It's clear he doesn't understand what 'long tail' means. I think he conflates the term to mean 'small retailers' when in reality the long tail is the large amo

It's clear he doesn't understand what 'long tail' means. I think he conflates the term to mean 'small retailers' when in reality the long tail is the large amount of low volume items that consumers really want. The example he gives is an example of demand moving out of the tail and into the head, where Amazon and Walmart are interested. Amazon and Walmart both stock a wide variety of items, with very low depth of stock in each category. From books to rifles, Wal Mart only carries the big sellers. Amazon does offer the long tail in many categories, but below a certain scale the small time deep dive inventory people will still sell on Amazon marketplace.