Hardly anyone seems to remember that Amazons were originally Greek women warriors described by an expert on this topic as “aggressive, independent man-killers.”  Rumor has it that Jeff Bezos chose the name because he wanted something that started with the letter A, which I suppose is as good a reason as any to choose a business name. But the fact is that his business has become a — mostly male — aggressive, independent jobs/stores/community killer.

Initially the threat was to booksellers, although we all know that Amazon is now active in every category of retail.  Still, bookstores have a special interest in Amazon’s growth. The booksellers who attended the American Booksellers Winter Institute in Denver this January were incensed, but perhaps not surprised, by the release of a new study “that demonstrates the negative effects of the growth of Amazon on American towns and cities.” The study determined that in 2014: 

• Amazon sold $44.1 billion worth of retail goods nationwide, all while avoiding $625 million in state and local sales taxes.
• That is the equivalent of 30,000 retail storefronts, 107 million square feet of commercial space, which might have paid $420 million in property taxes.
• A total of more than $1 billion in revenue lost to state and local governments, $8.48 for every household in America.
• Amazon also operated 65 million square feet of distribution space, employing roughly 30,000 full-time workers and 104,000 part-time and seasonal workers.  Even counting all these jobs in Amazon distribution centers, Amazon sales produced a net loss of 135,973 retail jobs.

These statistics came from new Civic Economics-ABA study called Amazon and Empty Storefronts: The Fiscal and Land Use Impacts of Online Retail, which aims to demonstrate the effects of the growth of Amazon on American towns and cities. CEO of the American Booksellers Association Oren Teicher said that “the unprecedented study makes abundantly clear the deleterious effects on the American economy resulting from Amazon’s strategy of retail dominance. It’s our hope that the facts included in this report will help policy makers and the public better understand the need for more diversity in the marketplace, and recognize the potential long-term costs of the loss of healthy local economies.”

What can independent retailers do about the dangers of Amazon dominance? The Buy Local movement is a great way to educate the public about this issue, so if you are not involved in a shop local effort I encourage you to join one.  Make your voice heard — we recently joined with other business owners to protest our local public radio station promoting Amazon purchases of music, and the board voted to discontinue this policy (but it is now up to us to make up for that lost revenue).  And if your state doesn’t collect sales tax from Amazon purchases, let your legislators know that you need an even playing field.  Amazon is not going away, but we can at least make them to fight fair.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder 

PS A new worry is whether Amazon will be opening retail stores. You can read about this in a blog posting by Jason Del Rey for Re/code.