Nor is it necessary: low tech modes of delivery are just as quick.
It’s not as if the drone idea is original, notes Simon Usborne at The Independent. The technology giants - Amazon, Google, Microsoft et al have huge direct reach to audiences and customers, the money to hire swarms of PR and communications staff, and a technology press overwhelmingly happy to incredulously print almost every word, rather than to engage in the much harder task of actually holding them to account. Amazon’s drone debacle also moved discussion of its tax bill - another long-running controversy, sparked by The Guardian’s revelation last year that the company had UK sales of £7-billion but paid no U.K. Last week’s Panorama investigation into Amazon’s working and hiring practices, suggesting that the site’s employees had an increased risk of mental illness, is the latest in a long line of pieces about the company’s working conditions - zero-hour contracts, short breaks, and employees’ every move tracked by internal systems. Bezos’ neat trick has knocked several real stories about Amazon out of the way. James Bell at The Guardian believes the whole thing is little more than a publicity stunt.
So the question is: Why make the announcement now? Well, it’s Cyber Monday, the day when e-retailers like Amazon hope to make the most of their Christmas sales.īritish commentators point out Bezos’ musings also coincide with a spate of adverse coverage about working conditions in his company’s distribution centres. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
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