What Amazon’s Chicagoland Takeover Means For Consumers, Local Economy

Indea Leo of Lillabee baking hopes that Amazon buying Whole Foods will be good for her business. “We think there is going to be a lot of exciting possibilities of bypassing the shelf altogether and reaching a wider customer base.“
Indea Leo of Lillabee baking hopes that Amazon buying Whole Foods will be good for her business. "We think there is going to be a lot of exciting possibilities of bypassing the shelf altogether and reaching a wider customer base." Linda Winski/Courtesy of Indea Leo
Indea Leo of Lillabee baking hopes that Amazon buying Whole Foods will be good for her business. “We think there is going to be a lot of exciting possibilities of bypassing the shelf altogether and reaching a wider customer base.“
Indea Leo of Lillabee baking hopes that Amazon buying Whole Foods will be good for her business. "We think there is going to be a lot of exciting possibilities of bypassing the shelf altogether and reaching a wider customer base." Linda Winski/Courtesy of Indea Leo

What Amazon’s Chicagoland Takeover Means For Consumers, Local Economy

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We learned Tuesday that e-commerce and technology giant Amazon is opening a huge new sorting center later this year in southwest suburban Crest Hill. It’s just the latest step in the company’s rapid expansion across Chicagoland since it announced its first warehouse in the state in 2015. Amazon currently has five distribution centers in the area with four more in the works. Last week, it announced it would be doubling the size of its Amazon Web Services office in the Loop. Earlier this year, it opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in the city in Lakeview. Oh, and all those Whole Foods stores in Chicago and the suburbs? Amazon owns those now too. Morning Shift talks to Brad Stone, senior executive editor for technology at Bloomberg News and author of the 2013 book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos And The Age Of Amazon about what Amazon’s rapid expansion in Chicagoland means for consumers and the local economy.