We all came out of the last three years changed.
Amazon, which said Wednesday thatits layoffs will hit 18,000 workers, is no different.
Then came the bust.
The problem wasn’t just that we stopped shopping through our misery.
Amazon, like a lot of tech companies, banked big time on our new buying behaviors.
In 2022, Amazon and its competitors scrapped large chunks of what they built during the pandemic.
The middle of 2022 started to reveal casualties elsewhere in the company.
Amazon shut down its physical bookstores and some Amazon Go convenience store locations.
It jettisoned its Amazon Care health care service on doubts it would ever be profitable.
Jassy said then that Amazon wasn’t done making bets on businesses that could have long-term payoffs.
Peaks and valleys
E-commerce hit startling heights in 2020.
E-commerce is still growing today, but the frenzy is over.
And it wasn’t just Amazon.
Shopify, the company behind many standalone online shops, also went on a hiring spree.
“Those chickens are coming home to roost,” Saunders said.
Amazon’s layoffs will also be significant.
“They tend to think of it as an arms race,” Lipsman said.
Amazon’s health care initiatives are also seeing cutbacks.
“The DNA of Amazon was, ‘we’re going to lose money,'” Kodali said.
Now the company must invest in things that’ll pay off sooner rather than later, she added.
