Wonders never cease as business leaders from Tucson, Arizona tried to send a 21-foot cactus through the mail to Jeff Bezos who is the chief executive officer of Amazon. As for Tulsa, Oklahoma, city officials have decided to convert the largest conference room to a war room with 50 people from the city pondering videos from Jeff Bezos. Philadelphia is using students in an effort to pitch the Pennsylvania city to giant retailers Amazon. The students belong to Wharton Business School. Finally, the mayor of Ottawa took matters into his own hands when he decided to fly to Seattle to get close to Amazon. Jim Watson who is the Ottawa mayor described the race to woo Amazon as the Amazing Race. The characters, in this case, are the cities which are all running towards the Holy Grail which is Amazon. Amazon announced that they are looking for a second headquarters that will be situated in a city in North America. During the announcement, through its chief executive Jeff Bezos, Amazon said that they were willing to invest over $5 billion in the city that convinces them. They will, in turn, create 50,000 jobs in the city and this is what has led to the enormous competition between these cities.
Some of the requirements set by Amazon were walkability and proximity to the airport. This gave officials an opportunity to sell their town and cities to what is being referred to as the biggest development economically in the United States. With these cities going to great lengths to impress the Amazon CEO, the question that remains is whether he is impressed. According to Adam Sedo who is Amazon Spokesman, he said that the company is being energized by the towns’ responses. He says that it was the aim of the company to make the cities to think big. He acknowledges that they are seen the responses. As for Frisco, Texas which is a small city of around 160,000 people, they have promised to build their city around Amazon. This is according to Jeff Cheney who is the mayor of the town. He acknowledges that his city is 60 percent built which offers them the opportunity to grow. Amazon has made it clear that all applications by the cities should be submitted by 19th October. As for Canada, they are using the country itself as the selling point. They have stated that their immigration policy is quite good making it more liberal than the US.
