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President Donald Trump is attacking Amazon, and its delivery deal with the US Postal Service, and though many in Washington suspect that he is driven mostly by antipathy toward Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — and another of his other holdings, the muckraking Washington Post — Axios reports otherwise. "Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business," reporter Jonathan Swan wrote a few days ago. "Trump's wealthy friends tell him Amazon is destroying their businesses. His real estate buddies tell him — and he agrees — that Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers."
In Twittertown, the debate over Amazon's effect on small business has been joined:
God bless you Mr. President. As an American small business owner I can attest first hand to the unfair practices of Amazon. Please curb their monopolizing before they literally destroy all of America’s small businesses in our largest marketplaces.
—oldsole (@visi0naryb) March 31, 2018
This is how we bring back power to the people. How many small business have been ruined by Amazon? Free shipping killed many Main Streets and we were paying for it through the United States Post Office? Getting rid of that subsidy will help millions of American businesses.
— Ben Robertson (@_ben_robertson) March 31, 2018
Tens of thousands of small business sell their products through Amazon and eBay, and get reduced shipping rates from USPS. Would you like us all to return those discounts to you? Should we make the check payable to Trump Org or the Porn Star Silencing Fund?
—Facts Do Matter (@WilDonnelly) March 31, 2018
So which is it — is Amazon killing small business or saving it? The answer, of course, is yes. To be sure, Amazon, with relatively low prices and speedy home delivery made possible by its enormous scale, has changed the way many Americans shop. My wife, for example, would be content to never set foot in a store again. Every week, a parade of boxes from Amazon, Target, and elsewhere arrive at our door. I'm sure that if she did the grocery shopping, our food would come delivered as well.
