Amazon is laying off 16,000 employees. That’s on top of 14,000 that were let go in October.
The company is America’s second-largest private employer, behind Walmart. It has over 350,000 corporate employees, so these recent rounds of cuts represent about 9% of the company’s overall office staff.
Amazon also announced just this week that they are closing all of their Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores. (The Whole Foods franchise stays put and will be expanded. Grocery delivery for orders placed online will continue as usual).
Finally, there is the troublesome matter of Amazon foisting a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump on America.
Oy, Amazon. What the hell?
Here is whatNicole Sperling and Brooks Barnes write for the New York Times about it:
The film’s rollout is huge — a $35 million marketing campaign that includes television commercials during N.F.L. playoff games and a premiere simulcast in 25 theaters in the United States.
Starting Friday, the film hits 3,300 theaters worldwide.
Amazon’s all-hands-on-deck handling of “Melania,” follows Melania Trump, the first lady, in the days leading up to her husband’s second inauguration.
Ms. Trump produced the film, which was directed by Brett Ratner, who has not made a movie since 2017, when multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. He has denied those accusations.
Amazon paid Ms. Trump’s production company $40 million for the rights to “Melania,” about $26 million more than the next closest bidder, Disney.
