NYC mayor says Amazon Prime Day is ‘perfect day not to shop Amazon’
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio addressed business economic recovery efforts for small businesses around the city by first acknowledging that Monday was the start of Amazon Prime Day.
“Today’s Prime Day — it’s a perfect day not to shop Amazon, it’s a perfect day to keep it local, to buy from neighborhood stores,” the mayor said as he unveiled the tongue-in-cheek concept of being a “prime” shopper, asking New Yorkers to shop in their city.
De Blasio also highlighted that shopping local would support Amazon workers. “While Amazon has gotten richer and richer, their workers have not,” the mayor said, quickly pointing out that Amazon is Staten Island’s largest employer but adding that the e-commerce giant has repeatedly blocked attempts by its employees to unionize.
Amazon maintained that it “has a strong track record of supporting our people, our customers, and our communities” following the mayor’s briefing, Max Gleber, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement.
“This is a series of misleading assertions by misinformed or self-interested groups who are using Amazon’s profile to further their individual causes,” Gleber said.
In an attempt to help New Yorkers start new businesses and further contribute to the city’s economic growth, de Blasio announced a new program Monday dubbed “NYC Business Quick Start,” which he said would “make New York City the easiest place in America to start a business.”
“We’ve created a small business concierge. Literally, you want to open a business? You call the city of New York, you get a specific person, a facilitator, someone who’s going to be with you the whole way through to cut the red-tape to make it simple, to get you answers and to get the doors of your business open,” de Blasio said.
With a guaranteed 48-hour response time to respondents, the mayor added that he was committing $11 million to the initiative and dedicating over 100 personnel across a variety of city agencies to help NYC small businesses.
