Interesting interview.
The rumors that I hear, both internal and external, are that we’re very seriously interested in acquiring post office real estate. The reason why the post office is valuable to privatize is because of their real estate holdings. They have great real estate in every downtown of every city in the United States. Amazon may be interested in buying all of the post office locations, and we have the cash to do it. So why not?
What’s an example of a division that AWS subsidizes particularly heavily?
Prime Video, for one. Jeff loves Prime Video because it gives him access to the social scene in LA and New York. He’s newly divorced and the richest man in the world. Prime Video is a loss leader for Jeff’s sex life.
Well, if you look at Google, you’ll notice they’re headquartered in Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley. And if you’re an employee at Google and you’re good at your job and you want to leave your job tomorrow, there are fifty-three employers out there that are going to be ready to hire you.
If you’re working in Seattle for Amazon and you’re good at your job and you want to leave your job tomorrow, you have far fewer opportunities. Where are you going to go, Microsoft? There’s not nearly as much mobility. So I think a big part of the reason we have less organizing is that people are more afraid to jeopardize their jobs. If you want to stay in the Northwest, you keep your head down.
The thing that makes the Post Office unique is that in large swaths of rural America it can be people’s only contact with the outside world. And in those locations you get the friendliest most customer-oriented service - better by far than the private carriers as well as cheaper. Of course Amazon would have no interest those assets. Expenses are high and the real estate isn’t worth squat.
That’s very true for people on the retail side. Their work won’t translate to most tech companies. Their other options are REI, Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, Starbucks, etc. I didn’t work with a single person who had worked in tech. It was ex retail, oil and gas, transportation/logistics, food/grocery, or industrial companies. For them, amazon was the the best paying with the most opportunity they were going to find.