Cost of Living·FULL EPISODE

Going global: how Amazon and YKK conquered their respective markets

From its humble beginnings as an online book seller to the multi-media, multi-national, multi-billion-dollar business it is today, Cost of Living host Paul Haavardsrud asks: is there any end to Amazon's growth? Plus, how the zipper company YKK conquered the world. Finally, backyard pools have entered the sharing economy — just in time for summer.

Plus, monetizing your backyard pool just in time for the summer!

From its humble beginnings as an online book seller to the multi-media, multi-national, multi-billion-dollar business it is today, Cost of Living host Paul Haavardsrud asks: is there any end to Amazon's growth? Plus, how the zipper company YKK conquered the world. Finally, backyard pools have entered the sharing economy — just in time for summer. (Tracy Fuller/CBC, Jeramey Lende/Shutterstock, Chiyacat/Shutterstock)
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From its start as a online book retailer, Amazon has grown into a multi-media, multi-national, multi-billion dollar company. Following its recent acquisition of Hollywood's MGM Studios, we wonder: will Amazon settle for anything less than world domination?

Cost of Living host Paul Haavardsrud talks to technology journalist and writer Navneet Alang about all the seen and unseen ways the mega-corporation touches our lives and asks: can anything stop Amazon from getting even bigger?


The sounds of summer for many Canadians include the sounds of splashing and swimming in a pool.

But not everyone lives near a lake or knows someone with a backyard pool, and today's sharing economy has created an app that could solve that problem.

Enter Swimply, a pool-sharing platform that is just starting to connect Canadians who want to swim with a local pool owner who's happy to host — for a price.


And it's the biggest company you've never heard of: YKK makes most of the world's zippers.

Clothing-makers swear by them, and in Japan, the company is such an institution it has its own anime cartoon.

Producer Judy Aldous tells us how YKK conquered the zipper world.


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