Jeff Bezos: Bring stable employment to high unemployment urban areas

[hybridy]

Upon announcing additional distribution center in SE WI Milwaukee's mayor has penned an op-ed to Jeff Bezos. I wonder how Bezos would respond?

Big corporations are now so intertwined with politics via Super PAC's and Citizens United that we now have to look to CEO's to guide social change [[wtf, yikes).

FYI, Jeff Bezos and the Walton Family are each worth approx $150 Billion. Remember to vote in Nov.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/07/13/mayor-tom-barrett-jeff-bezos-bring-stable-employment-milwaukee/780346002/

A noticeable exception to the low unemployment rate, unfortunately, is the still high unemployment rate in communities of color. Since housing patterns are so segregated in southeastern Wisconsin, unemployment is highly concentrated in the city of Milwaukee.

That’s why we have an employment “geography gap” as well as a skills gap. It’s also why now, more than at any other time in our recent history, it is imperative that corporate America, our local business community, state and local government focus on addressing racial disparities and the geography gap.

If we don’t address unemployment in communities of color when unemployment is low, when will we do it? Or, have leaders just given up on locating jobs in central cities?

[Honky Tonk]

Upon announcing additional distribution center in SE WI Milwaukee's mayor has penned an op-ed to Jeff Bezos. I wonder how Bezos would respond?

Big corporations are now so intertwined with politics via Super PAC's and Citizens United that we now have to look to CEO's to guide social change [[wtf, yikes).

FYI, Jeff Bezos and the Walton Family are each worth approx $150 Billion. Remember to vote in Nov.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/07/13/mayor-tom-barrett-jeff-bezos-bring-stable-employment-milwaukee/780346002/

He would probably say that this doesn't have anything to do with Detroit, and should be moved to the Non-Detroit Forum.

[hybridy]

A noticeable exception to the low unemployment rate, unfortunately, is the still high unemployment rate in communities of color. Since housing patterns are so segregated in southeastern Michigan, unemployment is highly concentrated in the city of Detroit.

is that more to your liking?

[Honky Tonk]

is that more to your liking?

Ehhhhh, a bit of a stretch, but I'll accept that.

[Wesley Mouch]

Race likely has nothing to do with Amazon's geographic decisions.

That this mayor publicly takes Amazon to task for racism is also harmful to urban employment.

These constant screams of racism are sufficient reason for any smart corporation to stay away. Corporations do not like being pawns in someone else's political game. This mayor would do better for his citizens to actually improve his city's business climate. The blame game is not the right approach.

[Canadian Visitor]

Race likely has nothing to do with Amazon's geographic decisions.

That this mayor publicly takes Amazon to task for racism is also harmful to urban employment.

These constant screams of racism are sufficient reason for any smart corporation to stay away. Corporations do not like being pawns in someone else's political game. This mayor would do better for his citizens to actually improve his city's business climate. The blame game is not the right approach.

Wesley, where did you get this?

In the letter I don't see a single use of the word racism, nor do I see any screaming, literal or proverbial.

What is suggested in the letter is that Amazon does not consider social impacts. A perfectly reasonable assertion that is not made in accusatory way.

The letter simply asks that those impacts be considered, and would help make Amazon a leader in addressing inequity while gaining good staff, positive PR and still being in the black.

The letter specifically states that the causes of the inequity go far beyond Amazon or corporations at large. It simply states there's a problem and you can help, and we would appreciate it.

That undoubtedly, logistics would be the highest consideration for a fulfillment centre is a given, then available land at a reasonable cost, workforce availability and then property taxes and the like.

I can't speak to Milwakee's tax situation, but as I know the highway system is readily accessible to the City, I'm assuming the other considerations would be competitive.

IF Milwakee's taxes are high [[and as i said, I haven't researched this), I do think its an unfair burden to ask a poverty-stricken area to eat a revenue reduction they can likely ill afford.

The way to remedy things like this, is to either pull a Detroit [[use bankruptcy to clear legacy costs) or have the state provide one-time financial relief [[uploading debt or legacy costs) in exchange for a tax reduction.

Regardless. My only issues w/the letter would be that Amazon fulfillment jobs are neither high-skill nor high-pay, and there will likely be fewer in the future w/aggressive automation.

I think if one were to reach out, probably privately, it would be to a business that could create lasting change, through high-quality employment, and through a structural improvement to the City's financial condition via the new taxes paid.

Find Milwakee's answer to Gilbert who mixes a bit of philanthropy with a desire to make a killing on under-valued real estate and work something out.

[hybridy]

https://www.epi.org/publication/unfu...oyment-growth/

[3WC]

Meijer's has a HUGE distribution center around I-75 and I-275; don't know the community.

I don't know if Meijer's has stores in Canada; I don't think so. But if I had a business that distributed products in several states states I'd place the distribution centers in the center of those areas with interstate access to all the stores within range. I'm sure that Meijer's knows what it's doing but its downriver site is a mystery to me as it's not in the center of a cluster of stores assuming there are none in Canada. [[I know the lawyer very well who represented Meijer's in the land acquisition and construction of the distribution center and he explained why the site was chosen but it still didn't't make sense to me.)

I'm sure Amazon has an extensive list of criteria that must be satisfied in connection with every site selection.

[Meddle]

I have begun avoiding anything AMZ related. I don't care for the company or their goals. Much the same as WM.

[Richard]

^ at $16 a month for the privilege of knowing them,they are not exactly geared towards the underprivileged and while stating the obvious,it does look good in print.

People oooo and aaaa to them while they make billions.

[hybridy]

Amazon Is Thriving Thanks to Taxpayer Dollars

How Wal-Mart Has Used Public Money in Your State

Report: Wage Theft is Pervasive in Corporate America;
Big Banks, Insurers are Among Most-Penalized Firms

Five Powerful Families

[O3H]

WTF - Amazon plans to open 4 [[four) distribution centers

The one in Livonia is up/running, the one in Romulus is launching hard,
another is planned for ShelbyTownship and another for Grand Rapids.

Yeah we lost the bid on the headquarters, but AMAZON went beserk in Michigan, building, constructing, and employing people everywhere.

[casscorridor]

WTF - Amazon plans to open 4 [[four) distribution centers

The one in Livonia is up/running, the one in Romulus is launching hard,
another is planned for ShelbyTownship and another for Grand Rapids.

Yeah we lost the bid on the headquarters, but AMAZON went beserk in Michigan, building, constructing, and employing people everywhere.

I don't see how this is special. Amazon is doing this in every major market possible.

[Johnnny5]

Other stores simply can not compete with a company that has shown zero need to ever profit as a retailer. Their retail division basically breaks even [[And mostly loses money), and has done so for decades. The only way Amazon has stayed in business is by supplementing their retail losses through profits from their web services and by speculative investors.

The U.S Government should have stepped in a long time ago to break Amazon up, but like always they'll only do something when it's too late and the destruction is irreversible. At this point Amazon's motivation for operating as a retailer has to be questioned.

[O3H]

Can you provide some articles/media coverage/etc. Johnnny5
to back up the ""operating -at-a-loss "" strategy of AMAZON.

[Johnnny5]

Can you provide some articles/media coverage/etc. Johnnny5
to back up the ""operating -at-a-loss "" strategy of AMAZON.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmark.../#12d0967437ad

https://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-nearl...m-care-1513368

https://www.recode.net/2017/4/27/154...ash-flow-chart

[[Pay close attention to the 2nd chart in this link)



You can do a Google search and you'll find thousands more.


It's only now that Amazon controls nearly half of all online sales and is valued at more than all other large brick and mortar retailers COMBINED that they are showing an extremely meager profit margin [[As a retailer).

Online retail is growing at a break neck pace, and without government intervention it's going to be 90% Amazon in less than a decade. Is that really a good idea?

[Wesley Mouch]

Can you provide some articles/media coverage/etc. Johnnny5
to back up the ""operating -at-a-loss "" strategy of AMAZON.

The charts provided do show that the profit is mostly from AWS. Here's some text from 2016:

• North America segment had a segment operating income of $2.4 billion and a segment operating margin of 3.0%.
• International segment had a segment operating income of -$1.3 billion and a segment operating margin of -2.9%.
• AWS segment had a segment operating income of $3.1 billion and a segment operating margin of 25.4%.

Its clear that AWS [[web services) is a huge winner.

But anyone who has followed Bezos, Inc., know that he doesn't play by the Wall Street book. He's long preferred to reinvest in pursuit of increased sales over profits. The business didn't return much if any profit for ages.

Bezos, Inc. doesn't care what you, me, or anyone thinks of him. He's making money in all segments, but prefers to re-invest rather than cash out. Isn't that a great thing? Don't we wish all corporations don't care about the current quarter's performance and look at the long term?

No need to worry about whether Amazon is making money. He's doing just fine -- and AWS is the thick layer of icing on the ever-growing cake.

[Johnnny5]

Bezos, Inc. doesn't care what you, me, or anyone thinks of him. He's making money in all segments, but prefers to re-invest rather than cash out. Isn't that a great thing? Don't we wish all corporations don't care about the current quarter's performance and look at the long term?

No need to worry about whether Amazon is making money. He's doing just fine -- and AWS is the thick layer of icing on the ever-growing cake.

Bezos might not care what he is doing to the rest of the retail segment, but we should be very concerned, and our representatives in Washington should be as well.

My question is what is the end game for the growth of Amazon? Is their long term goal to use losses and miniscule profit margins to dominate online retail to the point where no one can compete? If that's the case, then I think the government has an obligation to step in. Century old retailers are going bankrupt on a monthly basis, and no one in their right mind is putting money into new online retail sectors in which Amazon competes [[With the exception of those just looking to get bought out and walk away, or existing retailers last ditch efforts to stay in business).

[archfan]

Bezos might not care what he is doing to the rest of the retail segment, but we should be very concerned, and our representatives in Washington should be as well.

You may or may not remember when Walmart took over as the dominant retailer. People complained they were destroying our way of life, and they would dominate all retail with their evil efficiency and nefarious logistics savvy. Now, Walmart is back on their heels and Amazon looks like it will take over the world.

But really, that's what innovations do - sweep in, shake things up, then become the status quo. Self serve supermarkets had a cost advantage over mom and pop groceries, which shut down. A new Walmart in a rural area could shut down several downtowns.

It will be interesting to see what will happen with retail. Some small businesses will give us a reason to drag ourselves in - personal service, unique products, social interactions, etc. Amazon may eventually find their costs increasing if their peasants revolt. And ultimately, some innovator is going to eat Amazon's lunch with their great new idea.

[Johnnny5]

You may or may not remember when Walmart took over as the dominant retailer. People complained they were destroying our way of life, and they would dominate all retail with their evil efficiency and nefarious logistics savvy. Now, Walmart is back on their heels and Amazon looks like it will take over the world.

But really, that's what innovations do - sweep in, shake things up, then become the status quo. Self serve supermarkets had a cost advantage over mom and pop groceries, which shut down. A new Walmart in a rural area could shut down several downtowns.

It will be interesting to see what will happen with retail. Some small businesses will give us a reason to drag ourselves in - personal service, unique products, social interactions, etc. Amazon may eventually find their costs increasing if their peasants revolt. And ultimately, some innovator is going to eat Amazon's lunch with their great new idea.

I'm old enough to remember when they built the first Walmart in Michigan, and had been to their stores in Texas long before that. I'm not opposed to Amazon competing through innovation or efficiency [[At least not yet), what worries me is their model of growth and market dominance and how they got/get away with funding that dominance by subsidizing it through outside means. That's more akin to how Rockefeller grew Standard oil than how Sam Walton succeeded with Walmart.

Walmart has consistently been profitable as a retailer throughout their entire 50+ year history. True they may have driven many competitors out of business, but at least they did so on fairly level playing field.

A better comparison to what Amazon is doing would be if the Detroit casinos took all their profits from the gaming floor and opened gas stations all around the city selling at a loss generating discount. Of course customers would be ecstatic about getting such a great deal on fuel, but that's a shortsighted way of looking at it. This is what Amazon has been doing for decades! They took huge loses on their retail sales and subsidized them through investors and their other profitable businesses. We have laws against gas stations doing this [[Thanks to Rockafeller's shenanigans), but for some reason Washington has all but ignored Amazon's attempts to do basically the same thing.


Here's a link showing the difference in profit margins between Walmart and Amazon. Keep in mind that Amazon's charts include their profits from AWS which account for almost 100% of their profits in most years. Without those profits from AWS Amazon would shows losses in almost every year since they opened for business!

https://revenuesandprofits.com/amazo...its-1995-2015/

[stasu1213]

An Amazon Fulfillment Center would had been nice for the city but we wanted Amazon to move a second headquarters to Detroit instead

[Johnnny5]

A short video about Amazon worth watching [[Especially around 2:40 mark).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDTw1G5Wmxw

[Richard]

We already seen that with Wal-Mart,at one time there was talk about them running logistics for the government.

K Mart then wall mart now Amazon,technology moves fast and somebody else will come along and push them off of the top of the hill.

The problem is while the titians are slugging it out at the top everybody else down below gets wiped out giving them more solid ground and us less options.

The only way the little guy makes it in retail is to find a nich,milk it and sell out to the titians.

[Johnnny5]

Neither Walmart or K-Mart spent the majority of two decades operating at a loss, nor did they completely dominate the market the way Amazon is online retail. What Amazon is doing is without precedent.

[archfan]

Neither Walmart or K-Mart spent the majority of two decades operating at a loss, nor did they completely dominate the market the way Amazon is online retail. What Amazon is doing is without precedent.

Amazon has shown a profit the past three years, but nothing big for its size. Quite a few people must believe in their business model, and believe they're profitable enough, though, or they wouldn't have boosted their stock so high. You might think the greater fool theory applies, but so far it's been pretty good to investors [[says someone who thought about it at $300).