Table of Contents

Figure List ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Buy Now--The Branding of Convenience 1
I Distribution 27
1 A New Kind of Distribution Brand 29
2 The Box: Distribution Fetishism and the Materialities of Ecommerce 51
II Culture 81
3 From Bookseller to Behemoth: The Platformization of Retail 83
4 Speak for Service: Alexa, Surveillance, and Automated Intimacy 107
5 Watch Now: Ubiquitous Media and the Commoditization of Culture 139
III Image 169
6 Amazon.Amazon: Normalizing Monopoly 171
7 American Ubiquity: Amazon's Platform Imperialism 195
Conclusion: Confronting the Costs of Convenience 219

About the Author

Emily West is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture.