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The article is making it sound like Amazon is doing this b/c of Trump. Like Amazon was tired of growing, but got a second wind after the election This part als

The article is making it sound like Amazon is doing this b/c of Trump. Like Amazon was tired of growing, but got a second wind after the election This part also seemed off: "What’s more, the hiring spree could do less to help the U.S. economy than is immediately apparent. Research groups have argued that the company kills more jobs than it creates because it has disrupted the traditional retail industry." If Amazon getting into groceries and same-day delivery fuels a lot of the hiring growth, you're not killing mom and pops, you're competing w/Wal-Mart and Target. And I have to imagine that an Amazon warehouse and a bunch of delivery drivers is more jobs than a big-box.

petra 10y ago
Besides the grocery and the same-day delivery markets, Amazon is also getting stronger in apparel(less jobs), B2B(less jobs), various logistical services(less jobs ), restaurant delivery(which will probably go towards very affordable tasty meals made in commercial kitchens, very efficienctly. Could kill a lot of restaurant jobs, but maybe demand will be so large, and it will replace some dinners , to create many jobs). Also , there's the question whether they'll find a formula to incentivize more people to use their parcel lockers(less jobs).
ThrustVectoring 10y ago
>And I have to imagine that an Amazon warehouse and a bunch of delivery drivers is more jobs than a big-box. It's probably fairly close - operating a checkout lane is easier than delivering packages, but stocking an open-to-the-public store is harder than loading things onto delivery trucks. Figuring that out is fun, but honestly a waste of time unless you really want to get into operations research. The outside view is way better approach. Amazon will compete with Target on some combination of price and quality. In other words, Amazon will do some combination of being more efficient (= cause fewer dollars to be spent on labor) and providing new services that customers are willing to pay for (= cause more dollars to be spent on labor). So the two things we need to actually look at is how much a customer will spend monthly shopping at Target vs Amazon delivery, and average hourly rate of the employees required to provide marginal service. The first determines whether the economy is doing more work in terms of dollar value, the second determines how the growth is distributed between increased employment vs increased wages.
chillacy 10y ago
Maybe not if Amazon's new store eliminates checkout counters entirely. And if online shopping gets bigger, we need less shelf restockers. Amazon's warehouses are already famously heavily automated.

petra 10y ago

Besides the grocery and the same-day delivery markets, Amazon is also getting stronger in apparel(less jobs), B2B(less jobs), various logistical services(less jobs ), restaurant delivery(which will probably go towards very affordable tasty meals made in commercial kitchens, very efficienctly. Could kill a lot of restaurant jobs, but maybe demand will be so large, and it will replace some dinners , to create many jobs). Also , there's the question whether they'll find a formula to incentivize more people to use their parcel lockers(less jobs).

ThrustVectoring 10y ago

>And I have to imagine that an Amazon warehouse and a bunch of delivery drivers is more jobs than a big-box. It's probably fairly close - operating a checkout lane is easier than delivering packages, but stocking an open-to-the-public store is harder than loading things onto delivery trucks. Figuring that out is fun, but honestly a waste of time unless you really want to get into operations research. The outside view is way better approach. Amazon will compete with Target on some combination of price and quality. In other words, Amazon will do some combination of being more efficient (= cause fewer dollars to be spent on labor) and providing new services that customers are willing to pay for (= cause more dollars to be spent on labor). So the two things we need to actually look at is how much a customer will spend monthly shopping at Target vs Amazon delivery, and average hourly rate of the employees required to provide marginal service. The first determines whether the economy is doing more work in terms of dollar value, the second determines how the growth is distributed between increased employment vs increased wages.

chillacy 10y ago

Maybe not if Amazon's new store eliminates checkout counters entirely. And if online shopping gets bigger, we need less shelf restockers. Amazon's warehouses are already famously heavily automated.