Trump criticizes Amazon for ‘great damage’ to retailers
President Trump renewed his attack on Amazon Wednesday, tweeting that the e-commerce giant is “doing great damage to taxpaying retailers” and removing jobs in cities.
Amazon, which employs about 180,000 in the U.S. and has plans to finish hiring 100,000 more full- and part-time jobs by mid-2018, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Trump’s blistering tweet, his first of the day, was issued hours after the Washington Post — the newspaper owned by Amazon chair Jeff Bezos — ran an editorial with the headline, “Mr. Trump gives comfort to racists.”
Many brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to boost sales as customers increasingly turn to e-commerce sources, particularly Amazon, and they’ve been open about the difficult competitive environment.
A number of chains have filed for bankruptcy this year, including Payless, Gymboree, HHGregg and RadioShack.
And the biggest department-store companies, such as Macy’s, Sears Holdings and J.C. Penney, are shuttering hundreds of locations.
The total number of store closings is expected to hit a record in the U.S. this year, with Credit Suisse Group analyst Christian Buss estimating that the number could exceed 8,000.
On the other hand, Amazon is hiring rapidly. The online behemoth has pledged to hire more than 100,000 workers by 2018 and has been holding job fairs all over the U.S. In some cases, fired department store workers are ending up at Amazon fulfilment centres.
The Washington Post has been aggressive in covering Trump and the White House, breaking several impactful stories this year.
The paper and other national media outlets have been at the receiving end of the president’s constant attacks — on Twitter and in encounters with reporters — on what he considers to be “fake news.”
Using the hashtag #AmazonWashingtonPost, Trump tweeted in June that the paper was “the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should).”
The latest feud adds another wrinkle to Trump’s increasingly fractured relationship with the corporate America.
Scores of the chief executives who serve on Trump’s advisory councils spoke out against the displays of racism and violence at the white nationalists’ rally in Charlottesville over the weekend after Trump initially failed to directly censure the specific hate groups involved.
Several chief executives on Trump’s manufacturing jobs council — from Merck, Intel, Under Armour, 3M, Campbell Soup and the Alliance for American Manufacturing — resigned this week.
Facing pressure over his initial response that blamed “many sides” for violence in Charlottesville, Trump read a statement late Monday that criticized the hate groups, including neo-Nazis and the KKK.
But he seemed to retreat from the position Tuesday.
Returning to his combative form, Trump chastised the counterprotesters and renewed criticism that he was reverting to the moral equivalency that triggered so much ire in the last 48 hours.
“What about the alt-left?” Trump said. “What about the fact they came charging? That they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do.”
Still, the “Amazon effect” on retail is real, executives and analysts say. Beyond selling books, electronics and gadgets online, Amazon has serious brick-andmortar ambitions as well.
Two months ago, Amazon agreed to buy Whole Foods for more than $13.4 billion, a deal that will be closely reviewed by antitrust regulators.
U.S. apparel sales totalled about $200 billion last year, up about three per cent, according to One Click Retail.
Amazon captured about $3.4 billion of the total. But with a 25 per cent apparel sales increase, it far outpaced other retailers.
On its website, Amazon says it collects sales tax on items shipped to 45 states and Washington, D.C.
Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no statewide sales tax.
State governments have sought to capture sales taxes lost to internet retailers, though they have struggled with a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that retailers must have a physical presence in a state before officials can make them collect sales tax.