The online business with a "political constituency"

Amazon is certainly an impressive retail success. Although they are highly automated, they continue to employ more and more people at higher and higher wages. Laura Stevens reports at the Wall Street Journal,

...Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos founded the company in his a garage just outside Seattle in 1994.

...In Seattle, where Amazon has been based for more than 20 years, the retailer has opened new office buildings to accommodate its rapidly growing workforce, which now tops 40,000. But Amazon said Thursday it is seeking a new campus to eventually house an additional 50,000 workers.

Seattle is “just not big enough to double the size of their footprint,” says Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor at George Washington University School of Business and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in land use.



. Meanwhile, home prices in Seattle have risen 47% to an average of $667,488 since 2007, according to the Cost of Living Index by the Council for Community and Economic Research.

The online retail giant said its next headquarters should be located in a walkable transportation hub with good access to an educated workforce and universities. A second headquarters would also give Amazon a chance to spread its economic clout and political constituency. Proposals are due next month, Amazon said.

"Political constituency?" What has that got to do with selling things online? Have you seen what Bezos has done to the Washington Post?