The Rise of Amazon in the Wake of the 2008 Pandemic

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Amazon's retail did grow a lot for two years after the start of the pandemic and Amazon stock prices went up and up. There was this strong narrative that people probably remember just as consumers or citizens at the beginning of the Pandemic that it was going to drive sort of a permanent shift from shopping in person to shopping online. People would say things like oh e-commerce has just been accelerated by five years or 10 years or 15 years again one of these tech determinist narratives in a certain way I think it's like problematic in so many ways because it's like what is e-commerce.

Paris Marx is joined by Moira Weigel to discuss the third-party sellers who supply many of the goods sold through Amazon, how the company’s policy decisions reshape small businesses to act like mini-Amazons, and what that means for regulatory responses.

Moira Weigel is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law School, and a founding editor of Logic Magazine. Her most recent book is Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk about What They Do--And How They Do It, co-edited with Ben Tarnoff. Follow Moira on Twitter at @moiragweigel.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

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