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Recently showcased on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, there's a groundbreaking documentary titled The Great Amazon Heist. Protagonist Oobah Butler, a daring journalist, opted for an unprecedented and risky deception to prove the inadequacy of user protections, especially for children. He embarked on a perilous escapade...A dangerous and outrageous prank indeed. Bottles of the so-called 'energy elixir,' branded as Release, are being peddled on Amazon. Despite this, the mammoth e-commerce platform still permits its sale, even listing it under the beverage category as 'Bitter Lemon', where it remarkably secures a spot on the 'bestseller' list.
Before venturing into selling urine on Amazon, Oobah Butler gained notoriety for a prank where he transformed the shed in his London home into the top-rated restaurant on Tripadvisor. In The Great Amazon Heist, Butler begins to uncover the labor conditions and safety regulations in Amazon's warehouses and online marketplace by infiltrating an Amazon shipping hub in Coventry with a hidden camera.
How does this story relate to selling urine on Amazon? In just a few days, Butler was discovered, prompting him to abandon the break-in and instead record the working conditions inside Amazon's warehouses. Instead, Butler opted to interview delivery drivers. They began sharing about the penalties deducted from their wages if they made late deliveries. This pressure led them to skip restroom breaks, resorting to urinating in plastic bottles.This tale has long been reported, nothing surprising anymore. What few know is that some claim they're penalized for leaving plastic bottles containing urine in their vehicles due to work pressure, after returning the vehicles to the warehouse. To avoid penalties for forgetting, Amazon drivers discard these bottles on the roadside. Butler then investigated roads near Amazon warehouses, from Coventry to New York and even Los Angeles, discovering this occurrence to be quite widespread.
Engaging in an unthinkable and dangerous prank, Butler collected these plastic bottles, labeled them as Release, and sold them on Amazon. The selling process had almost no safeguards to ensure the origin of the goods, especially safety and legal aspects. Butler shared with Wired: “Selling this item was unbelievably easy. I thought food and beverage licenses would prevent me from selling it on Amazon, so I opted to market it as a 'Reusable Water Bottle'. But Amazon automatically categorized it as a beverage.”At times, Butler even managed to contact an Amazon representative, who was willing to provide him with packaging and shipping services under the Fulfillment by Amazon program to assist small and medium-sized businesses. To ensure that no one had to purchase urine from Amazon drivers, Butler and a group of friends placed test orders. “But when a stranger actually placed an order, I felt a bit frightened,” Butler recalled.Amazon spokesperson James Drummond, when questioned by Wired, issued a statement, dismissing it as a mischievous prank and stating that Amazon “has industry-leading tools to prevent the sale of unsafe products.”
A consistent theme in The Great Amazon Heist documentary is how easily one can outsmart the giants of the corporate world. After investigating the working conditions of Amazon employees and selling unsafe products online, Butler had his two granddaughters, aged 4 and 6, attempt to purchase items that should only be sold to adults due to safety regulations.At least four cases demonstrated that safety regulations prohibiting the sale of hazardous items to children are ineffective. Two preschool-aged girls simply used an Alexa-enabled device to order knives, saws, and even rat poison, delivered right to their doorstep. Sometimes, the items were not even subject to age verification by the delivery personnel.Spokesperson Drummond addressed the issue, stating: “Customers must be 18 years old to use Amazon's services unless under parental supervision. Most of the products purchased in the documentary aired on Channel 4 did not have age restrictions. Four other products were mislabeled, and we have corrected them.”
In the end, everything depicted in The Great Amazon Heist is hardly surprising or groundbreaking. An Amazon spokesperson referred to the film as “a deliberately distorted portrayal of our processes and operations, not reflecting the real shopping experience or working for Amazon.”However, when all the aspects explored and exploited by Butler are put together in a one-hour television documentary, a grim picture emerges. Drivers and warehouse personnel endure such conditions because they have no choice. Hazardous products continue to be sold to children due to a lack of restrictions…
Source: Wired
