Aaron might wonder how many of his fellow audience members bought tickets to that same show, went to dinner beforehand, maybe slipped a little something into the donation envelope, and went for drinks nearby after, thanks to their paychecks from Amazon. It doesn't make up for Amazon's not buying space for its logo atop the program, but it's nothing to sneeze at exactly, is it?

This was the first Christmas in probably the past 10 years that I did not spend a penny with Amazon. It wasn't a protest, they just didn't offer anything I wanted to buy that I couldn't get cheaper or faster or more locally somewhere else.

Good on them for their support of the arts. What was missing from their charity list? How about helping the poor out a little? You know, like food banks, community health centers, you know, something that their employees might have to use.

I don't mean to excuse Amazon's lack of community support (it's inexcusable), but Jeff Bezos did personally donate $10M to MOHAI earlier this year. It's probably a drop in the bucket compared to his kooky clock project, but it does show he cares for the city.

Also, I don't think "you measure how much a corporation cares about their community by how much they pour into local arts organizations." Or not solely arts organizations, at least.

Amazon should be sponsoring orgs that support diversity, public safety, human services, and more. Basically, as a gigantic online business making money hand over fist, they should support nonprofits across the gamut in communities in which they are physically doing business. Their sales probably don't garner sales tax in those areas, after all.

They need to get a lot better at giving back, no doubt.

What @1 said.

Also please consider that Boeing and Microsoft are much older (and quikly fading) corporations while Azon is compaitively younger and swiftly growing.

We shouldn't expect corporations to fill in the gaps where our Goverent has failed us, that's silly.

I'd like to buy an "A" and a "M" please.

I just had a chat with a couple of programmers on this issue. They said there is a debate within the company about charitable giving, and the general consensus is that the employees would rather have higher salaries than have Amazon do the charity thing a lot. The execs listen to that. Also, I would like to point out that Jeff himself just gave 15 million for brain cancer research. http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/…

Seriously, deal.

@7, the employees would rather have higher salaries than have Amazon do the charity thing a lot

False dichotomy. I hope your programmer friends don't buy that bullshit.

Corporate community relations are just another budget item, they don't affect salary for employees in companies of Amazon's size.

I wouldn't give money to a ballet company whose christmas eve performances of the nutcracker include lightsabers and letter jackets, either.

@7: Too bad for your friends that Amazon is a white collar sweatshop with shit benefits.

I don't buy the alignment of corporations with charitable giving unless it's par of the nature of the corporation. Amazon doesn't need to buy good will, and it has a mandate to return value to shareholders. Many companies agree, and support and facilitate giving by employees (which Amazon does not seem to do, either), rather than give directly from corporate profits which technically belong to shareholders.

Other firms see, and shareholders seem to agree, that corporate giving is part of the picture. Thus, Boeing and Microsoft, who want good local press, and want a vibrant community for its employees to enjoy (and thus help recruit people into this area) give.

Jeff hasn't lived in Seattle for years (he lives on the eastside in a former timber baron mansion, I believe), and I don't know where most executives live. I don't know what stake they have here, nor do they think that they have to get the community to support them.

That said, I worked at Amazon many years ago, and Jeff was a terrifically generous person and cared deeply about the arts and scientific research. Not every company will align its interests the same way.

there are 2 consistent things i hear from people who work(ed) at amazon (mostly in engineering)

1) your job might suck depending on what "team" you're on

2) bezos is a giant asshole

the dude is brilliant but, if you want some serious insight, go put "steve yegge on jeff bezos" into google.

You know who gave/gives even less? Steve Jobs and Apple. Where's that story? Oh that's right, we can't disparage the demi God who made all the expensive shiny toys.

You want Amazon to pony up? TAX THE MOTHER FUCKERS!!! If we had a tax base that the wealthy corporations contributed to we could have public funding for the arts and money to provide services for the poor.

So you don't like the fact Amazon doesn't give to charity? TAX THE MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!

One of Amazon's core tenets is frugality: http://www.amazon.com/Values-Careers-Hom… If you can convince Amazon that donating money to a ballet will lower product prices, get products to customers faster and increase the selection then they will donate. Until then, they will strategically invest the money on initiatives that directly improve those things.

@9, that is a christmas eve tradition at PNB. the audience loves it.

#14 is right, the entire point of the game they're playing is that assholes win.

You're comparing AMZN to MSFT? Ok, let's start with their financials.

AMZN earned a measly $60 million last quarter on razor thin margins, whereas MSFT cleared $7.2 billion. That's a difference of over 100 times.

I'm guessing donations as a function of earnings probably shows AMZN to be the more generous.

Also, AMZN has over $2 billion in long term debt (MSFT has none), so any donations they do give consist of borrowed money.

They don't give a shit about their employees, either. The place burns people out and simply shovels more warm bodies into the bio-reactor. They attract talent, consume it to the husk, and look for more. I'd LOVE to work for a stable local company, but will never take a job at Amazon. I tell everyone I know. People in my professional network feel the same.

Not really surprised they don't donate much compared to their peers.

And to the person who says that there are more people buying tickets to local art thanks to Amazon giving them jobs - I call bullshit. How could they buy tickets to a 7 or 8 pm show? They're still at work or answering email from their couch in a semi-vegetative state.

Amazon has knife edge profits in the 1 to 2 percent range.

And their electronics like Kindle and Fire lose money!

@8

So you believe the money already exists in Amazon's budget. It just needs to be shifted from, uh, whatever you think it's being spent on to local charities.

What is it being spent on now? And how do you know this about Amazon?

@18

Facts! Listen to you, on the Slog. With your facts!

I have it on good authority that Amazon already has the money in their budget. They can donate to charity and it won't come out of salaries, and it won't be borrowed. It's just there! I read it on the slog.

No. Next rhetorical question, please.

I'd love to see the entitled Occupiers occupy the entitled Amazonite campus. They'd mutually self-destruct in a black hole of whining.

It's a shame Paul won't be able to understand @18. It's pretty much all you need to know about the subject, but it fails to prove that Amazon is evil, so Constant won't be interested.

Microsoft's profit last year $23B
http://www.bing.com/finance/search?q=MSF…

Amazon's profit last year: $1.15B
http://www.bing.com/finance/search?q=AMZ…

Microsoft is a much larger and more profitable company than Amazon. It's not reasonable to expect the same level of contributions from them.

(Full disclosure I'm an engineer at Amazon and I used to work for Microsoft. I think they're both great companies to work at.)

@25 and he will casually ignore 13's comment.

How is it that Apple (Which has a high profit margin) killed all charitable donations upon Steve Jobs return in 1997 and they get a free pass. But Amazon (which has a low profit margin) doesnt and suddenly we need to force them into donating money to charity?

So the measure of a corporation's civic-mindedness is how much tax-deductible money they give to "charities" that are primarily entertainment venues for rich white people? Fascinating.

The scandal here isn't that Amazon doesn't participate in this scam. The scandal is that Microsoft and Boeing do, and that you fell for it.

First of all, @8 is completely right. When it comes to wages, Amazon is primarily a price taker, not a price maker. Unless employees were willing to accept below-market wages, Amazon would not be able to pay for charitable giving by reducing salaries. Too many people would leave.

On the other hand, when it comes to its products, Amazon is a price maker, simply because it often has the lowest price by far for many goods. So it is possible that more charitable giving would cause Amazon to raise prices.

Anyway, everyone comparing Amazon to all these other companies is missing the point. The point is that Amazon is not, in any real sense, a local company. They're an international megacorporation that happens to be headquartered in Seattle, just like Wal-Mart is an international megacorporation that happens to be headquartered in Arkansas. If you're okay with that, great! But if you want your money to support your local community -- which doesn't just include charity, but also events (like book readings), and even just the street life and vitality you get from a rich retail scene -- then you should be shopping at truly local stores.

If you measure how much a corporation cares about their community by how much they pour into local arts organizations—and there are very few other thermometers available to rate corporate concern...

Really? The arts are more important than community groups, the homeless, education, health, etc.? Only in the warped world of Slog writers.

@1: You have no idea whether your hypothesis that amazon.com employees greatly support the local arts scene. You have no proof.

@18: I would think that that profit margin, or lack thereof, is part of the overall problem with Amazon. It's probably easier to be more generous to the local community when you have nearer to retail as opposed to wholesale pricing.