If you thought Amazon was determined to eventually put all bookstores out of business, that isn’t quite true. Today, a mall CEO let slip that the Everything Store, which began by selling just books, wants to duplicate its real-life bookstore in Seattle across the country. Update: The company has clarified that this was not meant to be a statement about Amazon’s actual plans, but neither company denies the story, either. [More]
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Amazon Taking Longer To Ship To Non-Prime Customers
By 2.2.16
After all these years of Amazon Prime being around, most of us know that a major perk of the subscription service is free, expedited shipping. But it looks like Amazon’s focus on getting packages to Prime customers has resulted in slower deliveries for shoppers who didn’t ante up $99/year for Prime. [More]
Report: Amazon Planning A Subscription Streaming Music Service To Rival Spotify
By 1.28.16
The popularity of streaming music services like Spotify has others in the business scrambling to hit upon just the right formula for success. Amazon, for one, is reportedly working on a Spotify-killer that is entirely separate from Prime Music. [More]
New York City Bans Hoverboards On Buses, Trains
By 1.27.16
If you live in New York City and plan to ride the subway or hop on a city bus, you better leave your “hoverboard” at home. The state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that it is banning the self-balancing scooters from public transportation over fire safety concerns. [More]
Amazon’s Stupid Shipping Gang Ensures That Your Tea Arrives Safely
By 1.27.16
Tea is a very important and delicious beverage. Amazon takes your tea very seriously. How seriously do they take it? The Everything Store’s stupid shipping gang took Indira’s tin of teabags and packed it carefully in a box that would fit at least a dozen more tins. [More]
In Spite Of Past Failure, Amazon Not Giving Up On Smartphones
By 1.26.16
Three months after it was revealed that Amazon took a $170 million loss during its last foray into the smartphone market, the e-tailer is reportedly readying plans for a second go-around, this time by partnering with other well-established mobile companies. [More]
Amazon Puts Mini E-Book Stores In Drugstores In Washington State
By 1.25.16
Back in November, Amazon did something unexpected: the company opened a real-life bookstore in its hometown of Seattle. The company also has a Kindle and Fire showroom at its new package pickup point at UC Berkeley. Amazon clearly wants to move into real-life retail, in some ways, and they have an intriguing new product spotted on drugstore shelves in Washington state. [More]
How Social Engineering Fooled Amazon Customer Service Reps Into Sharing A Customer’s Data
By 1.25.16
You generally expect that a company that has your personal information — like your address, recent orders, and billing information — is going to treat that data with some level of care. While you know their privacy policy might still allow some sharing for marketing reasons, you don’t expect their customer service agents to divulge it to anyone who happens to call up and pretend to be you. [More]
Regulators Investigating 13 Hoverboard Companies, Amazon Announces Refunds For Scooter Owners
By 1.21.16
For nearly two months now, federal regulators have been working to get to the bottom of exploding hoverboards. This week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced just which brands of self-balancing scooters they are investigating, while also offering a few safety tips for consumers who might already have one of the devices at home. [More]
Amazon Exec: Prime Air Drones Will Be “More Like Horses Than Cars”
By 1.19.16
Amazon isn’t ready to unleash its Prime Air drones into the skies just yet (and the Federal Aviation Administration isn’t ready to let it, either) but in the meantime, company executives don’t mind talking about their plans for Prime Air. [More]
Amazon Doesn’t Just Want To Send You Stuff, It Wants To Handle Shipping Too
By 1.15.16
Amazon is sitting pretty right now with all the business it does as an online purveyor of merchandise, but it’s not content to just sit on its throne of branded boxes, it wants to be the one shipping those items to customers as well. The company just got approval to expand into ocean shipping, giving it more control over items that ship from Chinese factories to U.S. shoppers. [More]
Amazon Opens UC Berkeley Campus Facility For Students To Pick Up Packages, Maybe Try A Fire Tablet
By 1.14.16
A new college semester will begin soon, and UC Berkeley has a new January transfer: Amazon is opening yet another staffed pickup point on a college campus. The facilities are meant to promote the Amazon brand and alleviate the strain on campus mail services that are flooded with Amazon packages, and there’s something interesting in the Berkeley version: students can sample Kindle devices at an in-store counter. [More]
Amazon Cutting $26 Off The Price Of New Prime Subscriptions This Weekend
By 1.14.16
Every now and then, Amazon finds itself in a generous mood for whatever reason, and will offer up special discounts to boost the buzz surrounding its Prime subscription service. This time, it’s a weekend discount that lops $26 off the regular price for an annual membership to Prime… for new subscribers only, of course. [More]
Amazon To Open Fifth On-Campus, Offline Location At University Of Pennsylvania
By 1.12.16
Amazon has spent the last year expanding its challenge to the existence of college bookstores, opening pickup locations on campuses scattered across the country. There, students can pick up things that they ordered on Amazon, and… that’s about it. A new pickup point at the University of Pennsylvania will also offer study and collaboration space for student use, and will provide same-day or next-day pickup for members of Amazon Student or Amazon Prime. [More]
Amazon Prime Adds 20% Discount On Video Game Pre-Orders & New Releases
By 1.12.16
For years, Amazon was able to win over some video game fans by guaranteeing release-day delivery of new titles. But now that gamers can pre-order digital downloads of their games (for the same price) so that they’re available right away when they go live, Amazon is going after customers who want to save money on these pricey new releases. [More]
Report: Amazon Debuting Cheaper, Portable Echo Speaker Soon
By 1.11.16
Amazon is reportedly getting ready to expand the Echo Speaker family, with plans to debut a new, smaller, cheaper, and portable version of the voice-activated device in a few weeks. [More]
Amazon ‘Prime Now’ Drivers In Arizona Sue Company For Misclassification, Wage Theft
By 1.8.16
Last year, a group of delivery drivers for Amazon’s Prime Now service who worked through third-party services sued Amazon and their employers in California. Now a group of couriers in Phoenix, Arizona are doing the same, pointing out that being required to wear Prime Now uniforms, ask customers to take Amazon surveys, and work fixed hours from an Amazon warehouse should have made them employees of the mega-e-tailer, not independent subcontractors. [More]
Amazon Won’t Say If Employee Added Unrequested Dildo To Customer’s Cart
By 1.6.16
In the world of customer service, there are usually a few, easily predictable responses from companies that we encounter: either an issue gets resolved to the satisfaction of the customer, whether quickly or with a bit of effort, or it doesn’t. But one Amazon customer found himself in wholly unfamiliar territory after providing negative feedback, when, he claims, an employee of the e-commerce giant put an unrequested 10-inch dildo in his shopping basket. [More]
