Amazon has struggled for years to defend its corporate image as press reports alleged that its delivery drivers urinated in bottles, that its warehouse workers endured crushing demands and that its aggressive tactics decimated margins for its own retail partners.
In a decidedly unauthorized depiction of the retail giant, The Everything War: Amazon's ruthless quest to own the world and recreate corporate power, Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli examines the history of the e-commerce giant and its effect on the U.S. economy.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos declined to talk to Mattioli beyond some feedback he relayed through Amazon's PR team. But she says she has spoken to more than 600 people, only three of whom were made available by the company for interviews. This includes seventeen current or former members of the company's senior leadership team, who spoke "without the company's knowledge," and five current or former board members.
"Before I got the book deal, I had written a series of investigations into the company's business practices. One of those investigations was the basis for Jeff Bezos having to testify before Congress for the first time in his career, so I had a great base of sources from the jump," Mattioli told The Daily Beast.
The reporting process was sometimes dramatic, she recalls. In one case, "a new source asked to meet me on a corner in Midtown Manhattan so they could give me something in person. "When I went to the location, I was given a manila envelope with the printed screenshots of a suicide note that an Amazon employee had sent before jumping off the roof a few years ago," she said. (The employee survived.)
At the time of the incident, Mattioli continued, "Amazon had deleted the email from everyone's inboxes, but my source got it for me and that helped build out that scene in the book."
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the post was removed because it "contained defamatory and inflammatory language directed at other people on the team, and we felt it was important to protect their safety while working to protect this employee." to support. , his family and his team."
As for the book in general, the spokesperson said: "Amazon's success is the result of continuous innovation for consumers and small businesses over three decades to make their lives better and easier every day. The facts show that Amazon has made shopping easier and more convenient for customers, driven lower prices, enabled millions of successful small businesses and significantly increased retail competition."
Bezos' rise was described in detail Bloomberg reporter Brad Stone's 2013 book The Everything Shop. Mattioli wrote in her foreword that she wanted to "focus on those who have been harmed by the company." Bezos' life has also evolved significantly since Stone's biography came out: He resigned as CEO of Amazon, divorced and joined the party circuit with his fiancée, former television reporter Lauren Sánchez.
Below are some brief highlights from the new book:
During the Trump administration, Sánchez drew inspiration from an unlikely source.
At a party in 2020, Mattioli writes, Sánchez approached Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway - the inventor of the much-derided concept of "alternative facts" - and asked for advice on dealing with media scrutiny.
'A lot has happened to you. How do you deal with it?" Sanchez asked. Bezos' relationship with Sánchez was now front-page news around the world.
Conway chose flattery, Mattioli reports. "Please, have you looked in the mirror? People are jealous of you," she said. "I'd say they're jealous because you're dating him," she added, referring to Bezos. (The Amazon founder had a difficult relationship with Trump, partly due to negative coverage of the president in Bezos' newspaper, The Washington Post.)
But that night, the bad blood didn't seem to matter. Conway offered to accompany Sánchez "for a slow jog around the neighborhood," Mattioli writes, adding, "It was a gesture of goodwill, knowing how seriously Sánchez exercised."
As leader of Amazon, Bezos wasn't just an office nerd.
At a 2016 conference, Bezos joined other business leaders on a wilderness trek, inspired by the television show Running wild with Bear Grylls. "The group learned to survive in the forest, made their own stretchers and ate earthworms together," says Mattioli. Even Bezos took down one of the worms.
At the end of their fake walk, the billionaire hopped into a Cadillac Escalade and headed to the hotel. The rest of those present wondered how they would get home. Suddenly "the booming sound of helicopters" provided the answer. Mattioli notes that Bezos hated flying in a helicopter at the time because he had "been in a helicopter crash years before." (Assuming he has now changed his mind, Sánchez, a certified helicopter pilot, can take him around.)
Amazon has aggressively tried to take market share from its competitors - and from its own retailers.
According to Mattioli, Amazon's corporate culture - culling underperformers, setting huge growth targets and requiring employees to adopt a "killer instinct" - has pushed some employees to break the rules.
In a 2015 incident detailed in the book, the company hired a Trader Joe's employee who did not realize she was being recruited to help compete with her former employer. Members of the new employee's team ruthlessly forced her to share her own data, Mattioli wrote. The employee eventually shared some information about the top-performing products at Trader Joe's, but she refused to reveal the grocer's margins even after she was reportedly reduced to tears. Amazon later fired some of the employees involved in the incident, the book recalled.
An Amazon spokesperson emphasized to The Daily Beast that "there is nothing in our culture or way of working that makes this 'emblematic' - especially considering that this was against policy." He added that the company "will not tolerate the misuse of proprietary confidential information."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered straight to your inbox. Register now.
Stay informed and get unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unparalleled reporting. Subscribe now.
