lead to a massive loss for investors. The number of startups is shrivelling as we watch... and clicking on "Buy Now".[15]

Books: The Authors Guild reported that Amazon, which controls 72% of the online book market in the US, puts pressure on publishers to keep costs down and takes a large percentage, plus marketing fees, forcing publishers to pass on their losses to authors.[16]

Amazon Reviews: For sale: five-star Amazon reviews. Paid-for reviews that mislead consumers are helping to push cheap Chinese goods up the bestseller lists on Amazon. The “incentivised reviews” where a buyer praises a product in return for a reward are prohibited by the retailer. Despite attempts by Amazon to tackle the practice, companies are using “review farms” — often Facebook groups — to offer goods, vouchers or money transfers for favourable reviews. more... Mark Bridge, The Times, Apr.30.2018.

Employment Practices

© Kipper Williams

The New York Times investigated Amazon in Jun.2015, interviewing 100+ people, cataloguing a long list of bad management practices. Employees' working and personal lives are tracked and quantified; their movements, productivity, successes or failures are measured to the nth degree while managers are forced to rate their employees and fire their lowest-scoring workers. Annual staff cullings are called "purposeful Darwinism". The interviews describe employees actively competing against each other; the fully committed who are prepared to sacrifice to get ahead thrive, while others are stamped on.[17] Complete secrecy is required; even low-level employees sign a long confidentiality agreement. Jeff Bezos was shocked, and invited any unhappy workers to quit – a great example of cognitive dissonance, since nobody would work at Amazon if they had a real choice. He should have invited them to form a trade union.[18] Nevertheless, many employees, both past and present, are motivated by Amazon's way of working. One said "It's the greatest place I hate to work". "Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about themselves," said another.[19]

A Times investigation in Oct.2016 found that temporary workers were penalised for sick days, with some camping outside the warehouse to cut costs.[20] Willie Rennie MP and Frank Field MP have repeatedly called for improved conditions for low-pay workers. [21] Mr Rennie said, "They pay a small amount of tax and receive £millions from the SNP Govt, so the least they should do is pay the proper living wage". Amazon has received more than £7.5m in grants since 2004.[22]

Amazon Prime

  • 1997: Sales $148m; Customers: 1.5m; Employees: 614
  • 2017: Sales $178bn; Customers: 300m; Employees: 560,000
  • Apr.20.2018: Primed and ready for more growth. In 1997, Amazon reported sales of $148m, served 1.5m customers and had 614 employees. In 2017, the company reported sales of $178bn, served 300m customers and had 560,000 employees. Amazon is the world’s largest ecommerce company and Mr Bezos is the world’s richest man. The number of people who subscribe to Amazon’s Prime membership service: 100m globally. Its ecommerce business remains by far its largest and is the source of the cash that it uses to invest in cloud computing systems, delivery drones and everything in between. As such, Amazon needs to keep people shopping and Prime is a means to that end. Subscription fees are an important source of income for Amazon: the company made $9.7 billion from them last year, mainly from Prime but also from ebooks, audiobooks and Prime Video. Amazon also collects subscription fees for Amazon Music Unlimited. Analysts worry that Prime will remain a club for the wealthy. However, Amazon is attempting to raise the ceiling with monthly Prime memberships for $5.99 for American homes with government-issued welfare or medical aid cards. The Times. See also The Times

Discounts

Amazon's discounting technique is "interesting". When you see "Discount provided by Amazon", that means two things:

  1. Amazon is lowering prices on selected products to lure customers away from competitors.
  2. The seller has no choice in the matter; they will only receive the discounted price, but must still pay full referral fees on the original price.[13]

Fraud

A Guardian investigation in Mar.2018 found knockoff items and used goods sold as new on § Amazon Marketplace. Apple sued one supplier, after discovering almost 90% of "genuine" products were counterfeit. One company accused Amazon of hiding behind the fraudulent 3rd party sellers. Amazon will investigate and take action when notified, but fighting counterfeits on Marketplace is on on-going project.[23]

Tax Policy

Strategic location decisions reveal Amazon's attitude towards taxation. Its virtual presence gives it a competitive advantage against which bricks-and-mortar retailers cannot compete. In 2003, Amazon secured a confidential tax agreement with Luxembourg; Juncker "personally offered to help". The tax strategy was fundamental to Amazon's plan to put Luxembourg at the heart of the European business of its global empire. The net effect of the complex scheme was to reduce Amazon's taxes everywhere.[24] However, the EU is cracking down; in 2017, Amazon was ordered to repay £222m in illegal state aid, which had allowed almost 75% of profits to go untaxed.[25]
  • Jan.09.2019: Amazon confirms it pays UK business rates of only £63.4m. Figure, in written evidence to parliamentary inquiry, is almost £40m less than Next - despite clocking up more than double the sales. Business rates amount to less than 1% of Amazon’s sales compared to 2.5% for Next, 1.8% by Marks & Spencer and nearly 3.5% by Debenhams. High streets minister Jake Berry said the govt was introducing a digital services tax to “level the playing field” but decisions on rates lay with the treasury. Sarah Butler, The Guardian.
  • Aug.03.2018: Arrogant Amazon not being held to account for its tax bill, say MPs. MPs and campaigners have called on the govt to change the law to force “arrogant” Amazon to reveal the true level of its profits in the UK. Amazon revealed this week that its UK Services subsidiary paid £1.7m in UK tax last year on revenues of £2bn and profits of £79m. The corporation tax bill of £4.6m for the branch of the company that runs its UK warehouses and customer service fell by 38%, while its operating profits tripled. Payments of £2.9m were deferred. Amazon does not publish details of most of its UK profits or tax payments because retail sales, which totalled £6.7bn last year, go through a Luxembourg company, Amazon EU Sarl, which only reports aggregated Europe-wide figures. Mark Bridge, Leila Haddou, Sam Coates, The Times. See also Amazon tax bill in Britain tumbles after profits triple.
  • Apr.25.2018: From Seattle to Luxembourg: how tax schemes shaped Amazon. Amazon Europe Holding Technologies SCS owns the legal right to use Amazon’s IP outside the USA: revenue from Amazon companies is tax-free. Amazon EU Sarl, which operates the European businesses, pays AEHT €hundreds of millions in "royalty fees" for IP use each year. The cost is offset against its own tax bill. AEHT pays Amazon’s US business its own royalty fees for the right to license out that IP in Europe. HMRC colludes with the scam. None of this would be possible without Jean-Claude Juncker, EC president. David Pegg, The Guardian.
  • Apr.04.2012: Amazon: £7bn sales, no UK corporation tax. Online retailer's British operation owned by company in Luxembourg which receives all payments for books, DVDs and other goods. The UK operation avoids tax as the ownership of the main Amazon.co.uk business was transferred to a Luxembourg company in 2006. The UK business is now owned by Amazon EU Sarl, and the UK operation is classed only as an "order fulfilment" business - a delivery operation. All payments go directly to Luxembourg. The 2010 accounts for Amazon EU Sarl show the Luxembourg office employed 134 people, but had a turnover of £6.5bn; the UK operation employed 2,265 people and had a turnover of £147m. Ian Griffiths, The Guardian.

Govt Subsidies

Money-subsidy.svg

Corporate Welfare: Taxpayers finance Amazon's pursuit of an e-commerce monopoly every step of the way: firstly with tax breaks, subsidies, and infrastructure improvements meant to lure fulfillment centers into town; then with govt transfers to pay for warehouse workers' food. Then, when the company begins accepting $SNAP to purchase its goods, a 3rd transfer of public wealth to private hands will become a part of the company’s business model.

To get its fulfillment centres built, Amazon capitalizes on a sense of urgency and competition to maximize the subsidies it receives. In doing so, it's able to chip away at officials' expectations for jobs and wages. Yet once the papers are signed and the warehouses are built, Amazon doesn't appear to boost overall local employment. And the jobs it offers don’t look as good in reality as they do on paper. The Intercept (USA)

See main article: Government Subsidies
  • Feb.14.2019: Amazon's retreat from New York represents a turning point. After unrelenting pressure from politicians and an energized grassroots movement, Amazon has said no more. The company is walking away from New York. It’s taking its ball and going home. Amazon has eviscerated brick-and-mortar retailers, broken countless unionization efforts, offered its facial recognition technology to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and, for anyone who cares about the written word, tried to crush the publishing industry. Amazon’s surrender is a warning to all Democrats who want to occupy the progressive flank from here on out: you don’t get to support a company like this anymore. Ross Barkan, The Guardian.
  • Sept.17.2017: THE COSTS OF JOBS: Amazon collects tens of millions in incentives, but jobs progress is unclear Amazon, the online retail giant, is adept at maximizing tax breaks and other subsidies when it develops or expands facilities across the country, and its Tennessee properties are no exception. The company was awarded $30 million in property tax breaks from three counties for up to 20 years, and $14.9 million in state grants for infrastructure or job training at its five Tennessee distribution facilities, state records show. But it's unclear if the company fulfilled its promises to create thousands of jobs in exchange for those incentives... The Times Free Press.
  • Nov.03.2017: Amazon wants goodies and tax breaks to move its HQ to your city. Say no thanks. The scramble to please Amazon marks the return of a very old dilemma that American cities faced with the rise of capitalism in the 19th century: roll out the red carpet to investors, with tax breaks and other subsidies, or lose development funds to more pliant competitors. ... Tax breaks and govt subsidies have of late become synonymous with development strategy – something Amazon is now skillfully taking advantage of. An influx of unregulated private investment, however, has never in itself been enough to nurture urban prosperity and well-being. Noam Maggor, The Guardian.
  • Feb.01.2018: Amazon fulfillment centers don't boost employment, analysis finds (USA). After the Economic Policy InstituteWikipedia-W.svg analyzed data for counties in 25 states containing Amazon fulfillment centers, the analysis found no increase in overall employment. The report questions the efficacy of such tax breaks if they do not contribute to a net growth in jobs. “If policymakers instead invested in public services – particularly in early-childhood education and infrastructure – that would be a much stronger recipe for long-term economic development, rather than giving tax breaks to national employers like Amazon,” said EPI economist Ben Zipperer. Dominic Rushe, The Guardian.
  • Jul.07.2015: The £93bn handshake: businesses pocket huge subsidies and tax breaks. Taxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year – a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK. George Osborne plans to cut £12bn more from the social welfare bill, but that is less than the £14.5bn given to companies in direct subsidies and grants alone. (pics). Offering sweeteners is usually justified by the prospect of extra taxes flowing in, not only in corporation taxation, but also employers’ national insurance. plus jobs. long list of diff. types of subsidies etc. Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian. + Corporate Welfare Watch

Hidden Costs

Gutting High Streets

  • Nov.09.2018: Amazon delivers further misery to UK high streets. Amazon unveiled the architectural plans for a new “fulfilment centre” covering the north-east. The Angel of the North will look down and cry - and yet this architectural crime will be nothing compared to the damage it is likely to cause to high streets across the north-east. Are the 3,500 Amazon jobs on the outskirts of Darlington the equivalent of shop worker positions in the town? Not when towns are hollowed out, tax revenues plummet and the quality of local jobs slumps. Phillip Inman, The Guardian.

Environmental Pollution

  • Apr.01.2018: Duke’s HQ diverts Amazon deliveries to cut van pollution. ... 21 vans a day would bring orders and other deliveries ... diesel fumes... Our craving for instant gratification is clogging up roads, encouraged by retailers who offer apparently “free” delivery. The distance driven in vans has risen by a fifth from 2011 to 2016, thanks mainly to 1.8bn parcel deliveries a year. Subscribers to Amazon Prime, for example, can get one-day delivery with no charge and no minimum spend. Sam Clarke of Gnewt, part of Menzies, said the scheme could reduce journeys in “every busy street in the UK”. He is also testing the use of porters to carry parcels the final few hundred yards. He said society was paying the price of a battle for market share based on speed of delivery. Amazon argues that deliveries replace the need for shoppers to make single car journeys. Nickie Aiken, leader of Westminster council, has been trying to tackle congestion caused by online shopping and cruising Uber drivers. Nicholas Hellen, The Times.

Labour & Wages

I’m very proud of our working conditions and very proud of the wages we pay.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO
  • Oct.02.2018: Even Amazon must heed the basic laws of economics and politics. Tech giant’s minimum wage rise more to do with looming labour shortage than philanthropy. Put simply, the basic laws of demand and supply is the explanation for Amazon’s announcement of seriously big increases in minimum wages for its workers in the US and Britain. Larry Elliot, The Guardian.
  • Jun.09.018: Workers not paid legally by Amazon contractor in China. Amazon has admitted that thousands of agency workers who make its Echo smart speakers and Kindles in China were hired and paid illegally. The US giant issued a statement regretting “issues of concern” following an investigation by the Observer and the US-based China Labor Watch into the “unethical and illegal” working conditions at its supplier factory in Hengyang. Amazon disclosed that its own auditors visited the Foxconn factory in March and found that it had hired an illegally high number of agency workers and was not paying them properly for working overtime. Jun.09.2018, The Guardian.
  • Jun.09.2018: Underpaid and exhausted: the human cost of your Kindle. In the Chinese city of Hengyang, we find a fatigued, disposable workforce assembling gadgets for Amazon, owned by the world’s richest man. Foxconn is China’s largest single private employer, and in March it reported a 4.2% increase in profits, with net income rising to £1.84bn in the last three quarters of 2017. Profits for the first quarter of this year were £605m and its CEO, Terry Gou, has a fortune reported to be about £5.3bn. But it is said to be keen to diversify to reduce its reliance on Apple and it is investing heavily in the Hengyang plant to meet the demand from Amazon. The Foxconn factory in Hengyang relies on the tried and tested formula of low wages and long hours. But here there is another element: the extensive use of agency workers who don’t have the security of a regular job. more in Jeff Bezos Gethin Chamberlain, The Guardian.

Main Subsidiaries

Amazon Marketplace

Amazon Marketplace is an e-commerce platform that allows 3rd-party sellers to sell their products alongside Amazon's regular offerings.ref Third-party sellers gain access to Amazon's customer base, and Amazon increases its product range without having to invest in additional inventory. Amazon charges 3rd-party sellers a referral fee for each sale, which is a percentage of the sales price. Sellers "fulfilled by Amazon" must also additional fees.ref
Third-party sellers accounted for ~53% of goods sold, as of Sept.2018. Of these, 25% were from global sellers.ref,ref Amazon does not disclose the revenue it generates from its Fulfillment by Amazon service, so it is nearly impossible to estimate the percentage of revenue driven by 3rd party sellers.ref

Amazon Web Services

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network offered by Amazon Web Services. Content delivery networks provide a globally-distributed network of proxy servers which cache content, eg. web videos or other bulky media, more locally to consumers, thus improving access speed for downloading the content.

Alexa Internet Inc

Alexa provides commercial web traffic data and analytics. Its toolbar collects data on Internet browsing behavior and transmits them to the Alexa website, where they are stored and analyzed. This is the basis for the company's web traffic reporting, including its well-known Alexa Rank[4].
Put this lot into the "Talk" page:

Whole Foods Market Inc

Whole Foods Market is a supermarket chain that specialises in selling organic products.ref It has 479 stores in North America and the UK.ref


ToDo: link
  • 2015: Whole Foods Market operated 9 locations: Camden Town, Cheltenham, Clapham Junction, Giffnock (Scotland), Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, Richmond, Stoke Newington, and Fulham.
  • 2007: The first full-size store was opened on Kensington High Street, West London.
  • Jan.2004: Fresh & Wild was acquired along with its 7 stores, acting as Whole Foods Market's stepping-stone into the UK. Venture capital firm Fresh Capital, owned by South Africa's Hanover Acceptances Ltd, was a founding investor in Fresh & Wild, participating in two financing rounds in 2000 and 2001.ref
  • 1984: Whole Foods Market expanded out of Austin; the world was its oyster.
  • 1978: John Mackey and Renee Lawson opened a small vegetarian natural foods store in Austin, Texas.
ToDo †Great pic here: http://huckkonopackicartoons.com/amazon-oligopoly/

References

  1. ^ ‘I'm not a robot’: Amazon workers condemn unsafe, grueling conditions at warehouse. Michael Sainato, The Guardian, Feb.05.2020.
  2. ^ Undercover author finds Amazon warehouse workers in UK 'peed in bottles' over fears of being punished for taking a break. Shona Ghosh, Business Insider, Apr.16.2018.
  3. ^ Ripe for Change. Oxfam launches a new campaign to expose the root causes behind human suffering in food supply chains, and to mobilize the power of people around the world to help end it, starting with a focus on the role of supermarkets. The Supermarkets Scorecard is on page 24. Robin Willoughby, Tim Gore, Oxfam International, Jun.21.2018.
  4. ^ Five unethical companies. All these companies score poorly across our rating system for failing to address issues including human rights, animal rights and environmental concerns. Amazon, ASDA WalMart, Nestle, Tesco, Coca Cola. The top ten least ethical companies as voted for by Ethical Consumer readers were: Nestlé, Monsanto, Amazon, Shell, Tesco, Barclays, Exxon, Wal Mart, Coca Cola, Primark. Tim Hunt, Ethical Consumer, May.18.2018.
  5. ^ Corporate Political Engagement Index 2018. The new index of 104 multi-national companies, many of whom regularly meet with govt, has found nearly 75% are failing to adequately disclose how they engage with politicians. Only one company received the highest grade, with the average grade being "E" – representing poor standards in transparency. Transparency International UK, Nov.2018.
  6. ^ The A-List of Climate Policy Engagement. Which global companies lead in strategic lobbying for the ambitions of Paris? Rankings measure how a corporation or trade association behaves towards 2°C aligned climate and energy policy. Influence Map, Apr.2018.
  7. ^ Amazon and Warren Buffett to create 'reasonable cost' healthcare company. Dominic Rushe, The Guardian.
  8. ^ a b c d Jeff Bezos v the world: why all companies fear 'death by Amazon'. Olivia Solon, Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, Apr.24.2018.
  9. ^ Amazon buys video doorbell firm Ring for over $1bn Smart doorbell maker is retailer’s second largest acquisition as it pushes further into in-home deliveries and internet of things. Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian, Feb.28.2019.
  10. ^ The age of Amazon: a closeup examination of Bezos's behemoth. Rupert Neate, The Guardian, Apr.24.2018.
  11. ^ Amazon fulfillment centers don't boost employment, analysis finds. Dominic Rushe, The Guardian, Feb.01.2018.
  12. ^ Amazon 'regime' making British staff physically and mentally ill, says union. Jamie Grierson, The Guardian, Aug.18.2015.
  13. ^ a b Amazon found an ingenious new way to undercut its competitors ahead of the holidays. Alison Griswold, Quartz, Nov.06.2017.
  14. ^ a b Getting Your Product on Shelves at Whole Foods Just Got Harder. Heather Haddon, Sarah Nassauer, The Wall Street Journal, Feb.08.2018.
  15. ^ As tech companies get richer, is it 'game over' for startups? Olivia Solon, The Guardian, Oct.20.2017.
  16. ^ Amazon hits back at claims it is to blame for falling author earnings. Retailer insists Authors Guild report that criticised the online giant for contributing to tumbling writers’ incomes used flawed figures, but Guild stands by findings. Alison Flood, The Guardian, Jan.16.2019.
  17. ^ Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace. Jodi Kantor, David Streitfeld, The New York Times, Aug.15.2015.
  18. ^ Trouble at the mill threatens Jeff Bezos and Amazon's reputation. Larry Elliott, The Guardian, Aug.17.2015.
  19. ^ Jeff Bezos defends Amazon after NYT exposé of working practices. Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian, Aug.17.2015.
  20. ^ Amazon workers sleeping in tents near Dunfermline site. Craig Smith, The Courier, Dec.10.2016.
  21. ^ Amazon accused of 'intolerable conditions' at Scottish warehouse. Hilary Osborne, The Guardian, Dec.12.2016.
  22. ^ Struggling booksellers call on Scottish Government to end Amazon handouts. David Scott, The Express, Apr.18.2017.
  23. ^ Amazon site awash with counterfeit goods despite crackdown. Alex Hern, The Guardian, Apr.27.2018.
  24. ^ From Seattle to Luxembourg: how tax schemes shaped Amazon. David Pegg, The Guardian, Apr.25.2018.
  25. ^ Amazon ordered to repay €250m by EU over 'illegal tax advantages'. Jennifer Rankin, The Guardian, Oct.04.2017.