Posted on 02/03/2020 10:44:48 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Need more proof that Amazon is big? It came this week.
Amazon's U.S. workforce topped 500,000 for the first time, up 43% from the year before and more than triple what it was five years ago, the company said Friday. It gained 150,000 workers last year, more than the size of Apple's entire workforce.
When it reported its quarterly performance Thursday, Amazon revealed that another 150 million people had become members of its Prime service, which offers faster shipping and other perks. On Friday, even while the Dow tumbled 600 points, Amazon shares soared passed $2,000 apiece, doubling in price in about two years. That puts Amazon among an exclusive club, Alphabet, Google's parent company, Apple and Microsoft, as a corporation with a value exceeding $1 trillion.
Amazon's massive growth comes with increased scrutiny. Some Democratic presidential candidates want to break it up. Others want it to pay more taxes. It is a regular target of President Donald Trump, who has been, tweeting similar complaints as he fights with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. Amazon has said it shouldn't be broken up, and that it pays all the taxes it owes.
Being under the microscope has not slowed its phenomenal growth. Sales during the holiday season soared. Its other businesses, including cloud computing and advertising, grew, too, despite increased competition from other big tech companies.
Analysts at Benchmark said the results were a "not-so-subtle reminder Amazon is still king."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
People who complain “there’s no opportunity for Americans” are full of it. The business section of the local paper today has an article about an entrepreneur who founded ski apparel company Arctica and his growth in southwestern Wisconsin.
Opportunity is everywhere, especially with President Trump!
150 MILLION Prime members! Unbelievable. I joined as soon as it was introduced in 2005 and our membership has never lapsed.
Half a million employees is staggering. I started off with a company that had 30,000 and I thought that was huge! I eventually joined a company with 100,000 employees, but a few years later it had ZERO employees. You win some, you lose some.
A regret of mine of not buying Amazon stock when it went IPO.
Where do people learn to write like this and still get paid for it???? OMG - this little nugget would have kept you from even writing for the college newspaper as the editor and faculty advisor would have round-filed your application and article portfolio.
That number makes them a BIG, JUICY TARGET for some union to organize.
It is appalling and it is everywhere.
It could be a case of just writing too quickly under deadline. It would have been correct if “soared” was omitted: “Amazon shares passed $2,000 apiece...”
Half a million employees is staggering.
…………………………………………………………
Yes, it is. Another million or so and they will catch up with Wal-Mart. I’ve read that Wal-Mart pays their hourly workers a little better though. Locally (Central Illinois) starting pay $11.50 per hour.
“this is one of the most incredible American business success stories in history. Railroads, telegraph, telephone, steel...then aviation, automobiles, Big entertainment, huge food companies, big pharmaceutical...then computers, chips, satellites, telecommunications and e-commerce.”
Ahead of Pipelines, railroads came kerosene, and then oil. If it wasn’t for kerosene, railroads and pipelines would not have followed and that was I think out of the oil fields of Pennsylvania. It was the propagation of kerosene and oil that drove the heavy Industries and created the infrastructure because of the demand across a broad area of the United States.
Good for Amazon and Bezos. Too bad Bezos has such screwed up politics. Wish he could have been “one of ours”.
He’s definitely providing value. Just think of how much shopping time he’s saving people each week. That time is precious, and that’s why he’s doing a good thing here.
Don't forget Whale Oil.
Amazon is a prime (you're welcome Amazon) example of a corporation that people like Bernie are determined to fix. In the process of fixing it he'll kill off as many of those 500,000 jobs as he can manage to.
Imagine the amount of tax revenue this one corporation creates for the federal government and some states.
500,000 people pay income taxes because Amazon employs them.
500,000 homes in the United States rely on Amazon for part of their economic activity.
Bernie, "Those evil corporations, we'll teach them a thing or two..."
You don't have to think very hard to imagine how much damage this guy could do to citizen's lives.
Thanks. I knew I was forgetting a major industry — energy. I visited the very first oil well in the US many years ago — the Drake well in Titusville. Until then, oil had been collected from seeps...or by hunting whales.
Energy is what makes every other industry possible!
I suspect that overall miles driven is down thanks to Amazon. I used to drive all over the place trying to find things and wasted many hours doing that. Now I don’t drive those miles and save all those hours (which are better spent on FR).
Because a spell checker will see every word spelled correctly.
A grammar checker will find the error.
You can’t always replace a human copy editor.
I was interviewed at Amazon by 12 young straight white liberal guys.
There was also one woman, but she wasn’t allowed to speak.
Yes it is, what is more staggering is all the employees that guit shortly after they were hired or were let go shortly after the Christmas season. I wonder if any of those half a million that they speak of were part of those that quit or were let go. Also does that half a million include the temps that supposedly work for the temp service they use. And even thought they admit they don't own the temp service they use, I wouldn't doubt if they do own them under the table. Having worked for Amazon, I trust them like politicians/lawyers running for office.
You could have been an early one — badge #100,000,000!
Oops, a few too many zeros! You could have been #100,000!
Of course the way they are going, they could hit 100 million.
#1 They spent all their time filling out T.P.S reports.
Office Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLUidiYm0w
My son just went to work for Amazon.
$200K to start. Hard to turn down for a young guy.
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