Hero or Dick - S4., Ep 10 - Amazon.com

We order from Amazon. Probably more than we should. In this episode, we ask whether the convenience is worth the cost.

We follow Amazon from a garage startup selling books to one of the most powerful companies in the world, look at the role MacKenzie Scott played in its early years, and examine how Prime, Kindle, and AWS transformed the way we shop—and the internet itself.

Then we turn the box over. Worker quotas. Union battles. Counterfeit products. Fake reviews. Packaging waste. Taxes. Billionaires. How much is enough?

Thanks for tuning in to Hero or Dick!

~ Kate & KJ

Transcript

Merch, Mugs, And Real-Life Chatter

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Here we are.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to another episode of Hero or Dick.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

It's season four, episode 10.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

That's where I and you have different glasses on again today.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Do I? No, they're the same ones. They're always in my purse. Cheaters. They're cheaters. Cheaters. They're nothing. Showing me her uh I have new shoes on though that were only seven dollars, and they are so cute.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

They look like $70 shoes.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

They do look a well, they look more than seven dollars, but I don't know what that's that's not really that's pretty low bar. They're a gladiator style for people who care, and they're black. They're very they are gladiator style. No, the color. I thought they were brown. They're black. Yeah, they're like you know what is you know what else is black?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Besides my soul, is our new shirt. I'm showing us the camera right now. You folks can't see it.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

They're so cool looking. Thanks, Jovi, for giving us a good um design logo. Um Hero Dick Podcast. And then it's got a satellite. Yep, brought it up and it's bright, bright colors on a black background.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

If you're interested.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Soon you will see it in uh in a water bottle and a coffee mug. They are uh should the coffee mugs be black?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

They should.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

I think so. Can we do a black water bottle?

SPEAKER_02 1:16

I think it should be.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

What else can we do? Keychains, I don't know, underwear, everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Whatever they want.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

What do people want?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

They could email us at herodic2023 at gmail.com. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

And tell us what is the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

If you email us, you're gonna commit to it. I will I will send you a t-shirt as long as you're living in the continental United States of America.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

And I bet that Cassidy is the first one that emails us.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

You know what?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Because she she is the email person.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

We're just gonna we're gonna give Cassidy one anyway.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

So she doesn't count. She counts.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

If you want something other than a t-shirt, let us know.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

But but anybody else besides Cassidy, she could still email us.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

And Brooke. Brooke and Cassidy are always listening.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Yeah, Brooke can't have one either. Jovi got one. Brooke, I think, wait, Brooke did get one.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Brooke's got one in the car.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Brooke's got one, and Jovi's got one. Um, but if you would like a t-shirt, email us.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

And Doug, I'll show you it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

He's pretty loyal too because he's with Cassidy listener.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

You know, we have an opportunity, Kate and I, um, to move the podcast. I didn't bite on it yet.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, we'll see. Is there cameras there?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

There can be.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

It's pretty cool because they're up.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

We got to check. You can set them anywhere. You don't have to do this. We're in a great little spot.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

We are. It's better there, though. It's a totally soundproof room. Oh. The sound is incredible.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

You can't hear a truck go by.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Uh you can't hear anything. They have high quality, but whatever. That's kind of the beauty of our little podcast, too, is that it's kind of raw.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Because it's a little podcast. And we're like when uh ourselves with. I think it was when Harley was on talking about emo music, and she said, Oh, well, you'll edit it out. And it's like, no, we don't edit anything.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

No, that's where you get my throat clearing and put it on there. Drinking stuff. One time we ate cheesecrackers.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

We did, they were delicious.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Uh you know where you can buy squeezed cheese.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

No, canned cheese.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Squeezed cheese.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Squeeze cheese.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Do they make squeezed cheese too?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Probably. It's probably in a tube, like a toothpaste tube.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

I wonder if you can get the flavored cheese, which is equally evil and delicious. Yeah, and I've been, I gotta watch the deliciousness. I am getting max density here. Yeah. I'm heading to Santa Town. I don't and then I don't know what to do. Like even if I I mean it sucks because you don't have I don't want to do any like extra. We walk a couple times a day, try not to eat every time I walk into the kitchen, but fuck, what do you do? I just saw my reflection walking in.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

I I don't I think you look fine.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Oh god, dude. The seams are stretching.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

But anyhow, um and uh you don't have this problem, but all summer I wear dresses. I have a dress on now, and then uh I go to put a pair of jeans on. It's like, oh, jeans, they don't lie.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

I gave up on jeans.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Jeans don't lie. I gave up on belts, but I'll still wear jeans. Gave up on belts. Oh, a long time ago. What do you mean you gave up on belts? I'm not wearing a belt.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

How do how your pants stab?

SPEAKER_01 4:15

But because I'm fat.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

No, you're not fat, good lord.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

This is true. I don't need a belt.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

You know, though, a good place to buy a belt is Amazon.com.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Oh, yeah. Which happens to be our topic today.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

It

Why Amazon Feels So Convenient

SPEAKER_02 4:30

does happen to be our topic today.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

And I don't think I've ever bought a belt online because that's kind of sometimes you gotta try stuff on.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Tell me some of the stuff that you have purchased recently from Amazon. I mean, if you want just this morning. The thing is, if you didn't tell me, I could find out anyway by listening to your Alexa or your phone.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I don't have Alexa though.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

You don't?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

I don't.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Who do you talk to at home?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Myself. Okay. But I do use Amazon, I will admit, uh, frequently. Because, for one thing, uh, and we'll go through these and then we might as well start with them. The convenience of it. We live in an area that there is not a huge shopping network. No, you know, we have a couple big stores, a couple box stores, but we don't have a lot of choice.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

But some people would say we have even less now because of Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Uh, I think it's more because of Walmart myself.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

It's Walmart's.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Walmart's. But uh also because of convenience. So I have a subscription, Amazon subscription, to buy um laundry soap.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Because it's something you need, it's it keep it coming. Although today, although I've had a subscription for two years, I got a cancellation notice. Sorry, we don't, we're out of this, we can't ship it to you from the buyer that I get it from. Now there's many other buyers where I can get it from, but that was the first time that ever happened.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Laundry soap, you say laundry soap. What kind of use?

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Like uh, well, I use a couple different kinds. I like the sheet stuff, you know, the it's in a sheet form. I don't know. That's a laundry soap. It's a dryer sheet, but it's laundry soap. Really? And it's just in a small box. You don't have to get rid of a big bottle, and it's compact. I like it. Um I always have I use that, but we also usually have a jug of gain.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Gain. We're big Tide fans.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Tide. Do you use the pods or the liquid?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Um, we were using pods, but then the washing machine after a while, I think I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Well, we had a problem with a pod explosion.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

That we went back to the actual traditional jug. But then you gotta get rid of the jug. You gotta recycle it. You hope it gets recycled. I mean, I always take them to the recycle place, but I'm I'm not sure they're not just dumping up. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

So we have that. Another, I I do like um a lot of their products, a lot of Amazon products. I get cereal bars, you know, like glorified Pop Tarts a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Um but did you read uh in your research or whatever? I know that you and Jeff Bezos are pretty close, so you probably talked to him.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I know I'm close with his ex-wife.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Oh, yeah. Yeah, Miranda uh Mackenzie. That her too.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Mackey.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Um the uh some of those products come from they sell a certain product for a while, and then they're like, we'll just make it ourselves or get someone to make it.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

They do. And so is that evil or genius? It's genius.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

But you're driving. I guess though, if the other product was just as good and cheap and whatever, people would still buy it.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

So shame on you, Kellogg's cereal bars.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

I mean, it for eight cereal bars, it's a dollar seventy.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

They're good.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

They're filler. I mean, I wouldn't want to live off of them. There's no foodies going, wow, these are the best things ever. But when you get up in the morning and take some pills and you need something on your stomach, you get a cereal bar done.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

And then I'm done till lunch.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

I uh we purchased the um Amazon Basics paper towels, and I usually get our toilet paper. It's not Amazon basic, it's actually Scott tissue, but I get it by the case.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yes, it's so cheap. I know, and it's easy, it's just delivered. You don't have to haul it around.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

And when you live on a busy street, it's awesome for people to see a giant box of toilet paper on the city.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Have you ever gotten an Amazon box stolen?

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Not oh yeah, downstate.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Downstate, but not here. No. Do you have a ring doorbell or something? No.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

I no, I have a camera, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah. So don't try to steal it.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

No. From you. No, I'll hunt you down.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

I mean, and ours, I'm more rural, so it's really nice because you know, it it and it's kind of funny because it used to be yay, Amazon's here, something fun was coming. Now it's like, eh, it's toilet paper, whatever. Yeah. Um but you could go. But during COVID, that was so nice. And that's when I really got addicted to shopping. To well, to shopping because it was easy, convenience again, and not just for basics, but for for everything. And a lot, like I said, a lot of times we're limited. We needed, I don't know, uh uh, I'm trying to think of something like filters for water softener. And they were out of them everywhere in town. And so you can get the next day, too. Yeah, and I get them quicker. And sometimes, again, because I'm rural and retired, I don't go into town a lot.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

You're pretty busy for a retired person.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Well, just here doesn't mean you got more meetings than I do. Yeah, that is not true.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Do you get donuts at your meetings?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Look at me, Kate. No, most a lot of them are uh I I do most of my stuff remotely. Oh so I eat the donuts at home.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Um what we're talking about Amazon. You know, you know what? Um Walmart's and Myers, uh Kmart. Oh, wait, there's no more Kmart probably because of Amazon. I missed Kmart. You know what? God, somebody should bring that bitch back. Kmart online.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Fucking loved Kmart. Well, I like Kmart because it was on the other side of town of our town from Walmarts and uh Myers. And so there wasn't anybody there.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah, great place to take our kids on a Tuesday night, wind them down.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

I mean, there was only one checkout person. Okay. But there wasn't anybody there, so you didn't have to wait long.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

But you know what you can do at Amazon. You load that card up, yep, and then they give you notification if something goes on for cheaper.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah, sometimes they go up. A lot of times they're like, I think they're just trying to get you to buy it, and they go, it went down.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Well, that's kind of their thing. It's awesome. The other thing I really love about um buying stuff on Amazon, and here's a great example. So I have a niece who lives in Colorado, her kids are home for the summer, and I sent some sticker books and chapter books. They're like eight, seven and eight, or something, somewhere around that age. So I sent them some books for summertime reading. Nice. Yeah, she just texted me and said, Oh my god, the kids are so excited they got new books in the mail. So I just directly sent them to the book. I like doing that too.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Send it to my niece, nephew, whoever birthday presents.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

I sent um my other niece just set up a new apartment in Traverse City. It's our first apartment with no roommates. So I sent her this really funky rug. Cool. Yeah, sent it right to her. You're so generous. And then said, Hey, it's delivered. And she said, Okay, is there a picture of it? Yes, there is. I sent her the picture, she said, okay, it's not gonna be on my doorstep. It's in the, you know, she lives in an apartment in the whatever room. And so she went down there, and yeah, hour later, she sent me a picture of a new rug.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Super cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

So I do appreciate their ability to take a picture when it's delivered. And I have had deliveries that haven't happened, and I have gotten refunded on it too. And very rarely, although a little bit more now, um, I get something misshipped. Like I bought vitamin C and I got multivitamins, and I'm like, hey, this is one I ordered, and you know, don't send it back because that costs more. But here's your refund, right? So I appreciate that too.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Well, I've had that happen on a couple big ticket items. Oh, like one was we're talking like a chainsaw with the long extending thing for cutting limbs. Oh, yeah, the arm was you know, a few hundred bucks, and they sent me two. And I'm like, oh, I gotta hold them right away because I'm like, yeah, you know, and they're like, just keep it.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Really?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah, they're like, it'll cost us more to get it back. But that plays into what we're gonna talk about. They they make nothing on anything. No, uh, no products make money that they basically sell, except for some of the other stuff that's not really consumables, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So, well, let's talk about the history of them, too.

Amazon’s Origin Story And Early Growth

SPEAKER_01 13:00

So it's founded by Jeff M. McKenzie uh in their garage in Bellevue, Washington. And they first sold books. That was gonna be their thing. They were gonna sell books online. It was in 1993 or five.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

He wrote the business plan while she was driving across country to their new home. He wrote it out in the passenger seat.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yep, and she helped.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

And this guy was like, he's you gotta give him some props.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Even as a props, he was adopted.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Um, his new father or stepfather really helped guide him. He went to Princeton, got two degrees at Princeton.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

He's no dummy.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

No, he's high energy, you know. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Um, I do think that she didn't get as much credit as she should.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

They never do.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

As you well know, he wasn't just writing that business plan. She was throwing out ideas just because it had his name on it. But they knew they wanted a product that they could sell online. And again, the 95 is still pretty new. So books they decided on because the demand is worldwide, millions of skews, uh, low unit price, and huge number of actual print books that they could choose from. Yeah, yeah. And so in July of '95, Amazon opened. But they were actually called they were called Kadabra. Cadabra. Like Abercadaver.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

His lawyer actually thought he said cadaver at first. And then it turned into cadabra, and then it was relentless.com. Yes. And if you go to relentless.com today, it will redirect you to Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

So he really liked Relentless, but Amazon was a A word that so it's going alphabetically and it'll come up first. So yeah. I wonder why you didn't go with the Abercadabra. Maybe that was already taken.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Maybe by the Steve Miller band.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

No, it's a no, that's Alibaba. Never mind. Okay. So the first book sold was. Do we know that?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah, I did. Damn it. What was it?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

It's called Fluid Concepts and Creative Apologies.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Was it about AI or like it is about computers? Yeah, computers.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Just think of it. By Douglas uh Hofsteaders. That was the first book sold. And it took off quick. Within the first two months of business, uh Amazon sold to all 50 states and 45 countries, and sales were at 20K per week. That's amazing when you think about it. Two months. They're in in what other business do you know has that rapid growth?

SPEAKER_02 15:41

This podcast.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

We finally got some shirts. Now not too.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

We've doubled.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

And we're trying to give away the merch. We got a great business plan. We're going places.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Uh they did reincarnate in uh 1996 in Delaware, I think as a tax stuff usually it's because of that. And so in May of '97, the stock was offered publicly at 13 or something like that. $18 a share. I checked it yesterday, it was at $2.35. And when did you get yourself? Um, I don't personally own any, but I think I own some in my investment group.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Um, and the highest it it bid at or bid uh sold at was $275.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Then when the tech bubble burst, it went down to like nine.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

They knew how to come out of it. Yeah. Yeah, I think they've done fine.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

And let me just say a little bit about Mackenzie. She helped find found Amazon with Bezos, obviously. Early contributor, she worked on the name. She uh worked on the business plan with him, the accountant order shipping. She negotiated their first uh freight order contract, the first company freight order contract, which was a big deal because they ship, you know, everything. There's well, I guess there's Amazon stores now, but then there wasn't. Um then Amazon stores. Yeah, like there was uh Amazon Go stores. You could walk in if you had an Amazon account, walk in, and uh there was no cashiers or anything. And I gotta check. Uh that's pretty cool. I'll look while you're talking to see if they're still around. Because I know there were some issues with them, but I don't know. They were like in bigger cities. But then she kind of backed away as they had kids, they have four sons and an adopted daughter. But this lady was smart, she is a novelist, she has a novel which is for sale on Amazon. I checked, called The Testing of uh Luther Albright, and she also worked as a um uh research assistant to Tony Morrison. I mean, come on, that's that's a good job.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Super cool, yeah. Well, and think you know, this is the stuff that spouses don't get the credit for. No, she made a lot of money in the putting up with this bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

He's probably doing godless divorced in 2019. That's not that long.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Yeah, she did. She is the third wealthiest woman in the world, but she's also a great philanthropist philanthropist way better than him.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Take note job.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah, would he buy a $500 million yacht back in 2016? That was just for the Botox for his new wife. And then all of a sudden he's jacked. Like he was like a nerdy dude, and like he's like ripped. I mean, not suddenly. I guess if you have the time.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

If you have the time and the money, you could get jacked too.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Don't eat the donuts at the meetings.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Oh, that's why I go to the meetings. I know. But I don't get donuts at the meetings I go to now. Sadly. So, um, when they were first open, they used to ring a bell when there was a sale. And then after a while, it was like, we can get it. You can't ring this fucking bell. Yeah, we're selling too much. I didn't know too. The logo is in a smile. It looks like a smile. It does look like a smile, but it's A to Z.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

I see it now, Kate.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Mm-hmm. Dan. Yeah, I did too. I didn't know that. And um, let's talk about Prime for a little bit. So

Prime, Kindle, AI, And AWS Power

SPEAKER_01 19:34

if you do the add-on at a cost.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

What add-on? Prime?

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Prime. Yeah. To Amazon.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Was it like 200 bucks, 100 bucks?

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, it's less than a uh less than 200, but more than 100. It was always 99 for a long time, and then it went up to something.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

But you save that in shipping.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

I do. And I also utilize their books, the video, streaming, movies. Uh uh and they have that adult site too. Do they? Oh, I'm not utilizing that.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

That's something else.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Um and there are 200 million global members of Prime that spend about $1,400 a year.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

There's your money. There's your money.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

The Prime uh membership alone, they probably make bank on that. But then you do have to, you know, give it out to to, you know, books. And you know, say what you will about all the ebooks, but man, Kindle is probably my favorite one to own and to buy books. And I just bought the little baby Kindle. I don't know what it's called, but it's just little, it's about as big as it's a little bit bigger than my phone, and you can read outside with it. That's why I can't paper. You can read the out on the beach. I should have brought it. I usually have it in my purse. Yeah, I can sit outside.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

You still like a book book, though.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

I do like a real book, yes. But I read Kindle books too. Okay, here's a good example. So I wanted this book. Um that I can't think of the author, but she wrote The Help.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

A great book. Well, she just wrote, I mean, 16, 15 years later, she wrote her second book. So she's worked on it all this time. It is 600 and some pages.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

That's too many pages.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

So instead of buying the physical book on Amazon, yeah, I bought the Kindle version just because I thought that would be easier for easier to carry. Yeah, can carry it around. That's another thing you can carry. You know, you take that with you when you travel. You have all the books right there.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

And as an author, you can actually promote some of your stuff and allow people to download your books for free, which I'm doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Tell us where and how just go to Amazon, look for KJ Stevens. I have a couple on there that you can download for free and read.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Okay. You know, I don't think I have one. on the Kindle. I have all the hard copies of them.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

That's better anyway.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

It usually is. It depends on the it depends on the book, but typically I I like a real book.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Even though my books aren't that good, the artwork on the front's pretty good. I like the artwork.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Because Jovi's doing it?

SPEAKER_02 22:19

No, my mom did some and then I did one. But I cheated. I used computer graphic stuff.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

That is that cheating or embellishing? I mean it's utilizing the tools you have.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Like I could see it in my head. That's where like AI I think it's kind of a I get it if you say AI create this. But if you sit down and you're like AI like I make uh clips or videos for my uh promotional stuff occasionally like announcing stories or coming out or books. And I will say I want it to look like this and it comes back saying nope we got to fix this, this, and this. And it could take hours to do it. It could take a while. Like so people are like I don't want anything made with AI. Go fuck yourself because I don't have the talent to do it. It does, but it still has to follow my direction.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Because you still have control over it.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Yeah I could sit there and pay an artist and tell them exactly what I want or I can control it myself and have AI do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

So AI is like an artist that you can afford.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

Yep. And some of that stuff runs on Amazon Web Services by the way which is one of their biggest cash cows, Amazon, um, because even uh Walmart uh runs some stuff on Amazon Web Services.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Uh that's where they get a lot of their um there's a lot of I know if you go to Amazon then they link to to Walmart to oh yeah. And you which you would think would be a contradiction or why why not buy it from Amazon no go to Walmart? I don't know what how they're doing that.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

But like 40 I think 41% of all websites run on Amazon web services.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

That's crazy. Wow that's a lot yeah I didn't they have yeah like just as much if not more than Google. It's pretty impressive. So that's where they get a lot of their revenue.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

So for tech because of their small beginnings since then you just think of everything that they branched out. Zappos. And and not only oh I like zappos not only what they branched out to but what they've started and then other other websites or people use like algorithms and um so they they started with drone delivery maybe and then every you know how other people are using it too.

Labor Concerns, Reviews, Fakes, And Waste

SPEAKER_01 24:34

And did you know that they have 1.27 million employees I believe a lot of employees it is and so that was in 2020 and so with that many employees you have some employees who are not happy so some of the the evil that you hear about uh Amazon and I don't know because I I mean I do know what I've read of course but I don't know anybody who personally who works for Amazon. But the employee issues I guess they have extreme quotas to meet um physical injuries are are common there.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

They're constantly monitored.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Yes. Strict monitoring uh union resistance and so but I do think if you have that many employees you're gonna have some that aren't happy but if people say that over and over again then you know like you don't get a bathroom break or you don't get you know that's why you have to treat your employees well. Or do they get stack?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

I doubt it.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I that's why they're trying to make it all done with robots too though. Have you seen some of those distribution centers that they have yeah the robots are walking and picking the stuff off the shelf put it on the conveyor belt packaging where are their conveyors from I wish they were from right here in Alpina but I doubt it. They had some yeah they were buying some from the Alpina area I think I know what um that some of them had relationships with them.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

They also have um you know we're talking about the bad part of it they do have market dominance no doubt but with market dominance comes on the consumer side you have a wide reach of products you know you you have choice you can buy almost everything and you can buy it there. Um and I'm sure uh also they have aggressive tax strategies which means they report billions in profit but pay little in federal tax. That's not cool.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

But that's what people do the more the richer you are the less taxes you pay.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah yeah well it's trickle down Kate trickle trickle down economics trickle down yeah also I thought it was interesting the fake reviews um and you sometimes you can tell but um the the Autobot reviews but sometimes you can't yeah so if something has five stars you always have to kind of take it and they I I like how they put in the reviews this item is is uh um heavily not heavily but um this item can be returned often returned often or some will say something most most customers keep this product yeah yeah um did you mention counterfeit goods no but that was next on my list the counterfeit goods and the plagiarized product so if you order from Amazon you could be ordering from again and this was next on my list the third party which is not Amazon and so they don't have quality control over that so if I'm ordering gain I might get yes but it says gain but it says gain or it's you know it's like so close. Um yeah and uh you have to watch because sometimes it says would you like a new product well I don't think I ever want used soap. No no but I don't know what that means but sometimes they you can buy used stuff and with books okay but they have refurbished electronics they do some of that and as long as it says it's okay and as long as you're paying less and you still can return it. And you still can return it. Sometimes the return policy isn't so great and I know that for a while I haven't seen it happen in our personal Amazon world lately but if you were ordering stuff from China and it was coming right from China it still got here quick but you tried to return it right no way right no just keep it and it was usually so cheap that we did but we sent a few things back I can't think of the example but um with all the convenience and the fast shipping there is an environmental impact.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Even though they're starting to use drones you got all those trucks on the road you got all the packaging materials sometimes they package like a toothpick in a 10 by 10 box.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yes they have been better but yes and they do give you an option yes if you're buying that the one I bought today said would you like it in the original packaging? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yep would you like to save whatever and earn a credit if it all ships on one day. Yes. So they're yeah they do try.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

They're yeah yeah um the other advantage of course was fast shipping plus they ship to anywhere and so they make everything is available to everyone um have you ever seen those distribution centers? I have seen a couple of them from the air like a Google shot of it. There's a huge one now in Gaylord which is the closest one to us. And man one time and they they're on the like the back road and I was going to Cassidy's and I was taking that route and they were all lined up to get out it was amazing how many little Amazon vans there were. Yeah they employ a lot of people they do 1.27 and not just that someone's got to make those vans someone's got to repair those vans give them conveyors or sell them conveyors everything and all the components and yeah yeah so they do employ a lot of uh second tier people too uh we talked about the choice that you can have everything in one place uh another advantage I saw online was they said easy returns and I think that's debatable I think it depends on who it comes from I've had stuff that was easy to return or said don't return it at all which is even easier but I've also ran into a couple things where it was not easy to return.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Do you ever use Rufus? Isn't it Rufus their AI assistant?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Oh yeah I did one time that's pretty easy it was okay oh you didn't like it uh I don't really remember it so it must have been okay yeah I used that to do a few returns then you don't have to talk to a person I have chatted with them you know you just do a text chat is that who I'm chatting with Rufus I believe it's maybe not maybe it's Bluefus and how about cloud power? Oh yeah what about it well that's what the Amazon Web Service stuff or they Amazon Web Services they uh cloud power uh run tech for many global yeah for Netflix Airbnb NASA government agencies for NASA what really so I wonder can you order stuff from Amazon if you're on the moon I'm sure you can I bet you can and then the media perks we talked about that Kindle ebooks music photo storage photo storage I do have the music yeah we've got music unlimited I don't have unlimited you're fancy I just have the basic what it's 20 bucks a month king no commercials you need it I have Sirius because I have Sirius in my car and that's cheaper it's probably run by Amazon it probably does run on Amazon web services it probably does but I don't feel like I need both of them because if you have Sirius I have it in the car and it's pretty cheap a month seven bucks or something like that. And if you call them they'll do it for three they tell me I have the lowest price I don't believe that but I'm like seven dollars I'll bite on that yeah so um and actually I went up a little bit I did notice that but you also get an app on your phone like free so so I use that on Amazon those well you don't have Alexa so no I don't that comes in handy with the music in the house I know it doesn't I always say oh I think I'll do that and then I never do or anything like Alexa how long do I cook a chicken breast for?

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Yeah what's the weather hey Alexa I have these ingredients in my fridge what can I make for dinner wait I'm talking about food again Alexa how do I change the oil in my car? She'll tell you just like this though.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Now how do you do you think she ever listens to you and gives your information to uh someone who shouldn't have it I'm sure and but the thing is in our house she doesn't listen to me.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

She for some reason is like everyone else in my house and like I will say Alexa play whatever she's like no silence. And then my daughter will say she'll play it. I think they maybe programmed her not to listen to me. But yeah that's scary because you think of the conversations you have in your home and she's always listening.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

She's always listening. If you're talking about but I also think of people who um well like my mom had Parkinson's and couldn't type anymore and you know was always on the computer or typing or using her hands to to do stuff and how convenient that would have been for her to say Alexa can you whatever like the TV the fire TVs turn turn the TV on to channel 19 or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Mm-hmm so and we talked about pricing did we talk about pricing it's pretty competitive.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

It's really competitive yeah it is super cheap.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Although I think it's like but you know I I can't say it's escalated lately because everything is freaking escalated lately. There is nothing that is cheaper now than it was three years ago. I don't think so no certainly before the non-war began there's everything is expensive no it's not a war because a war to declare war you'd have to go to Senate and have them but that's right yeah it's a skirmish I think but we have won like 170 wars like in the last couple years haven't we something like that yes but not the war on Amazon. No good old Amazon okay and convenience convenience convenience that's the biggest thing uh and the biggest evil I don't know what's the biggest evil of them there's there's many well I mean it but I don't know if it's evil or if you're just doing things better than other people it's competition.

Bezos, Wealth, Taxes, And The Verdict

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Um sometimes and I think we found this out with uh a lot of uh powerful people certainly wealthy people that they have to um step on a lot of people to get where they're going to and then um to serve the masses some people get hurt sure and it's not fair but it's how it happens I mean right but JD Rockefeller wouldn't have uh been such an oil baron dick we wouldn't have you know all of all of um well no what did he give us he gave us money he gave himself money yeah I'm thinking not a Rockefeller but um oh the Biltmore Vanderbilt oh yeah you know they did do good too well no they do but my thing is how much money do you need? Exactly Jeff Bezos how much money do you need? If you're giving your wife 36 billion in a divorce good for you you did well but guess what you could probably help out the whole world and what does that say about you that you don't want and how what's uh what's the percentage of money that he gives away I couldn't find maybe he does a lot but um uh her the ex-wife does give away a a pretty good amount of her money because she's probably like how much do I need you know I need a billion to live on for the rest of my life I got 36 billion yeah I can help a lot of people and she the other thing I noticed um that I read about her was she doesn't give to your um charity and say I want you to do this with it she gives it to the Salvation Army or whoever probably not them but anyway she gives it to whoever and says put it to good use good luck I I trust you I'm sure she doesn't just you know she's not giving to my chair our charity hero or dick but no why that's why why doesn't she I don't know we could ask we're not a C3 no what is it a 401 no 403 for we're not a nonprofit we're not a C3 we're not a for-profit we're not a for-profit or neutral profit so I say overall Amazon is a hero although I do think that Jeff Bezos is a dick.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

That could be a whole nother episode doesn't share his wealth with uh uh people who made his wealth happen sure I saw him recently on something talking about taxes and how he doesn't care if he does if they have to pay more taxes um he doesn't think it's necessarily right but he'd do it if he has to and then he also said that he believes there'll be a universal basic income soon basic income or basic income tax income meaning all the rich I don't know how they're gonna do it but how are they gonna do that? Everybody'll get like a stipend communism it really is or socialism.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

No I think that's communism. But everybody gets the same playing field so everything's equal. Well how'd that work for Russia? How'd that work? It sounds so good in theory and this is a whole other show it sounds so good in theory but it rarely does it work because if you give everybody forty thousand dollars a year who's gonna work for it right and what are they using it on? Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

The drug addict who has issues is going to use it for drugs going to use it for drugs. Yeah and do I work harder no i I know I'm getting 4000 why am I gonna work so hard right I mean I don't know that was just a sound bite watching them on a show but all right well what do you say hero dick I I I'll say hero Amazon is you know that has it's a double edged sword but for the most part I think if we had a podcast about Bezos maybe that would be different.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Well and is someone a dick just because they have a lot of money yeah I wouldn't know no I don't but um not necessarily but in his case probably maybe so I think it just does something to your brain it changes who you are to me it's it it changed and I don't know him obviously but it seems like it changed him him into a big egomaniac period. Yeah I mean you know I think he lost sight of what's important. Well he's important that's what's important now like when you're getting invited to send all of us to the moon or to the what a big waste of money that was when you're getting invited to like uh do you think he was was he an Epstein guy? No I don't think so okay well let's start rumors but there's enough of them.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Oh my god and if those Epstein guys I met well yeah and if those pricks would actually release everything but they won't no because they're in it fucking don't let people should not let that issue die. No there are a lot of women and kids that were abused horribly the government is sweeping that shit under the rug committed suicide so okay that's another whole show but uh let's draw our fast five then and I have a weird fast five for you.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Let's do it

Fast Five Colors And Closing

SPEAKER_01 40:14

it's colors blue hero red hero green hero are you a rainbow again I like just colors purple hero and orange hero so those are the top five colors when uh I Googled it so it must be true. What are the top five colors? And they gave me those what about how many yellow I feel really bad for yellow because without yellow you can't have green you can't have orange yellow is a primary color I think it's because it should get more crack.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

What about black? Well black is some people would argue it's a non-color what about white non crazy non-color burnt sienna is that your favorite color on the crayon I always remember that one in the crayon box because when I saw it when I was a kid I'm like for one thing I had a friend whose his I was like in grade school his sister's name was Sienna and I'm like burnt sienna so it's like burnt skin thing like I don't know what is burnt sound I don't think you remember. All right what else you got anything or you all done we're done here. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

All right so email us at here dick twenty twenty three at gmail.com we'll see you next time. Bye folks bye