1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,480
Speaker 1: How did an online furniture company get wrapped up in

2
00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:05,440
child trafficking? And how are they still in business today?

3
00:00:05,679 --> 00:00:28,359
Follow me down the rabbit Hole about Wayfair. Hello, friends,

4
00:00:28,359 --> 00:00:30,480
and welcome back to the rabbit Hole. I'm your host Danny,

5
00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:32,479
and today we were talking about Wayfair. We're also going

6
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:34,520
to touch on Etsy towards the end of the episode

7
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,560
because they're basically doing the same thing, and I thought

8
00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,520
it was important to include. Thank you Melissa Kenny, Dolores

9
00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:43,159
Andrew Nathan Kaysen Amber for requesting this episode. I feel

10
00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:45,399
like I get a lot of dms about this topic

11
00:00:45,439 --> 00:00:47,960
as well, so thank you. And of course, before we

12
00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:49,960
get started, I love to thank our sponsors, So thank

13
00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,520
you wise Wolf Gold for sponsoring my podcast. Guys, if

14
00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:54,719
you want golden silver delivered straight to your front door

15
00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:56,960
for as little as fifty dollars a month, go to

16
00:00:57,039 --> 00:00:59,399
rabbit hole dot gold right now. That tells them that

17
00:00:59,439 --> 00:01:02,960
you're shopping from my podcast, which helps them to continue

18
00:01:03,079 --> 00:01:06,239
to sponsor me, which is just supporting our podcast. So

19
00:01:06,239 --> 00:01:08,959
I really appreciate that. Wayfair is an American e commerce

20
00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:12,359
company that sells furniture and home goods online. The company,

21
00:01:12,439 --> 00:01:15,959
which is based in Boston, Massachusetts, was started in August

22
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,200
of two thousand and two by Nearraze Shaw and Steve Conin,

23
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:23,120
and it was originally known as CSN Stores. Both Narage

24
00:01:23,159 --> 00:01:27,400
and Steve graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science.

25
00:01:27,879 --> 00:01:31,120
Prior to starting Wayfair, they had two other companies, Simplify

26
00:01:31,239 --> 00:01:35,560
Mobile and IXL, a global consulting firm not to be

27
00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,760
confused with the tutoring app that you might get ads

28
00:01:38,799 --> 00:01:40,840
for in a podcast, or at least like that's where

29
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:41,400
I hear.

30
00:01:41,359 --> 00:01:42,519
Speaker 2: Ads for IXL.

31
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:49,120
Speaker 1: CSN started with the website Rasinstands dot com, selling media stands.

32
00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:49,799
Speaker 2: And storage furniture.

33
00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:52,799
Speaker 1: The following year two thousand and three, they added patio

34
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,959
and garden goods suppliers, three online stores, and more than

35
00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:58,040
a dozen employees.

36
00:01:58,359 --> 00:01:59,640
Speaker 2: So they started with just the two of them.

37
00:01:59,719 --> 00:02:02,680
Speaker 1: By the second year, now they've got over a dozen employees.

38
00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,200
Of course, the expansion didn't stop. They continued expanding their

39
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,439
catalog over the next years, adding home to core office, institutional,

40
00:02:10,599 --> 00:02:14,479
kitchen and dining furniture and materials, as well as bed

41
00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:16,919
and bath materials, luggage.

42
00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:17,000
Speaker 2: And lighting.

43
00:02:17,039 --> 00:02:19,960
Speaker 1: By two thousand and six, the company had one hundred

44
00:02:20,039 --> 00:02:24,520
million dollars in sales. Seeming to expand into every catalog

45
00:02:24,599 --> 00:02:28,280
they could, they set their sights on expanding to international markets.

46
00:02:28,599 --> 00:02:31,680
They started with Canada and the UK in two thousand

47
00:02:31,719 --> 00:02:34,800
and eight, and Germany in two thousand and nine. At

48
00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,240
the end of two thousand and nine, they launched jos

49
00:02:37,319 --> 00:02:41,039
and Maine, a member's only online store. By twenty eleven,

50
00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:45,599
CSN Stores owned over two hundred online stores. These shops

51
00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:48,879
were pretty niche in their products, which is why they

52
00:02:48,879 --> 00:02:52,039
had to buy like so many of them, shops like

53
00:02:52,159 --> 00:02:56,719
Cookwaar dot com, every Atomic clock dot Com, and strollers

54
00:02:56,759 --> 00:03:00,000
dot Com. In order to consolidate all the online stores

55
00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,159
in one place, they created the online store Wayfair. They

56
00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:08,479
rebranded CSN Stores to b Wayfair, and they specified quote

57
00:03:08,759 --> 00:03:12,039
a name chosen by a branding firm with no other

58
00:03:12,159 --> 00:03:13,319
meaning end quote.

59
00:03:13,439 --> 00:03:15,639
Speaker 2: I actually laughed out loud when I read.

60
00:03:15,439 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: That, like, why are they specifying this and why are

61
00:03:18,159 --> 00:03:22,120
so many people questioning the name Wayfair. Wayfair dot Com

62
00:03:22,159 --> 00:03:25,599
officially launched on September first, twenty eleven. A year later,

63
00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:28,680
they had all the other websites consolidated into Wayfair, except

64
00:03:28,719 --> 00:03:32,199
for josep Maine and all modern in August of twenty twelve,

65
00:03:32,199 --> 00:03:35,560
they launched Wayfair supply for all their government, institutional and

66
00:03:35,639 --> 00:03:40,080
business contracts. By twenty fourteen, the company was valued at

67
00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,000
more than two billion dollars. It was also given the

68
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,120
title the largest online only retailer for home furniture in

69
00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:50,879
the US and the thirty third largest online retailer in

70
00:03:50,919 --> 00:03:54,759
the US overall. In twenty seventeen, a South Dakota lawsuit

71
00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,520
aimed at forcing Wayfair to collect and pay sales tax

72
00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,520
made it to the Supreme Court. The court held that

73
00:04:00,599 --> 00:04:04,199
states may charge tax on purchases made from out of

74
00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,759
state sellers even if the sellers do not have a

75
00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:10,360
physical presence in the taxing state. The next year, they

76
00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:13,439
held their first Wayday sale It's kind of like Amazon

77
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:17,199
Prime sale Wayday. This helped to increase their sales by

78
00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,319
four hundred percent. They were also hiring more people. The

79
00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:24,079
problem was, according to a marketing professor at Emory University,

80
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,120
the company was losing ten dollars for every new customer.

81
00:04:27,199 --> 00:04:30,720
They were forecasted to do six point six billion dollars

82
00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,079
in sales that year, but they had significant losses in

83
00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,079
the years leading up to twenty eighteen. In twenty seventeen,

84
00:04:37,199 --> 00:04:40,720
they reported a two hundred and forty five million dollar loss.

85
00:04:40,879 --> 00:04:45,399
They were prioritizing growth over profitability. With all this, they

86
00:04:45,519 --> 00:04:49,079
were approved for a thirty one point four million dollar

87
00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,240
tax break in December of twenty eighteen, as long as

88
00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,240
they hired at least three thousand more people in Boston

89
00:04:55,639 --> 00:04:58,759
and three hundred people at their call center in Pittsfield.

90
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:00,160
Speaker 2: This tax break.

91
00:05:00,079 --> 00:05:02,279
Speaker 1: Is one of the largest ever rewarded by the state

92
00:05:02,319 --> 00:05:05,959
of Massachusetts. Twenty nineteen brought another lawsuit to the company.

93
00:05:06,319 --> 00:05:11,680
Investors sued Wayfair, claiming the company's executives misled them about

94
00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:14,879
the value and actions of the company and were losing

95
00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:18,240
the money while the top brass cashed out. These lies

96
00:05:18,439 --> 00:05:20,920
had to do with the level of demand for the

97
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,279
products and how much the company was spending on advertising,

98
00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,079
which wasn't much up to this point. They had done

99
00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:31,839
some advertising in twenty seventeen, but they didn't spend.

100
00:05:31,639 --> 00:05:32,639
Speaker 2: A lot of money on it.

101
00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,879
Speaker 1: But also they have reported a strong second quarter in

102
00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,879
twenty eighteen and made claims that the third quarter would

103
00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,000
follow suit, which kind of makes sense, right, But when

104
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,680
the numbers came out, they had higher losses in the

105
00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:47,319
third quarter. Than they had in the previous year. It

106
00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,160
doesn't help that the owners sold off thousands of their

107
00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,079
own shares in between the positive announcement about the second

108
00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:56,439
quarter and the negative announcement about the third quarter. Investors

109
00:05:56,439 --> 00:05:59,920
obviously felt like they were being misled, but the case

110
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,279
was dismissed in twenty twenty. Apparently the investors failed to

111
00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:07,959
make adequate allegations that Narage and Steve misled investors with

112
00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,759
their forward looking projections before they collectively sold sixty nine

113
00:06:12,879 --> 00:06:16,519
million dollars worth of stock. That same year, twenty nineteen,

114
00:06:16,759 --> 00:06:20,240
they opened their first permanent physical storefront and made the

115
00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:22,560
Fortune five hundred list for the first time. But the

116
00:06:22,639 --> 00:06:26,519
lawsuit wasn't the end of issues. In twenty nineteen, Wayfair

117
00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:30,920
employees announced plans to walk out and protest of a

118
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,639
contract the company was putting together to sell beds to

119
00:06:34,959 --> 00:06:39,240
temporary migrant detention camps in Texas. The employees demanded the

120
00:06:39,319 --> 00:06:42,199
contract to be terminated or at least for the company

121
00:06:42,199 --> 00:06:45,560
to donate all the profit from the order. They refused

122
00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,040
to do either, so on June twenty sixth, several hundred.

123
00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:49,680
Speaker 2: Employees walked out.

124
00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:52,319
Speaker 1: The thing that is so interesting about this is that

125
00:06:52,639 --> 00:06:56,360
it seems to be pretty politically motivated, and just two

126
00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,120
months after this Walkoutnarrage spoke at an event where he

127
00:07:00,319 --> 00:07:04,160
said that they hire based on talent and being non political,

128
00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,240
specifying that he doesn't want anybody that comes in with

129
00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:10,240
politics in the forefront of their mind.

130
00:07:10,839 --> 00:07:13,279
Speaker 2: Probably because of this walkout that had.

131
00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,800
Speaker 1: Just happened, The company went on to hire fifteen hundred

132
00:07:15,839 --> 00:07:18,879
more people before the year ended. However, the next year,

133
00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,480
before COVID even hit, so it wasn't because of COVID,

134
00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,480
they announced a layoff of five hundred and fifty employees,

135
00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,639
about three percent of their global workforce. Three hundred and

136
00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,800
fifty of those employees were let go from the Boston headquarters.

137
00:07:32,079 --> 00:07:35,399
Despite getting that thirty one point four million dollar tax

138
00:07:35,439 --> 00:07:38,600
break just two years prior to hire a bunch of people.

139
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:41,519
As of twenty twenty, the company had yet to share

140
00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:45,279
a profitable quarter, which, like, how can you operate a

141
00:07:45,319 --> 00:07:49,560
company with zero profits? I don't really understand that, especially

142
00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,600
like such a large company. I guess it's not for

143
00:07:51,639 --> 00:07:54,839
me to understand. During COVID, everything was kind of quiet,

144
00:07:55,079 --> 00:07:58,199
but in twenty twenty two, the employees were notified that

145
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,240
there would be a nine hundred person in layoff because

146
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,720
the post pandemic growth wasn't what they had anticipated. They

147
00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:07,959
were facing losses in a stock drop of seventy percent

148
00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:10,800
from the beginning of the year through August when they

149
00:08:10,879 --> 00:08:14,160
finally made the layoff announcement. They posted a loss of

150
00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:16,879
three hundred and seventy eight million dollars in Q two

151
00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:20,759
of twenty twenty two. However, they did open another physical

152
00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,560
location that year as well, which you're having all these losses,

153
00:08:24,639 --> 00:08:26,319
you're about to fire a bunch of people, so put

154
00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:28,240
a bunch of money into a physical location.

155
00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:29,680
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's gonna help.

156
00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,320
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, they opened yet another physical location,

157
00:08:32,639 --> 00:08:36,039
although this one was the first non outlet location. In

158
00:08:36,039 --> 00:08:38,480
twenty twenty five, in an attempt to downsize a bit,

159
00:08:38,759 --> 00:08:42,159
they withdrew from the German and Austrian markets, which caused

160
00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,480
seven hundred and thirty people to lose their jobs, which

161
00:08:45,519 --> 00:08:49,080
is again about three percent of their workforce. Today, Wayfair

162
00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:53,039
is still operating. They have four brands that still operate

163
00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,600
their own sites, all Modern, which first launched in two

164
00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,960
thousand and six, Birch Lane, which launched in twenty fourteen,

165
00:09:00,399 --> 00:09:03,720
Jos and Maine their second specialty retail brand that launched

166
00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:07,360
in twenty ten, and Paragold their newest brand that launched

167
00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:11,519
in twenty seventeen, and it's also known as their luxury brand.

168
00:09:11,919 --> 00:09:14,879
Normally I would go more into the history of the

169
00:09:14,919 --> 00:09:18,639
owners Nearrage Shaw and Steve Cooning, but there isn't a

170
00:09:18,639 --> 00:09:22,240
whole lot about them. They seem to have met in university.

171
00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:25,039
I'm assuming because they both went to the same university,

172
00:09:25,159 --> 00:09:27,360
they did not come from similar backgrounds prior to that.

173
00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:30,720
Nearrage has a foundation of which he is the board

174
00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:33,240
of director and his wife is the president. This foundation

175
00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,279
focuses on things like school food, summer meals, open and

176
00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:41,960
safe schools, pandemic food funding, wellness in schools, social media

177
00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,720
and mental health, women's history and research, and community support.

178
00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:49,559
Speaker 2: It seems like most of their work had to do

179
00:09:49,639 --> 00:09:50,799
with the pandemic, though.

180
00:09:50,879 --> 00:09:54,120
Speaker 1: They both are part of a startup funding company Pillar,

181
00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:57,480
who specializes in AI and tech startups, and for the

182
00:09:57,519 --> 00:10:01,080
most part, their lives are pretty private. In twenty twenty,

183
00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:05,799
rumors started circulating that Wayfair was involved in child sex trafficking.

184
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,840
This is because people were noticing that some of the

185
00:10:08,879 --> 00:10:12,440
products on the site were marked up way higher than

186
00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:17,159
similar items. For example, most bookshelves are posted for less

187
00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,200
than five hundred dollars, most of them being less than

188
00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,480
two hundred dollars actually, but every now and then there

189
00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,120
would be one that's posted for upwards of eight thousand dollars.

190
00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,039
What added fuel to the fire was that the names

191
00:10:30,039 --> 00:10:34,799
of the items being sold at outrageous costs were people names.

192
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:37,879
So I dug in because some companies do like to

193
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,919
name their items people names, so that's not totally unheard of,

194
00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:46,360
except that's not the case here. In fact, the naming

195
00:10:46,519 --> 00:10:49,080
of the items on the site doesn't seem to have

196
00:10:49,399 --> 00:10:52,320
any rhyme or reason. Some of them do have human names,

197
00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,399
while others have Ikea type names, and still others have

198
00:10:55,759 --> 00:10:59,200
just dimensions as their names. This could be because of

199
00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:01,840
the nature of the compon company like Wayfair buying up

200
00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:04,240
a bunch of smaller companies and then consolidating them all

201
00:11:04,279 --> 00:11:09,080
into one website. So maybe and maybe they let all

202
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:12,440
their companies keep the names of their furniture as it was.

203
00:11:12,639 --> 00:11:16,639
But it is odd because even under certain stores, the

204
00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:19,159
names don't always line up. Not all the names are

205
00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:22,879
human names. With this specific store on Wayfair, there doesn't

206
00:11:22,879 --> 00:11:24,559
seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why

207
00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:26,840
some have human names and some don't, but there does

208
00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:29,679
seem to be a lot of proof of this conspiracy.

209
00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:34,039
The overpriced items with their associated human names seemed to

210
00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:37,600
correspond to missing children. What first brought the attention was

211
00:11:37,639 --> 00:11:39,759
that they were selling what seemed to be the exact

212
00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:43,759
same storage cabinet, but with different names and at different prices.

213
00:11:43,919 --> 00:11:46,679
All the cabinets had female names, and they were priced

214
00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:50,639
between ten thousand and fifteen thousand dollars. Others started noticing

215
00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:53,279
the oddities as well, things such as ten thousand dollars

216
00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:57,559
throw pillows and sixteen thousand dollars baby photo albums. Of course,

217
00:11:57,639 --> 00:11:59,440
Wayfair came out and said it was just a glitch

218
00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:03,200
in the system and that all those products would be scrubbed.

219
00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,120
Others speculated that maybe they jacked up the price because

220
00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:08,960
the items were out of stock, but they didn't want

221
00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:11,879
to admit that they were out of stock, which doesn't

222
00:12:11,919 --> 00:12:14,080
make any sense to me, Like, I've never heard of

223
00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:15,759
a company doing that, And they're like, oh, we don't

224
00:12:15,759 --> 00:12:17,320
have any more of this, but if we make it

225
00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:19,799
an outrageous price, nobody's gonna buy it. I don't know

226
00:12:19,879 --> 00:12:21,480
if an item's out of stock, just like mark it

227
00:12:21,519 --> 00:12:24,440
out of stock. They tried to say, quote unquote peto

228
00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:27,399
hunters were on a rampage due to the recent allegations

229
00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:29,120
around Pizzagate and Jeffrey Epstein.

230
00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:31,320
Speaker 2: But that sounds an awful lot like a cover up

231
00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:31,559
to me.

232
00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:35,240
Speaker 1: It was quickly noticed that the storage cabinets that all

233
00:12:35,279 --> 00:12:38,039
looked the same, it just had different names and different prices,

234
00:12:38,159 --> 00:12:41,519
seemed to line up with missing girls. Uritza Castro went

235
00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,519
missing in twenty twenty. She was from Connecticut and was

236
00:12:44,559 --> 00:12:47,320
only sixteen, and there was a cabinet for sale on

237
00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,559
Wayfair with the name Euritza for thirteen eight hundred dollars.

238
00:12:51,639 --> 00:12:54,679
It was marked down from its original price of fifteen thousand,

239
00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:58,120
nine hundred and seventy five dollars. Annabel Wilson from Kansas

240
00:12:58,159 --> 00:13:00,399
went missing in twenty twenty at the age of four fourteen.

241
00:13:00,799 --> 00:13:03,559
Not long after, a storage cabinet named Annabel was put

242
00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,480
on Wayfair for ten thousand, nine hundred dollars. It was

243
00:13:06,519 --> 00:13:09,399
marked down from twelve thousand, five hundred and four dollars.

244
00:13:09,639 --> 00:13:13,320
Kyla Coleman from Ohio went missing in twenty twenty, she

245
00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:16,600
was only sixteen, and a cabinet named Kyla was being

246
00:13:16,639 --> 00:13:20,480
sold for twelve thousand, one hundred dollars, marked down from

247
00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:24,320
thirteen thousand, nine hundred and seventy nine dollars. Samaya Mumman

248
00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:27,600
was a seventeen year old girl from Columbus, Ohio that

249
00:13:27,679 --> 00:13:30,320
had gone missing in twenty nineteen, and a cabinet with

250
00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:33,759
the name Samaya was for Salem Wayfair for twelve thousand,

251
00:13:33,879 --> 00:13:37,799
nine hundred dollars. Although a video did come out with

252
00:13:37,919 --> 00:13:40,519
a girl, it went viral. Actually this girl was saying

253
00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:44,519
like I'm Samaya, I'm not missing, and actually it's starting

254
00:13:44,519 --> 00:13:45,960
to like make me mad that you all think that

255
00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:49,519
I'm missing. You're tying to this Wayfair conspiracy. I don't

256
00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:51,399
think that takes away from the other girls that are

257
00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:55,200
still missing and their names were used by Wayfair. Maybe

258
00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:57,679
this girl wasn't Samaya at all, because she did seem

259
00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:00,960
to be like the most popular cabinet that people were posting.

260
00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:03,440
They would post that cabinet and then this missing girl

261
00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:07,200
poster and that picture was of the same girl. So

262
00:14:07,399 --> 00:14:10,320
maybe that's why they're like, hey, post this picture of

263
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,519
you saying that you're not missing. Whether we can believe

264
00:14:12,519 --> 00:14:14,039
it or not, I'm not sure, but that doesn't take

265
00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:16,799
away from the other people. Outside of the cabinets, there

266
00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:19,840
were throw pillows that were being sold at an outrageous

267
00:14:19,879 --> 00:14:24,879
price as well. These pillows were Zodiac sign astrological constellation

268
00:14:25,039 --> 00:14:28,120
personalized throw pillows out like their whole name. One was

269
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:32,919
named Derrett, another was named Duplicus, and another was named Dunning.

270
00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:35,960
All of these pillows were selling for ten thousand dollars.

271
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:39,720
Who's paying ten thousand dollars for a personalized throw pillow

272
00:14:39,759 --> 00:14:42,320
like a Zodiac sign throw pillow unless it wasn't a

273
00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:46,279
throw pillow. Because Mary Derrett from Houston, Texas went missing

274
00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:48,919
in twenty seventeen. She was only sixteen and she was

275
00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,480
heavily reliant on medication daily to continue her life. I

276
00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:55,320
don't know what the illness was, but she needed that

277
00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,799
medication tomorrow. Duplicis was a thirteen year old girl from Southfield, Michigan,

278
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,279
who went missing. Tory Dunning from North Carolina was fifteen

279
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:05,919
years old when she went missing. Their last names all

280
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:08,440
line up with the ten thousand dollars throw pillows, and

281
00:15:08,519 --> 00:15:12,159
the other pillows didn't have these weird last name connections

282
00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:15,399
and also weren't ten thousand dollars. Ellen DeGeneres has a

283
00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,480
partnership with Wayfair, which I thought was very interesting. She

284
00:15:18,559 --> 00:15:21,919
has ed Ellen Degenereses. It launched in twenty fifteen, and

285
00:15:22,039 --> 00:15:26,039
all the items are inspired by her personality. Through that line,

286
00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,279
she was selling some pillows that were outrageously priced, just

287
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:30,480
like the other throw pillows.

288
00:15:30,519 --> 00:15:32,559
Speaker 2: She was trying to get in on the action or something.

289
00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:33,159
And if you know.

290
00:15:33,159 --> 00:15:35,279
Speaker 1: Anything about Ellen DeGeneres, you know that she was one

291
00:15:35,279 --> 00:15:38,120
of the worst human beings on this planet. So I'll

292
00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:39,799
go ahead and cover her next week. That way we

293
00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,600
can just dive into how disgusting she is. But these

294
00:15:43,799 --> 00:15:44,559
were just.

295
00:15:44,679 --> 00:15:45,639
Speaker 2: Lumbar pillows, that's all.

296
00:15:45,639 --> 00:15:48,120
Speaker 1: They were called lumbar pillows and they were being sold

297
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,240
for ten thousand, ninety eight dollars. They didn't have any

298
00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:54,080
name associated with them, which is different from all the

299
00:15:54,159 --> 00:15:58,240
other Wayfair items. But I don't think it takes away

300
00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:00,399
from the fact that these might be part of this

301
00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,000
child sex trafficking. But because they didn't have human names

302
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,279
associated with these pillows, some people believe that these throw

303
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,000
pillows that she was selling on her line on Wayfair

304
00:16:11,039 --> 00:16:13,960
were actually her personal pillows that they were just priced

305
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:17,519
really high because they were used by Ellen DeGeneres. But

306
00:16:17,639 --> 00:16:21,360
if that was the case, wouldn't you advertise that, Like,

307
00:16:21,399 --> 00:16:24,240
you would just put that in the description because you

308
00:16:24,279 --> 00:16:26,759
would want people to buy them. Why else would people

309
00:16:26,759 --> 00:16:29,799
buy ten thousand dollars pillows when most of the throw

310
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:33,960
pillows on Wayfair site are somewhere between like less than

311
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:36,840
twenty five dollars and two hundred dollars. I didn't see

312
00:16:36,879 --> 00:16:39,399
any throw pillow that was over two hundred dollars, and

313
00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:43,480
in fact, as of today, Ellen DeGeneres doesn't have throw pillows.

314
00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:44,759
Speaker 2: On her site on Wayfair at all.

315
00:16:45,039 --> 00:16:47,559
Speaker 1: Of course, as soon as this made headlines, the pillows

316
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,279
prices were changed like the next day to only ninety

317
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:52,879
nine dollars, and they sayd that it was just an error,

318
00:16:52,919 --> 00:16:56,519
But that feels like a convenient excuse. This next story

319
00:16:56,879 --> 00:16:59,039
is a little out of our timeline, but I'm sharing

320
00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:01,200
it because of the like I think that it really

321
00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:04,319
adds credibility to this conspiracy. So, a six year old

322
00:17:04,319 --> 00:17:06,960
girl went missing in nineteen ninety four from her home

323
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,880
in La California. Her name was Crystal Ann Timek. Crystal's

324
00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:15,240
cousin Kristin has never stopped looking for her. She every

325
00:17:15,319 --> 00:17:17,000
now and then will like put in the search bar

326
00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:19,799
like Crystal Ann and just see what pops up. When

327
00:17:19,839 --> 00:17:22,680
Kristin found a tall floor lamp listed under Crystal's name

328
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,759
on wayfair site for eight thousand dollars, she had this

329
00:17:25,839 --> 00:17:28,559
like spark of hope that maybe it was her cousin.

330
00:17:28,799 --> 00:17:32,400
So this was actually before the Wayfair conspiracy had come out.

331
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:35,240
She did what any family member looking for their lost

332
00:17:35,279 --> 00:17:38,880
lovel would do. She called the Center for Missing Unexploited Children,

333
00:17:39,039 --> 00:17:41,680
who basically just brushed her off and was like, that's

334
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,920
just a coincidence. So then she called the FBI. The

335
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,680
FBI was like, hey, let's get your information. We'll call you,

336
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:49,720
we'll come out to you. We'll come we'll talk to you.

337
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,200
And then they just never did. They never followed up

338
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,799
on it. So she was like, what am I supposed

339
00:17:54,839 --> 00:17:58,400
to do? This has Crystal Anne's name and it's eight

340
00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:00,640
thousand dollars like this, it's just odd.

341
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:01,640
Speaker 2: It was just an oddity.

342
00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:04,920
Speaker 1: So she decided she'll just buy the lamp herself. She

343
00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:07,799
logged into her Wayfair account, she clicked purchase, and when

344
00:18:07,799 --> 00:18:09,279
she went to the checkout page, it asked her to

345
00:18:09,319 --> 00:18:12,599
log in again. This happens sometimes on sites, so she

346
00:18:12,759 --> 00:18:15,200
really didn't think anything of it, So she just logged

347
00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,279
in again because she's gonna buy this eight thousand dollars

348
00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:20,799
lamp that has her cousin's name on it. Well, when

349
00:18:20,839 --> 00:18:24,119
she logged in again, it told her that she didn't

350
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:28,079
have the credentials to purchase said lamp. I'm not aware

351
00:18:28,559 --> 00:18:31,880
of special credentials needed to purchase certain things on the site,

352
00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,680
but apparently there are some, and maybe that's how people

353
00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:40,680
like Jeffrey Epstein are able to purchase these items or children.

354
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,839
In the new wave of Epstein files released, there are

355
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:49,240
some interesting receipts. On June twenty eighth, twenty eighteen, Coriina Shulika,

356
00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:53,400
Epstein's girlfriend, maybe associate, maybe assistant.

357
00:18:53,559 --> 00:18:55,720
Speaker 2: I don't know. She's spending a lot of his money.

358
00:18:55,759 --> 00:18:59,480
Speaker 1: She paid wayfair eight four hundred and fifty three dollars.

359
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:02,559
Does say why she paid this or what she bought.

360
00:19:02,799 --> 00:19:04,960
All we know is how much she paid that. She

361
00:19:05,039 --> 00:19:09,000
then forwarded that email onto Bella Cline, one of Epstein's accountants,

362
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:13,000
and said, quote confirmation from PayPal for the same order

363
00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:17,039
end quote what's interesting is just a few hours after

364
00:19:17,079 --> 00:19:19,759
she made this payment to Wayfair, she canceled her billing

365
00:19:19,799 --> 00:19:21,039
agreement with Wayfair.

366
00:19:20,839 --> 00:19:21,880
Speaker 2: LLC through PayPal.

367
00:19:22,039 --> 00:19:25,440
Speaker 1: Oddly, just five days prior to this purchase, a fifteen

368
00:19:25,519 --> 00:19:28,720
year old girl from Columbus, Ohio was reported missing. Her

369
00:19:28,839 --> 00:19:32,839
name was Joanna Hernandez Pacheco and to this day she

370
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,279
has not been found. And when this conspiracy was at

371
00:19:36,319 --> 00:19:40,880
its most popular, there was a Joanna WFX utility cabinet

372
00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:44,480
for sale. So WFX is the same line on Wayfair

373
00:19:44,519 --> 00:19:47,359
that was selling all the other cabinets with missing girls

374
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:51,960
names at exuberant prices. Oh and by the way, WFX

375
00:19:52,079 --> 00:19:56,240
Utility is still selling the exact same storage cabinet on Wayfair.

376
00:19:56,279 --> 00:19:58,519
And guess how much it is? Just guess Nope, you're wrong.

377
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,599
It's one hundred and forty dollars, not ten thousand dollars,

378
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,920
not twelve thousand, not fifteen thousand dollars, one hundred and

379
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:05,559
forty dollars.

380
00:20:05,559 --> 00:20:07,440
Speaker 2: You can buy this cabinet. Wayfair tried to.

381
00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:09,279
Speaker 1: Brush all this off and be like, oh, that's it's

382
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,160
utility cabinet. That's just how much it is. Well, how

383
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:16,440
come today, after inflation has hit crazy. The cabinet is

384
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:20,119
only one hundred and forty dollars. In another instance, Karina

385
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:24,119
tried to spend three four hundred and ten dollars on Wayfair,

386
00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:26,200
although she was trying to use a card that was

387
00:20:26,279 --> 00:20:29,119
maxed out, so the order was declined. Karina seemed to

388
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:32,240
really like Wayfair because she also made a number of

389
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:35,519
orders from Wayfair that seemed to be like just normal orders.

390
00:20:35,799 --> 00:20:38,359
For instance, she bought an egg poaching skillet for like

391
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,400
sixty dollars, which seems to check out right. She also

392
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,680
bought things to remodel a bathroom, like a sink, a faucet,

393
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,960
and a light. And while all those things seemed to

394
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,119
be normal purchases, it did give me pause because if

395
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,799
you have as much money as Epstein did, don't you

396
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,839
have people for that? An interior designer, somebody that comes

397
00:20:57,839 --> 00:21:00,799
in designs this whole new bathroom for you, then goes

398
00:21:00,839 --> 00:21:03,720
out orders all the things, acquires it, all brings it back.

399
00:21:03,839 --> 00:21:06,480
And typically, I mean, I don't know for sure, but

400
00:21:06,599 --> 00:21:10,920
when you're a millionaire, you have a lot more expensive things. Granted,

401
00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:12,599
a lot of things she was purchasing was on all

402
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,200
modern and not necessarily just Wayfair I don't know. It

403
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,400
was just weird to me. I'm not saying it's anything

404
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:18,319
to look further into.

405
00:21:18,799 --> 00:21:19,640
Speaker 2: It was just odd.

406
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,680
Speaker 1: Krena was also found in the Epstein files making purchases

407
00:21:22,759 --> 00:21:26,640
off of Etsy. Like her Wayfair purchases, most of them

408
00:21:26,759 --> 00:21:31,359
are seemingly normal Etsy orders. However, in December of twenty

409
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:34,839
twenty three, a couple years after this Wayfair conspiracy was

410
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,720
hitting really hard, something very similar was happening on Etsy.

411
00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:42,640
Standalone photos of pizza as well as pictures of children

412
00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:47,119
holding pizza and wings were being sold for thousands of dollars.

413
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:50,279
In one instance, there was a picture of two pizzas

414
00:21:50,319 --> 00:21:53,960
and a cell phone with the description picture of pizza.

415
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:58,160
Only one available for nine thousand dollars. If it really

416
00:21:58,279 --> 00:22:01,279
is just a picture of pizza, then wouldn't you be

417
00:22:01,279 --> 00:22:03,920
able to make copies like as many copies as you wanted?

418
00:22:04,319 --> 00:22:05,559
Speaker 2: Why is only one available?

419
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,319
Speaker 1: In another case, there was an item that had ai

420
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,240
photos of young girls holding a slice of pizza and winking.

421
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,000
One of them did have her tongue out while the

422
00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:19,440
other one didn't. The description said pizza pile instant download

423
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:22,000
encryptied and there was only one left and it was

424
00:22:22,039 --> 00:22:25,480
for sale for four thousand dollars. They specified that there

425
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,839
were two JPEGs included, so it makes me wonder if

426
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,640
it was maybe like child porn. These were being sold

427
00:22:31,799 --> 00:22:35,039
by the store Yummy Yum Pizza. There were others for

428
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:37,920
sale as well. One picture of pizza was three thousand

429
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,720
dollars with only one left. Several people had that in

430
00:22:40,759 --> 00:22:43,759
their carts. Another had an AI picture of a kid

431
00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:46,880
with wings winking. It also said it was for four

432
00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,599
thousand dollars, but it got worse because there were other

433
00:22:50,759 --> 00:22:55,559
AI looking pictures for items such as cheese Pizza with

434
00:22:55,599 --> 00:23:00,119
Pepperoni for thirty two thousand, seven hundred and ninety one dollars,

435
00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:03,960
Stars and Cheese Pizza for twenty six thousand, two hundred

436
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,839
and thirty two dollars, Forever Young Pizza for twenty thousand,

437
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:11,720
four hundred and sixty one dollars, and the once Lucky

438
00:23:11,799 --> 00:23:16,400
Pizza for nineteen thousand, six hundred seventy four dollars, all

439
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:18,759
being sold by the store of the Ash Pizza. And

440
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:20,279
we're all digital downloads.

441
00:23:20,759 --> 00:23:24,079
Speaker 2: What is it? Because it's definitely not a picture of pizza.

442
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,039
Speaker 1: Because these were just AI pictures anybody could get on

443
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:30,279
AI and create that you're not buying that. For twenty

444
00:23:30,319 --> 00:23:33,519
six thousand, thirty two thousand, there was another item and

445
00:23:33,599 --> 00:23:35,000
I hate to even say it like that, Like I

446
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,039
don't even want to say the word item, because it's not.

447
00:23:38,319 --> 00:23:41,079
It was said to be children's overalls. That's what it's

448
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:43,960
marketed as, and it was also marked as a rare find.

449
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,319
The pictures were of a little girl. She was maybe

450
00:23:47,319 --> 00:23:50,000
one to two years old. She could walk in a

451
00:23:50,279 --> 00:23:55,680
hand knitted jumpsuit. However, the price was thirty five thousand,

452
00:23:56,359 --> 00:24:00,440
two hundred and ten dollars. I don't think that we're

453
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:05,000
selling the overalls either way. The stores selling the pizza

454
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,559
images and the overalls.

455
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:09,839
Speaker 2: On Etsy have been shut down.

456
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,279
Speaker 1: It is unclear if it was Etsy that shut them

457
00:24:13,319 --> 00:24:15,559
down or if it was the actual sellers that shut

458
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,720
down their own sites. Also, on Wayfair, all of those

459
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:24,079
weird cabinets have been taken down. They're no more weird,

460
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:29,279
crazy expensive cabinets or throw pillows. But either way, the

461
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,119
problem hasn't stopped.

462
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 2: It's just moved.

463
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, it was Pizzagate. In twenty twenty, it

464
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,640
was Wayfair. In twenty twenty three, it was Etsy. It

465
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,319
doesn't stop. This isn't a right wing, left wing issue.

466
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:46,359
There is a real pedophile issue. We should be more outraged.

467
00:24:46,559 --> 00:24:50,039
It's absolutely disgusting what they have been getting away with

468
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,519
for years, and conspiracy theorists are just playing whack a mole,

469
00:24:53,559 --> 00:24:56,160
exposing it when it rears its ugly head. But we

470
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:57,720
aren't getting to the root cause of the.

471
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,359
Speaker 2: Problem, which is intentional.

472
00:24:59,559 --> 00:25:01,599
Speaker 1: And when we do try to bring it to light,

473
00:25:01,799 --> 00:25:04,480
they call us conspiracy theorists, and half the world doesn't

474
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:06,440
even believe what we are trying to say. They just

475
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,920
bury their heads in the sand. We have to stop

476
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,839
burying our heads in the sand. We have to stand

477
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,920
up and say enough is enough. Pam Bondi says that

478
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,880
if we prosecute the whole system will collapse. Well, let

479
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,519
it collapse. Then if the system is being held up

480
00:25:20,559 --> 00:25:25,400
by pedophiles that are blackmailed into compliance, let the system collapse.

481
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,759
We aren't meant to be governed by career politicians anyway.

482
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,400
It's time for a new system where children can actually

483
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:37,079
be protected, not be be abused by all the people

484
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,960
in their life that are supposed to be protecting them,

485
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,599
be sold off to the highest bidder. We have to

486
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,279
stop this nonsense. It's disgusting. It gets me so heated

487
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:49,119
every single time, every time I cover one of these episodes,

488
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,240
because I want to do something bigger about it, and

489
00:25:52,319 --> 00:25:54,039
I don't know what that thing is. And I wish

490
00:25:54,079 --> 00:25:55,839
I had the answer, because then I could tell you

491
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:57,440
what to do too. So if you have the answer,

492
00:25:57,480 --> 00:25:59,960
let me know, please, And until next week, my friends,

493
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,160
stay skeptical, and I'll see you all then. Hey, friends.

494
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,880
The rabbit Hole is an independent podcast, written, hosted, and

495
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,680
produced by me Danny Mercy. Special thanks to Lindsey for

496
00:26:08,759 --> 00:26:11,200
research and writing. If you love the podcast, please leave

497
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:13,440
us a five star rating and review wherever you're listening.

498
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,599
Follow us on social media at rabbit dot Hole podcast,

499
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,200
and visit our website at stayskeptical dot com for everything else,

