The Truth About Amazon: All about Channel 4’s new Amazon series

Channel 4’s The Truth About Amazon is the ultimate guide to how Amazon dominates our shopping and everything we need to know when using the site.

Just as Amazon’s Black Friday sale begins, while much of the high street closed for the second lockdown during the run-up to Christmas, the company has recruited an extra 400,000 staff to keep up with the coronavirus-driven demand.

Following on from Channel 4’s previous investigations into Amazon, this new three-part series presented by Helen Skelton and Sabrina Grant asks: How do we shop smart on Amazon? How did Amazon beat the rest and upend the high street? And should we trust Amazon this Christmas?

With insight from executives, tech analysts and experts, Sabrina and Helen show how to get hidden bargains, while exposing the questionable practices we all need to know about.

The Truth About Amazon starts on Channel at 9:15PM on Channel 4 on Tuesday, 24 November.

The Truth About Amazon episodes

Episode 1 – How To Show Smart – 24 November
In this first episode, Sabrina and Helen offer key tips to get the best deals possible. They reveal how thousands of positive reviews have been hijacked and attached to completely different products; how Amazon pushes us into buying products offering poor value for money; and how you can find identical products for a much cheaper price on the same site.

They reveal that buying secondhand on Amazon can be significantly more expensive than buying brand new. And they explore what happens when we let Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa do our shopping.

 

Episode 2 – How It Took Over The World – 1 December
More than 90% of British shoppers use Amazon. This episode tells the story of how the retail giant took on its rivals and won; and the way Amazon keeps winning, setting the rules everyone else must follow. Sabrina Grant and Helen Skelton investigate how Amazon has used its might to out-muscle everyone from eBay to Etsy.

Speaking to senior executives who spent their careers inside Amazon, they explore how the online giant uses extraordinary resources of data and money to take on, and take over, one sector of the retail economy after another, leaving traditional high street players in its wake.

Sabrina and Helen examine the way Amazon is taking on Google as the gateway to the internet, and explore Amazon’s latest expansion as it tries to replace supermarkets as the main force in British online grocery retailing. The Truth About Amazon: How It Took Over the World asks the two most important questions for British shoppers in 2020: what does Amazon have in store for us next? And should we be worried?

 

Episode 3 – Can You Trust It This Christmas? – 8 December
The first pandemic Christmas is going to look very different. With the high street effectively closed, Amazon is poised to cash in more than ever. If Amazon is the new normal in retail, then this show is an invaluable guide to how to make your cash go further.

While many are feeling the pinch about money, we are also desperate for some festive joy, meaning this is essential viewing for tips and tricks on what to buy and what not to buy on Amazon this Christmas. Helen Skelton and Sabrina Grant show how to find hidden discounts on your favourite premium-brand items. They investigate the mysterious Amazon parcels that arrive full of goods you never ordered; and they explain why you should be very wary of buying children’s toys on the site.

 

The Truth About Amazon airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday nights from 24 November.