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Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, is seeing his reputation take a dive.
- Amazon has been bombarded by negative press, with calls for boycott flooding social media on Prime Day, the company's biggest shopping day of the year.
- Amid backlash over the treatment and pay of Amazon's workers, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos became the richest man in modern history on Monday.
- As shopping increasingly shifts online, the biggest player in e-commerce is in a prime position to become the biggest villain in American capitalism.
As Americans become increasingly reliant on Amazon, the company's reputation is evolving in a dark direction.
On Prime Day, Amazon's largest shopping day of the year, the company was bombarded with calls for boycott. Hundreds of consumers took to social media to urge customers not to shop on the website during the 36-hour event, which took place on Monday and Tuesday.
Amazon workers in Spain and Poland went on strike on Monday to protest against working conditions at its warehouses. Thousands more did the same in Germany on Tuesday.
Amid this backlash over the treatment and pay of Amazon's workers, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos became the richest man in modern history on Monday, with his net worth topping $150 billion. Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted: "Jeff Bezo's [sic] newly renovated home in Washington DC will have 25 bathrooms. Meanwhile, Amazon workers skip bathroom breaks in order to meet their grueling work targets."
This isn't a new problem for Amazon. But, as the company grows, workers' complaints multiply, and Bezos gets even more unfathomably rich, it doesn't seem to be one that is going away any time soon.
Amazon is increasingly being vilified
Amazon's threat to small businesses was one of the first strikes against the company in some people's minds. The mere rumor that Amazon is entering a new industry can impact major companies' stocks. For mom-and-pop businesses, it is easy to feel like a dying breed in the age of Amazon.
On the left, an online anti-Trump movement has been encouraging people to boycott Amazon until the e-commerce giant bans Trump-related products, cuts ads from the far-right website Breitbart News, and stops streaming NRATV. Amazon is one of Sanders' top examples of a company that has become too powerful.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump himself has repeatedly attacked Amazon, arguing that the company has an unfair deal with the US Postal Service. Trump supporters threatened to boycott Amazon after news broke that it would support Washington State in a federal lawsuit challenging Trump's executive order barring people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US.
The search for HQ2 has helped put a microscope on Amazon's local impact. Skyrocketing housing prices, unrelenting traffic, and overcrowding has inspired residents to dub Seattle "Amageddon" following Amazon's dominance. Local businesses have been forced out as prices increase and Amazon headquarters expand into "Amazonia."
In response to criticism, Amazon has touted its investments in Seattle and how the HQ2 deal could pay off for the city that becomes home to its second headquarters.
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
A worker in an Amazon warehouse.
Perhaps most damning are reports from Amazon workers. While Amazon has been applauded for its impressive benefits, the company has also been plagued with stories of white-collar workers dealing with a brutal working environment in which people cry at their desks after being pushed to their breaking point.
Warehouse workers have protested long hours and allegedly poor working conditions. Employees told Business Insider earlier this year that they were constantly under surveillance while working in Amazon warehouses with intense targets. Stories include dealing with an "awful smell" coming from warehouse trash cans, which workers used because they were afraid of missing targets if they took the time to go to the bathroom.
"The metrics are brutally aggressive, and most of my colleagues are in a state of constant anxiety that we could be fired at any moment for not meeting metrics," one current US employee said.
The employee added: "Amazon needs union representation globally. It is modern slavery. Jeff Bezos has become the richest man in the world off the backs of people so desperate for work that we tolerate the abuse."
"Amazon is proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs in the last year alone," the company said of its warehouses in a statement to Business Insider on Monday. "These are good jobs with highly competitive pay and full benefits."
"We use our Connections program to ask associates a question every day about how we can make things even better, we develop new processes and technology to make the roles in our facilities more ergonomic and comfortable for our associates, and we investigate any allegation we are made aware of and fix things that are wrong," the statement continued.
The new Walmart
Jose F. Moreno / AP Images
Walmart.
Amazon isn't the only company to face criticism for its CEO's wealth or its treatment of workers. However, because it is such a visible company - with the richest CEO - it becomes a target for criticism that could be applied to many retailers.
In this way, Amazon is in a similar position that Walmart was in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Like Amazon, Walmart has been trashed for its impact on small businesses, its political actions and inaction, and its working conditions. However, in recent years, the company has made a concentrated effort to change consumers' perceptions.
The company raised its minimum wage and started sustainability initiatives. Leadership is speaking out on progressive political issues, with the Wall Street Journal publishing an article earlier in July with the headline: "Walmart Takes a Stand on Guns, Gay Rights to Get People to Like It More."
According to CEO Doug McMillon, Walmart made a concentrated effort to change its reputation. The company's strategy became: "Let's find the people who dislike us the most and go figure out why, and see if there's some good in what they're saying - and then implement it."
Amazon has pushed back against many of the criticisms against it, arguing that the company is ultimately a force for good. While Amazon may be addressing issues internally, the rest of the world's conception of Amazon is already shifting.
Amazon is being attacked from all angles. As shopping increasingly shifts online, the biggest player is in the e-commerce industry is in a prime position to become the biggest villain in American capitalism.