Hello! James Zeller here. I've been meeting with a group of unaffiliated artists to discuss the issue of corporate influence in Humboldt and the damage it is doing to our culture and economy. I made this page as a way for people to learn and connect. Thanks for your time!
We are unconvinced that an Amazon Warehouse would be anything other than destructive to Humboldt County. Our opinions are based on the reading of numerous studies. One of the purposes of this website is to share these with you. We also hope to connect with you, whatever your view. It is our opinion that conflict within a community is a gift: a chance to connect and know each other more deeply. ***contact us here***
There has been no decision on this project. The planning commission can still deny the permit, as can the Board of Supervisors. We hope you’ll spread the word, and come to public events centered around this topic.
Stop Amazon In Humboldt is hosting a community walk in Mckinleyville on Oct. 24. Please come!
Please consider carpooling! Carpools will depart from the Sanctuary at 1301 J Street in Arcata at 10:30 am. A Redwood Transit bus leaves the Arcata Transit Center and arrives at the airport (nearby) at 10:45. (Here's the full bus schedule.) It is a short walk down from the airport to the site. Guides will be on the bus.
Below you will find:
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A couple of links we hope everyone in Humboldt county watches that provide insight into Amazon business practices that harm local economies.
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An Article published by the North Coast Journal with links to cited studies.
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An extended list of links
For now this page exists primarily to provide a way to get in contact with organizers and to provide community with some helpful resources. Thanks again for your time!
Think Amazon provides good jobs for drivers? Think again. Watch Harvard professor Daniel Schneider explain how Amazon’s Flex and DSP driver model drive down wages in the retail sector and hurt workers below.
Think Amazon is committed to its Climate Pledge? There is mounting evidence that Amazon’s expertise is not in innovative solutions to energy problems, but rather in Orwellian Newspeak. This article by the Jacobin discusses Amazon’s Climate Pledge Lie.
Think Amazon lowers prices? The Institute for Local Self Reliance (besides inspiring our name) is a wealth of information on how Amazon uses its monopoly power to drive up prices, and drive local businesses out of business. Click Here for the ILSR resources page on Amazon.
Amazon has paid for studies authored by scientists they employ. Those studies show how great Amazon is for local economies. Are we surprised?
Almost every other institution that has authored studies on Amazon’s impact on local economies disagrees with Amazon’s result. Amazon is shown to have a negative impact on local economies in studies published by The Institute for Local Self Reliance, Harvard University, American Independent Business Alliance, The National Bureau of Economic Research, University of Chicago Illinois Center For Urban Economic Developement, American Economic Liberties Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The following article describes some of those study results in brief, and provides citations with links.
“Amazon by the Numbers”
By Yours Truly (James Zeller)
(originally printed by the North Coast Journal July 9th 2026
The impact Amazon’s proposed distribution center in McKinleyville would have is being debated in person and online. I suggest we avail ourselves of whatever knowledge we can find, with a critical eye to its sources.
We learn by listening to each other, sharing resources, reading studies and also paying attention to what other communities’ experiences tell us about an Amazon warehouse’s/delivery facility’s impact. The debate is an opportunity to learn, communicate and connect about the community we want to support here.
Studies I have read suggest Amazon may hurt, not help, our local economy and our county’s ongoing employment and housing crises.
A 2023 American Economic Liberties Project study (link) found that in communities with Amazon warehouses, retail workers’ pay dropped by 2.4 percent after Amazon’s arrival. Retail workers’ pay fell as far as 100 miles away. Local retail sectors lost jobs, which were not offset by jobs added within the Amazon warehouse.
A study from the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development (link) found that 53 percent of Amazon workers experienced one or more forms of food insecurity, while 48 percent reported one or more forms of housing insecurity. According to a National Bureau of Economic Research study (link), a 2.9 percent decline in employment growth of the retail sector was also found in counties with Amazon fulfillment centers.
Civic Economics found that for every $100 spent at a local independent business, $68 recirculate locally, whereas only $42 of $100 spent at a chain store stay local. More recent studies suggest wider margins, with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance showing that for every $100 spent at a corporate chain business, only $13 recirculate in the local economy, while for every $100 spent at locally owned business, $52 recirculate locally. (link here)
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance reports, “three-quarters of independent retailers ranked Amazon’s dominance as a major threat to their survival, and only 11 percent of those selling on its site described their experience as successful.” (link)
According to Amazon’s Stephen Maduli-Williams’ comments during the Azalea Hall public meeting on April 29, Amazon is not offering 227 Amazon employee jobs. Amazon employees would total “around 80” warehouse jobs. The other 165 would be independent contractors (delivery drivers), none of whom would be covered by Amazon health insurance, provided workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance or overtime pay as full employees would be. (Citation 6 below)
Of the proposed independent contractors, 112 would be “Flex” drivers who drive their personal vehicles, pay for their own gas and vehicle wear and tear out of their on national average $19/hour wages. They can have an out-of-state license and out-of-state vehicle registrations — anyone with the Flex app can follow YouTube instructions to easily switch what state they can work in. The other 43 proposed independently contracted drivers are Amazon “Delivery Service Providers” (DSPs).
“Amazon Drives Low Wages: The Unraveling of Workplace Protections for Delivery Drivers,” a 2025 study published by the Harvard Kennedy School Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy reveals problems with Amazon’s delivery model. (study linked here) (please watch and share this YouTube video) DSPs drivers make $19/hour, while UPS averages $35/hour. The average Amazon DSP and Flex driver lasts about 1 year on the job, compared to 10 years for FedEx and UPS. The key reason Amazon drivers quit is that their wages do not increase with tenure, and they do not have upward mobility. Flex drivers are denied the right to unionize, while DPS drivers who have managed to unionize have had their companies’ contracts terminated.
The National Employment Law Project has also published a study on Flex drivers, “Delivering Precarity: How Amazon Flex Harms Workers and What to Do About It.” (link) This study’s findings agree with Harvard Kennedy School’s, and states, “Through Flex and its public policy work, Amazon is eroding labor standards in the broader last-mile delivery sector and beyond.”
A better question than “Will Amazon help our economy?” is “What kind of business environment do we want to see here?” If all we focus on is the promise of temporary increases in the number of jobs and total wages (not a conclusion supported by independent studies) and the temporary but slight decreases in poverty (also not supported by the studies I’ve cited) then we miss a lot.
The longer-range outcomes we need to consider are who gets hired to do what and how does this effect the existing business environment, infrastructure and local culture at large. Amazon’s expansion in the delivery and warehouse sector won’t necessarily create new wealth or jobs for Humboldt County. A more likely scenario is that with decreased delivery time, Amazon expansion will cause a larger share of Humboldt retail purchases to be done online, sending profits to distant banks overnight and removing wealth from the community. Delivery jobs that are already being done by employees receiving a living wage will be threatened. Warehouse jobs would replace local retail jobs as local retailers’ sales drop.
It is true we have an unemployment problem, but would this make it better? We have a special local business culture. If we allow Amazon to open a warehouse, what kind of cultural change might that herald? Amazon could do great damage to our local economy and once that economy is gone, it might be too late to return to the way things were.
Amazon is being sued for price gouging by exorbitantly and illegally raising the price of essential goods (toilet paper and masks) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and being sued for price-fixing, illegally using their influence to force other retailers to raise their prices.
Led by the corporate power and greed of a billionaire owner, Amazon Inc. continues to break laws and violate basic moral decency. I do not trust them. I encourage anyone on the fence about this to read these studies. For anyone who disagrees, I hope to listen to you, learn, communicate and connect.
(1) Garofalo, Pat, American Economics Liberties Project “The Local Harms of Amazon and What State Lawmakers Can Do About Them” (November 2023) https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20230929-AELP-Amazon-Brief_FINAL.pdf
(2) Gutelius, Beth and Pinto, Sanjay, University of Chicago Illinois Center For Urban Economic Development, “Handling Hardship” https://cued.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/219/2024/05/Handling-Hardship-Final_May2024.pdf
(3)(Chava, Sudheer and Oettl, Alexander and Singh, Manpreet and Zeng, Linghang, Creative Destruction? Impact of E-Commerce on the Retail Sector (May 2022). NBER 1orking Paper No. w30077, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4122806)
(4) Mitchell, Stacy, Institute for Local Self-Reliance,”Independent Businesses Produce Bigger Economic Benefits”, Study Concludes (October 21, 2004) https://ilsr.org/article/independent-business/independent-businesses-produce-bigger-economic-benefits-study-concludes/ )
(5) (please refer to studies by: American Independent Business Alliance (Amiba) https://amiba.net/local-multiplier/ and Civic Economics https://www.civiceconomics.com/indie-impact.html)
(6) Mitchell, Stacy and Knox, Ron, Institute for Local Self-Reliance “Issue Brief: How Amazon Exploits and Undermines Small Businesses, and Why Breaking It Up Would Revive American Entrepreneurship” https://ilsr.org/article/independent-business/fact-sheet-how-breaking-up-amazon-can-empower-small-business/
(7) Please refer to Mr. Stephen Maduli-Williams comments during the Azalea Hall public meeting, 4-29-2026 (transcript and notes below)
(8) Schneider, Weil, Su, and Bruey, Shift, Research Brief, 10/2025, Harvard Kennedy School Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy “Amazon Drives Low Wages: The Unraveling of Workplace Protections for Delivery Drivers” https://shift.hks.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Shift_brief_Oct25.pdf
(9) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI8_Y0aFUzA
