The Amazon bungle by Bill
He woos e-tailer – then knocks it
Mayor de Blasio is clearly not primed for Amazon.
Just hours after the city put forth a proposal to woo the e-commerce giant to the Big Apple, Hizzoner told a town-hall meeting that companies like it are crushing small businesses.
“Something different is happening now that is very disruptive to communities. Some of this is economic- and consumer-choice-based, so a lot of people are turning to Amazon and other online options, that’s one of the factors,” de Blasio said at the Brooklyn Heights gathering Wednesday night.
“If you’re like me and you love your local neighborhood stores — your bakeries, your cafe, your clothing stores, all these things — then you need to spend your money there and not at Starbucks and not at other alternative places.”
His comments came the same day the city, in conjunction with the state, submitted a bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, dubbed HQ2, and lit up several landmarks orange in the company’s honor.
Dozens of cities have submitted bids for the new corporate campus, which will bring 50,000 well-paying jobs to the winner.
On Thursday, de Blasio said there’s “plenty of room for Starbucks and all sorts of other options” — insisting that he was just trying to encourage New Yorkers to put their money where their mouths are.
“I said a lot of people complain to me about the loss of mom-and-pop stores in the neighborhood,” he said. “There is plenty of room for Starbucks and all sorts of other options, but I hear it now at almost every town-hall meeting . . . And I tell them we have some tools, but we don’t have tools that are going to solve the whole problem because some of this is about consumer behavior.”
De Blasio was happy to defend Starbucks last year when President Trump dissed the company for not printing “Merry Christmas” on its red holiday cups.
“They’re a pretty lonely example of a company trying to address income inequality meaningfully,” de Blasio said.
Reform Party mayoral candidate Sal Albanese accused de Blasio of “being coy.”
“He doesn’t want to be blamed for attracting Amazon here while the small-business crisis continues,” Albanese said. “He’s trying to have it both ways, which is a vintage de Blasio approach.”
The mayor insisted he’s “very excited” about the prospect of an Amazon in the city.
A lot of people are turning to Amazon . . . [ but if ] you love your local neighborhood stores . . . you need to spend d your money there. — Mayor de Blasio