The changing American consumer
Could a shift from goods to services ease inflation?
Asked recently about Amazon’s sprawling network of warehouses, Brian Olsavsky, the firm’s finance chief, did not mince words. “We have too much space right now.” As consumer demand surged during the pandemic, the online retailer doubled its capacity from 193m square feet (18m square metres) at the end of 2019 to 387m square feet two years later. Today it has a glut, which the company says is costing it tens of millions of dollars a day.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Balance of payments”
From the June 4th 2022 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance & economics
Will America’s crypto frenzy end in disaster?
Donald Trump’s team is about to bring digital finance into the mainstream
Do tariffs raise inflation?
Usually. But the bigger problem is that they harm economic growth and innovation
European governments struggle to stop rich people from fleeing
Exit taxes are popular, and counter-productive
Saba Capital wages war on underperforming British investment trusts
How many will end up in Boaz Weinstein’s sights?
Has Japan truly escaped low inflation?
Its central bankers are increasingly hopeful
How American bankers dodged the MAGA carnage
The masters of the universe have escaped an anti-globalist revolt