ABSTRACT
Amazon’s success involved selling investors on a vision of long-term growth. The chapter looks at Amazon’s early and highly successful venture into books, and how Jeff Bezos followed the Walmart template of lean retailing. The chapter then examines recent calls to rethink antitrust enforcement in the current era of big tech following legal scholar Lina Khan. The chapter also explores how tax avoidance has been a core business strategy of Amazon from its inception, dating back to key court cases centered on the mail-order business in the 1980s. The chapter also explores how Amazon recently set off a bidding war among cities and states for the right to secure a new HQ2 headquarters. It then looks at Amazon’s efforts over recent years to secure government contracts. The chapter then explores the how wider retail sector has been undergoing decline amid Amazon’s growing success, as evidenced by large numbers of store closings, job losses, and bankruptcies. Amazon, which has been under scrutiny surrounding working conditions in its warehouses, is at the forefront of automation on both the customer service and logistics side of the business, and is a leader in wider automation throughout global industry.
