Amazon looking to expand. $5B investment.

[tonytiger55]

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If Amazon does comes here, it'll take 10-15 years (as per their RFP) to hire 50k employees, but you're missing the big picture. The trickle down effect is that other tech companies would consider coming here, more startups would thrive here because of the advantages of having a strategic partner so close to home, as well as a wealth of tech talent coming here increasing the local talent pool, increasing much more than Amazon's 50k employees. These are all high skilled high paying jobs, spiking up household income, which in turn spikes up cost of living.

Im not sure others would move.
I was talking to one of the Directors of Smart a few years back. He said the biggest problems they have is finding actual talent.

[HiTempguy1]

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Toronto is obviously the leading candidate from Canada if money is no object

This is business. No matter how Amazon wraps it all up, money IS the object.

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Im not sure others would move.
I was talking to one of the Directors of Smart a few years back. He said the biggest problems they have is finding actual talent.

Crazy. Goes to show what easy money does to the workforce I guess?

[hampstor]

The investment, focus, and attention I have been seeing in the last year from technology companies in the AI/machine learning/IoT space to partner with the energy industry is quite impressive...

It would be in the city's interests to consider a bid that leverages that unique opportunity that Calgary offers in being a major North American hub for an industry that Amazon and their competitors are fiercely competing over.

[Neil4Speed]

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Haha, Solium is shit java shop, might as well ship in a bunch of Indians with their masters degrees... just drop by any number of call centers.

Their product is very well regarded in the Equity compensation world so I find that surprising.

[phreezee]

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Their product is very well regarded in the Equity compensation world so I find that surprising.

I know a manager there who's team is bunch of junior java developers. If you have anything in Solium, I'd recommend to sell to cover and opt to receive a certificate and deposit into TFSA.

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I was talking to one of the Directors of Smart a few years back. He said the biggest problems they have is finding actual talent.

That's because they are out of touch with the Calgary market and pay shit. In IT circles it was widely considered as a "sweat shop."

[kertejud2]

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Calgary's future is pot greenhouses. Not a future Amazon center. Case closed.

Why not both?

Agri-business and high-tech coming together.

[Xtrema]

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Im not sure others would move.
I was talking to one of the Directors of Smart a few years back. He said the biggest problems they have is finding actual talent.

You would think they will hire Calgarians?

They will probably look at immigration policies and do imports from Asia. Something tough to do in Trump's America. Housing is cheaper than Vancouver so salary will be relatively low. The only problem is the risk of energy sector coming back to life, then we become too expensive.

Starting wage for tech sector in Seattle and Silicon Valley is $150-$200US. You can almost do 2:1 in Calgary in term of staff cost alone and not have to worry about housing cost like Vancouver and Toronto.

But let's be serious here, Canada will not be as competitive to the states. Texas can probably promise $1B in tax or land subsidies to have them set up in Austin.

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That's because they are out of touch with the Calgary market and pay shit. In IT circles it was widely considered as a "sweat shop."

Amazon will also be a sweat shop. It's hard for Smart to find talent is because we got not much to start with and they would rather go digging holes for $200K than writing code for $100K.

[Tik-Tok]

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Why not both?

Agri-business and high-tech coming together.

Exactly. As soon as it's legal (for recreational purposes), who do you think the #1 contender for online distribution is going to be?

[KPHMPH]

Maybe this has something to do with the new 2 hour delivery within Calgary and area....

[dj_patm]

I think people might be looking at this from way too much of a tech angle.

Is Amazon mainly competing with tech companies or the Big Box grocery chains?

Obviously tech is a part of it, but they'll need the entire gauntlet of supply chain people, merchandising people for whole foods, marketing folk and all of the other back office staff besides the people who run their website and apps.

[rage2]

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I think people might be looking at this from way too much of a tech angle.

Is Amazon mainly competing with tech companies or the Big Box grocery chains?

Obviously tech is a part of it, but they'll need the entire gauntlet of supply chain people, merchandising people for whole foods, marketing folk and all of the other back office staff besides the people who run their website and apps.

You do realize that Amazon's business isn't any of what you've listed, but automation to remove humans from roles within everything you've listed? If you think they bought Whole Foods because they want to be in the grocery business, you missed the point entirely haha. They're not hiring 50k+ people at 100k+ average salaries for supply chain management.

Humans are inefficient. Amazon removes the human element wherever possible to streamline processes to the point where no amount of humans can be that efficient, from cashiers, to logistics, to purchasers when it comes to retail.

[dj_patm]

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You do realize that Amazon's business isn't any of what you've listed, but automation to remove humans from roles within everything you've listed? If you think they bought Whole Foods because they want to be in the grocery business, you missed the point entirely haha. They're not hiring 50k+ people at 100k+ average salaries for supply chain management.

Their main business is selling physical merchandise. That means there is support staff in negotiating, purchasing, planning, marketing, (corporate) development and everything that comes with dealing with thousands of vendors.

This isn't FB, Google or Snapchat. That's what I'm saying.

Obviously tech innovation is a huge part of their business but they're still buying (or carrying) goods to sell to a customer and all of the support that comes with it.

But in the end you never know with these companies I guess. I just doubt they're hiring even 40,000 tech people for this office.

[adamc]

Alberta doesn't have a chance of landing this deal, but I like the chutzpah, and this should motivate government to do everything possible to turn Calgary into a high tech hub. Other silicon valley companies are looking at Canada, and they should definitely be courted in Alberta.

[Prelude_dude]

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Their main business is selling physical merchandise. That means there is support staff in negotiating, purchasing, planning, marketing, (corporate) development and everything that comes with dealing with thousands of vendors.

This isn't FB, Google or Snapchat. That's what I'm saying.

Obviously tech innovation is a huge part of their business but they're still buying (or carrying) goods to sell to a customer and all of the support that comes with it.

But in the end you never know with these companies I guess. I just doubt they're hiring even 40,000 tech people for this office.

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...revenue-2017-2

Merchandise portion of amazon is peanuts compared to their Amazon Web Service division.

[ercchry]

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Im not sure others would move.
I was talking to one of the Directors of Smart a few years back. He said the biggest problems they have is finding actual talent.

Nothing to do with talent pool, all to do with toxic work environment and shit pay... know a few people that gave it a go, no one lasted long. Crazy turnover there

[dj_patm]

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http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...revenue-2017-2

Merchandise portion of amazon is peanuts compared to their Amazon Web Service division.

I stand corrected

[kenny]

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http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...revenue-2017-2

Merchandise portion of amazon is peanuts compared to their Amazon Web Service division.

I wouldn't call it peanuts, retail is their biggest revenue source, probably 10x their AWS revenue. Margin on retail side is probably shit though.

[rage2]

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Their main business is selling physical merchandise. That means there is support staff in negotiating, purchasing, planning, marketing, (corporate) development and everything that comes with dealing with thousands of vendors.

This isn't FB, Google or Snapchat. That's what I'm saying.

Obviously tech innovation is a huge part of their business but they're still buying (or carrying) goods to sell to a customer and all of the support that comes with it.

But in the end you never know with these companies I guess. I just doubt they're hiring even 40,000 tech people for this office.

You're correct that Amazon does have purchasers, supply chain managers, etc. but what I'm saying is that those numbers pales in comparison to the tech jobs. The automation has streamlined the process so much that 1 supply chain manager at Amazon can handle 10x the work of a traditional supply chain manager at a traditional brick and mortar company because of the automation in place at Amazon. The large # of jobs at Amazon are with data, analytics, and automation to make traditional roles redundant or super efficient.

But if we're talking semantics and optics, sure, Amazon brings in a majority of their revenue from e-commerce. That's a business that's pretty much break even in the last year and a half with a <1% profit margin. What it has done though is help Amazon create infrastructure to run this business, and allow other's to leverage this infrastructure to run their businesses, spun off into AWS years ago. AWS now hosts over 1/3 of internet e-commerce, and an even more ridiculous 70% of NA internet traffic with a 25% profit margin. Nearly all of Amazon's profits are from AWS, which gets reinvested into expansion, such as Whole Foods.

The best comparison I can think of is McDonalds, where it looks like they're a fast food company, but in reality they're a real estate company.

[rage2]

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I wouldn't call it peanuts, retail is their biggest revenue source, probably 10x their AWS revenue. Margin on retail side is probably shit though.

2016:

https://revenuesandprofits.com/amazo...s-2017-update/



Retail (International + NA) has a <1% combined profit margin. AWS generates 26% profit margin.

By revenue, AWS is a mere 9%, retail is 91%, but that 91% also includes sales that aren't directly Amazon.

By profit, 75% is AWS, 25% is retail.

AWS is pretty much driving all of Amazon's growth with it's measly 9% revenue.

Stepping back from just financials, the retail side generates a ridiculous amount of data for Amazon that you can't put a price tag on. It's not about profits in that market. That data is what allows Amazon to get rid of humans through automation.

[adamc]

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The best comparison I can think of is McDonalds, where it looks like they're a fast food company, but in reality they're a real estate company.

Somebody watched "The Founder"

Great movie btw.