News Release

Amazon: Profits at What Price?

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Reuters reports: “Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday reported a profit near $2 billion, the largest in its history, as the online retailer drew millions of new customers to its Prime fast-shipping club for the holiday season and as changes to U.S. tax law added to its bottom line.”

The Guardian reports in: “Amazon patents wristband that tracks warehouse workers’ movements” that the “Bracelet, which can vibrate to point an employee’s hand in the right direction, would further increase surveillance of work environment.”

COLIN ROBINSON, colin.robinson at orbooks.com, @orbooks
Co-publisher of OR Books, Robinson wrote the piece “The Trouble With Amazon” for The Nation. He said today: “Amazon’s new wristbands are just the latest development in the company’s use of technology that de-humanizes work. Perhaps they could also give them to writers to help them put words on the page. Writers certainly need some help — their advances from publishers have been driven down sharply as a result of Amazon demanding ever steeper discounts.”

See also past Institute for Public Accuracy news releases on Amazon including “Trump Administration ‘Rubber Stamps’ Amazon-Whole Foods Merger,” “Is Amazon Ripping Off Taxpayers?” and “Amazon-CIA $600 Million Deal Facing Scrutiny: ‘What’s the CIA Doing on Amazon’s Cloud?'”