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| Toby Cox at Three Lives & Company welcomes Amazon to NYC. | |
Amazon's decision to locate the company's new "HQ2" headquarters in Crystal City in Arlington, Va., and Long Island City in Queens, N.Y., in return for generous, even excessive, incentives has prompted strong critical responses from many, including the independent bookselling community that has been battling Amazon's invasion for more than two decades.
Several booksellers in the New York area with whom Shelf Awareness spoke expressed concern that the huge jump in Amazon's presence in the center of the book publishing industry could lead to even more power and influence in the business. The adverse effect might be similar to what some worry about with the opening of a huge office in Arlington, Va.: Amazon's expanded presence in the capital could help the company politically at the federal level.
Lexi Beach, owner of Astoria Bookshop in Queens and a bookseller who is directly in Amazon HQ2's line of fire, wrote an op-ed for the New York Daily News in which she said she was "more than a little troubled by the deal New York has made with Amazon to help them open their new offices in Long Island City.... A corporation infamous for not paying corporate taxes moving into the neighborhood where I've built my business is unacceptable....
"It is dangerous to the American economy to watch Amazon grow so large, but it's especially damaging to brick-and-mortar small businesses like mine.... Contrary to popular opinion, bookstores are thriving. But residents must decide what they want their neighborhoods to look like, and vote with their wallets accordingly. Civil servants must put in place legislation and regulations to protect constituents and municipal budgets alike.
"The hypocrisy on [NYC Mayor Bill] de Blasio's part--he goes out of his way to shop locally because of how badly Amazon hurts brick-and-mortar stores--stings especially. For now, I must protect my business the best I can: by publicly objecting to this plan, and working to educate people who are not yet aware of Amazon's insidious, though technically legal, business tactics."
In strongly worded letters to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, ABA CEO Oren Teicher wrote that "it is unconscionable that state tax dollars paid by [New Yorkers & Virginians] would be redirected to subsidize one of the world's largest--and most profitable--companies, which, among other things, has a history of doing whatever it can to drive competitors out of business and to avoid paying its fair share of taxes."
Teicher added: "It is simply bad public policy to direct public money away from infrastructure, first responders, and public schools--which benefit all [New Yorkers & Virginians]--and, instead, to direct that money to a single international mega-corporation with a market capitalization that dwarfs virtually every other company.... Local businesses are the backbone of our state's fiscal health. The news of such massive public subsidies to one of the world's largest and most profitable corporations is contrary to the long-term interests of all [New Yorkers & Virginians]."
Solid State Books, Washington, D.C., offered a subtle take on the issue in the subject line of its e-newsletter yesterday, which read simply: "Visit our HQ1!"