Andrew Yang on retail: what the evidence says · JRE #1245
“amazon's getting 20 billion dollars of commerce every year and is now tipping your malls and Main Street stores into oblivion”
What the evidence says
Yang stated that Amazon generates "20 billion dollars of commerce every year." Amazon's own 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reports consolidated net sales of $232,887 million (2018) and $177,866 million (2017), the two most recent full fiscal years available at the time of this February 2019 episode. Both figures are more than eight times larger than the $20 billion Yang cited, meaning the number substantially understates Amazon's actual scale of commerce. The broader point that e-commerce growth has coincided with mall and traditional retail closures reflects a real and widely documented trend in U.S. retail during this period, but the specific $20 billion figure attached to Amazon's revenue does not match the company's reported financial results.