Amazon: The New Consumer's Bible

From November 2013, Derek Thompson writing for The Atlantic: The Amazon Mystery: What America’s Strangest Tech Company Is Really Up To (Wayback Machine link)

Seriously: What is Amazon? A retail company? A media company? A logistics machine?...

In a way, this strategy isn’t new at all. It’s ripped from the mildewed playbooks of the first national retail stores in American history. Amazon appears to be building nothing less than a global Sears, Roebuck of the 21st century—a large-scale operation that aims to dominate the future of shopping and shipping.

From October 2014, also Derek Thompson for The Atlantic: What in the World Is Amazon? (Wayback Machine link)

...there is something devilishly seductive to the conveniences of digital capitalism that makes life better for us as consumers and worse for us as workers. Does buying diapers once from Amazon make one morally complicit in the working conditions of its warehouse employees? What about subscribing to Amazon Prime? Having an Amazon credit card?

(Revised and republished April 12th, 2025)