Amazon has long struggled to protect its corporate image. Newspaper reports say delivery drivers are peeing in bottles, warehouse workers are enduring overwhelming demands, and aggressive tactics are cutting into margins for the company’s retail partners.
In a clearly unauthorized depiction of the retail giant, All Wars: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Reshape Corporate Power, wall street journal Reporter Dana Mattioli examines the history of the e-commerce giant and its impact on the American economy.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos declined to speak to Mattioli, other than to provide some feedback through Amazon’s public relations team. However, she said that out of more than 600 people she spoke to, only three were offered interviews by the company. This includes 17 current or former members of the company’s senior leadership team and five current or former directors who made statements “without the company’s knowledge.”
“Before I got my book deal, I had written a series of investigations into the company’s business practices. One of those investigations was that Jeff Bezos had to testify before Congress for the first time in his career. I got a really great source of information from Jump because it gave me the basis that I didn’t,” Mattioli told The Daily Beast.
Jeff Bezos testifies before Congress on July 29, 2020.
Graham Jennings/AFP via Getty
The reporting process was dramatic at times, she recalled. In one example, “A new source asked to meet me on a corner in midtown Manhattan to give him something in person. When I went to the scene, I discovered that an Amazon employee had died before jumping off a rooftop a few years ago.” “They handed me a manila envelope with a printed screenshot of the suicide note they had sent,” she said. (The employee survived.)
At the time of the incident, Mattioli continued, “Amazon had deleted the emails from everyone’s inboxes, but my sources kept the emails, which helped create that scene in the book.” “It was,” he said.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the message “contains derogatory and inflammatory language directed at others on our team, and it’s important that we work to support this employee while keeping them safe.” It was removed because we felt it was.” , his family, and his team. ”
Speaking about the book in general, a spokesperson said, “Amazon’s success is the result of more than 30 years of innovation to make the everyday lives of consumers and small businesses better and easier.” Ta. The facts show that Amazon has made shopping easier and more convenient for customers, promoted lower prices, enabled the success of millions of small businesses, and significantly increased competition in the retail industry. ”
Bezos’ rise has been extensively documented bloomberg Brad Stone’s 2013 book everything store. “I want to focus on those who have been harmed by the company,” Mattioli wrote in his foreword. Bezos’ life has also evolved significantly since Stone’s biography was published. He resigned as Amazon’s CEO, divorced, and joined the caucus with his fiancée, former television reporter Lauren Sanchez.
Below are some quick highlights of the new book.
During the Trump administration, Sanchez found inspiration from an unlikely source.
Mattioli said that at a party in 2020, Sanchez approached Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway (the originator of the much-derided concept of “alternative facts”) and advised her on dealing with media scrutiny. He wrote that he asked for
“There’s been a lot thrown at you. How do you deal with it?” Sanchez asked. Bezos’ relationship with Sanchez had by then become front-page news around the world.
According to Mattioli’s report, Conway opted for flattery. “Please, have you looked in the mirror? People are jealous of you,” she said. “I think they’re jealous because you’re dating him,” she added, referring to Bezos. (The Amazon founder had a rocky relationship with Trump, in part due to negative coverage of the president in Bezos’s paper. washington post. )
But bad blood didn’t seem to matter that night. Ms. Conway offered Ms. Sanchez “a leisurely jog around the neighborhood,” Mattioli wrote, adding, “Knowing how seriously Mr. Sanchez takes his exercise, it was a gesture of goodwill.” ” he added.
Amazon’s leader Bezos was more than just an office geek.
During a 2016 conference, Bezos trekked into the wilderness with other business leaders, a trip inspired by a TV show. Running Wild with Bear Grylls. “The group learned how to survive in the forest, built their own stretchers and ate earthworms together,” Mattioli reports. Even Bezos beat one of the worms.
At the end of the fake walk, the billionaire hopped into his Cadillac Escalade and drove off to his hotel. The remaining participants wondered how they would get home. Suddenly, “the thud of a helicopter” gave me the answer. Mattioli said Bezos was reluctant to fly in a helicopter at the time because he “had been in a helicopter crash many years ago.” (Assuming he changes his mind, Sanchez, who is a certified helicopter pilot, will take him for a ride.)
Amazon is aggressively trying to steal market share from competitors and its own retailers.
Mattioli said Amazon’s corporate culture is one of weeding out poor performers, setting huge growth goals and requiring employees to develop a “killer instinct.” They say they were encouraged to break the rules.
In a 2015 incident described in the book, the company hired an employee from Trader Joe’s, but the employee was unaware that she was being hired to help compete with her former employer. . Members of her new hire’s team persistently pressed her to share her proprietary data, Mattioli wrote. The employee eventually shared information about Trader Joe’s best-selling items, but even after she was allegedly brought to tears, she refused to reveal the grocer’s profits. Amazon subsequently fired some of the employees involved in the incident, the book recalls.
An Amazon spokesperson insisted to The Daily Beast, “There is nothing in our culture or way of operating that would make this ‘iconic,’ especially given that it violates our policies.” He added that the company “does not condone the misuse of confidential information.”
