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In full hindsight, the sheer efficiency of the HQ2 gambit is striking. It was obvious from the beginning that framing it as a "competition" between a short lis

In full hindsight, the sheer efficiency of the HQ2 gambit is striking. It was obvious from the beginning that framing it as a "competition" between a short list of cities was a ploy to make gullible politicians bid against one another while Amazon waited to see who could offer the most enticing deal. What is perhaps less obvious is that now everyone who participated has shown their hand: Amazon knows exactly what concessions each city can afford. With their HQ2s "selected", Amazon can now offer far less glamorous satellite offices or warehouses to those cities and drive a murderously hard bargain doing so. In one fell swoop: a free media circus, leverage on every location they might want to move into in the future, and heaps of public funds, in exchange for opening the offices Bezos already knew he wanted.

candiodari 8y ago
Why would you ever enter a negotiation if you don't know what you want ? You're most likely to injure yourself. So sure, Bezos' didn't make mistake #1 people make in negotiations. Google "bafta", "negotiation maximum pain", and start there for what you need to know before you buy as much as a loaf of bread. And yes, I have in fact managed to negotiate down the price of bread in a Supermarket. I would suggest you try too, just to show yourself that it's possible. Amazon only grew because of the interstate commerce Sales tax exception. Essentially Amazon grew only because states couldn't tax it. Only the Federal government got money from them. Amazon is a creation of the Federal government (using a rule, ironically, Democrats and even Bernie Sanders voted FOR, not against. The Federal government really wanted to create an Amazon like company, and so they provided this advantage, and Bezos crushed it. That's what happened. Amazon is not a bookstore, it isn't even a store or warehouse or technology firm, it's a effectively a government hedge fund) Look at Bezos' background. Is he a librarian ? A book seller ? He's a wall street investor (started as an engineer actually, but he was working quite the time as a speculator by the time he founded Amazon). He's a financial engineer, would perhaps be the best description. He will innovate, but he realizes that his innovations are about taxes, prices, trading and moving opportunities around. They're very much not about products, books, hosting, ... or any of that. So last year the Federal govenrnment took away his tax advantage over his competitors (at least Walmart). So you can bet your bottom dollar that 12 out of every 24 waking hours of Bezos' time were spent figuring out how to get that back. This seems to have been one answer (I seriously doubt he has only one trick going).
- SomeHacker44 8y ago
  Hard response to up or downvote. It started out upvote worthy and ended up downvote ranty, so I am just commenting here of my dilemma instead.

candiodari 8y ago

Why would you ever enter a negotiation if you don't know what you want ? You're most likely to injure yourself. So sure, Bezos' didn't make mistake #1 people make in negotiations. Google "bafta", "negotiation maximum pain", and start there for what you need to know before you buy as much as a loaf of bread. And yes, I have in fact managed to negotiate down the price of bread in a Supermarket. I would suggest you try too, just to show yourself that it's possible. Amazon only grew because of the interstate commerce Sales tax exception. Essentially Amazon grew only because states couldn't tax it. Only the Federal government got money from them. Amazon is a creation of the Federal government (using a rule, ironically, Democrats and even Bernie Sanders voted FOR, not against. The Federal government really wanted to create an Amazon like company, and so they provided this advantage, and Bezos crushed it. That's what happened. Amazon is not a bookstore, it isn't even a store or warehouse or technology firm, it's a effectively a government hedge fund) Look at Bezos' background. Is he a librarian ? A book seller ? He's a wall street investor (started as an engineer actually, but he was working quite the time as a speculator by the time he founded Amazon). He's a financial engineer, would perhaps be the best description. He will innovate, but he realizes that his innovations are about taxes, prices, trading and moving opportunities around. They're very much not about products, books, hosting, ... or any of that. So last year the Federal govenrnment took away his tax advantage over his competitors (at least Walmart). So you can bet your bottom dollar that 12 out of every 24 waking hours of Bezos' time were spent figuring out how to get that back. This seems to have been one answer (I seriously doubt he has only one trick going).

SomeHacker44 8y ago
Hard response to up or downvote. It started out upvote worthy and ended up downvote ranty, so I am just commenting here of my dilemma instead.