When Amazon invited cities across America to enter a competition to host its second headquarters with the promise of a $5bn investment and 50,000 new jobs, it was too good an opportunity for them to pass up.
As many as 238 cities threw their hats into the ring, which meant a lot of broken hearts when the ecommerce giant, whose first headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, rejected the majority to select its 20 finalists in January.
Not content with sending out rejection notes, Amazon phoned city officers explaining why they had not made the cut as it sought to console those who had been rebuffed while emphasising the point: “It’s you, it’s not me.”
Many of the cities have begun to make changes in response to those criticisms, which ranged from the quality of transport infrastructure to the local pool of technology talent.
