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Published · transcript-backed

David Rosenthal: belief

19 Dec 2022 Acquired Holiday Special 2022

“I think we said on the episode, and I still think that they were the first applied technology company in America.”

— David Rosenthal

Source trail

Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
David Rosenthal
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
belief
Recorded
19 Dec 2022
Publisher
Acquired

Transcript context

…In order to understand the role of retail in America today, you first need to understand that everything we think of as a retailer or most things we think of as retailer, are actually discounters. I totally didn't get that before doing the Walmart episode. I was like, well, there are stores, like Walmart, Target, and there are department stores, which are more expensive and opinionated, and then the brands that have their own stores. I didn't conceptualize that the most common place that you buy things are actually discounters. Walmart was really the company that single-handedly created the wave of the modern store, period, which then Amazon could take digital. I was so blown away learning about Walmart, how much of a tech company they were. I think we said on the episode, and I still think that they were the first applied technology company in America. I think this is silly. I think you've said this a few times now. I don't agree with it. Technology, at its purest definition, is anything that enhances the productivity of a human. The wheel is technology, because with the same number of calories burned, you're able to go farther. Or a navigational instrument, which means you're able to get somewhere in a shorter amount of time. Maybe you could scope it to apply digital technology.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.

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