Tech vlogger mixes up tampons and pads in his Amazon Go shopping trip video

Tampons and pads are not interchangeable terms.
 By 
Sasha Lekach
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A tech video blogger may know his routers from his modems, but when it comes to feminine hygiene products he's woefully confused.

Linus Sebastian from the Vancouver-based Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel and online forum made his way to the newly opened Amazon Go store in Seattle to check out the cashier-less grocery store. His adventure included purchasing snacks, drinks, and period products.

A YouTube video about the shopping experience went up this weekend, but strangely Linus Tech Tips labeled the video "We Stole Tampons from the Cashier-less Amazon Go Store." In the caption of the video the tech blog even included a link to buy tampons from Amazon.

But Sebastian didn't buy tampons -- in the video he opted for the Always Infinity pads. Even throughout the 13-minute long video he called them pads, not tampons. The mix-up appears to be in the labeling and post-production.

In a livestream video response, Sebastian addressed the "tampongate" mistake -- at length -- after his video went viral.

Twitter wasn't about to let someone make this colossal of a mistake. Sebastian was called out, mostly for being an out-of-touch tech bro.

Also his "artistic license" excuse does not fly.

Another inaccuracy in the video is the claim "we stole" from Amazon's all-seeing and all-knowing store. If you watch the video, he tries to fool the "just walk out" technology by picking up the pads, putting the box on a shelf full of alcohol and then picking it up again. But when he checks out, the pads are on his digital receipt -- he did not successfully steal them.

It's only afterward that he exploits the Amazon Go honor system of "returning" an item by removing it from your receipt. This is supposed to be used for erroneously charged items, but he clicks it anyways for the pads that he has in his hands. Since he didn't end up actually paying for them, that's supposed to count as stealing from Amazon Go. Not that accurate.

Even if the video is problematic with its blatant disregard for the nuances of feminine product care and bonafide shop lifting, it does give an inside view into the Amazon Go shopping experience from the app-enabled entry gates to the large selection of beverages available.

But still, as menstruating women know, a pad is not a tampon.

Topics Amazon

Mashable Image
Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.

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