09/05/2019 / By Ethan Huff
As part of his ongoing investigatory work into product safety through his Consumer Wellness Center (CWC) Labs initiative, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has come to learn that Walmart, if you can believe it, actually does test the products that are sold through its website. But the same cannot be said for Amazon, which a new investigation by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has revealed is selling thousands of unsafe, and in some cases illegal, products via its third-party vendors.
Even while claiming to utilize an “industry-leading safety and compliance program,” Amazon has allowed its once-centralized retail platform to devolve into what the WSJ now describes as a “flea market” – meaning anyone can sell whatever they want on there, however they want, and nobody at Amazon seems to be doing anything to vet this process.
Sure, Amazon claims it thoroughly vets its third-party sellers to ensure that they are not selling contaminated products. But as Adams himself recently reported, Amazon is definitely selling contaminated dietary supplement products that contain unsafe levels of lead and aluminum. And now the WSJ has corroborated the same, showing that all sorts of contaminated consumer products, including children’s toys, are being actively sold on Amazon without consequence.
Unlike Walmart, Amazon seems to have relegated control over its vetting process to the sellers it is supposed to be vetting, who are now apparently ‘vetting themselves.’ This is the same type of thing that happened at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it turns out, which we now know allowed Boeing to self-regulate the faulty software that was built into the failed 737 Max airplanes that had been repeatedly crashing before being universally grounded.
For more related news about how large, multinational corporations like Amazon and Boeing are getting away with shady things that would land the average person in prison, be sure to check out Corruption.news.
Interestingly, Amazon responded to the WSJ investigation by pulling about 57 percent of the listings it mentioned. But the Jeff Bezos empire then proceeded to issue a public statement claiming that it remains “proactive” in ensuring that the products sold on its website are safe, legal, and everything that customers expect them to be – which is obviously not the case.
While there was once a time when Amazon sold mostly products that came from its own warehouses, the reality today is that, just like the WSJ has stated, Amazon has become a flea market, of sorts, that is increasingly dominated by foreign vendors, many of whom are not following the same quality standards that Amazon once did.
“From a quality name that Amazon used to be in 2010, they ended up becoming a cheap Chinese Bazar by 2019,” one Yahoo! Finance commenter wrote in response to the news.
According to this same commenter, Amazon used to sell quality products at some of the lowest prices on the web. But now, Amazon has become a vendor of cheap, low-quality products that are often sold a premium prices, and much of it has to do with the way the company opened itself up to the “flea market” model, which is seems to barely regulate.
“There are a few reasons why prices are much higher now,” this commenter adds. “One reason is the high fees Amazon put on sellers have to be passed on to consumers. Next is the feedback. Amazon removes or doesn’t approve most of the negative feedback. They love positive feedback on their items.”
For more related news about Amazon’s continued race to the bottom, be sure to check out Collapse.news.
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Tagged Under: Amazon, bezos, buyer beware, consumer products, contaminants, contamination, Dangerous, dietary supplements, filth, Illegal, Jeff Bezos, testing, toxic ingredients, Toys, Walmart
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