A whopping 238 locations threw their proposals in the ring to be the site of Amazon’s second headquarters. “For the chance to win high-paying tech jobs, cities and states offered as much as $8.5 billion in tax incentives, revamped their transit plans, and staged elaborate marketing campaigns to lure the company.” They also shared a ton of valuable information with a company that thrives on having a ton of valuable information. In the end, HQ2 will be divided between Arlington, VA and Long Island City in Queens. The only way the other 236 applicants could be any more disappointed would if Bezos decided to locate HQ2 within the campus of HQ1.

+ The bigger story here is about bigness. “Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft have together acquired more than 500 companies in the past decade.” Are we letting a few companies become way too massive because of an outdated definition of monopoly?

+ NYT: Amazon Is Getting $1.5 Billion to Come to Queens. Now Begins the Fight Over if It’s Worth It. (I had a feeling Queens would be the winner when I asked Alexa to tell me where HQ2 would end up and she said, “fuggedaboutit.”)

+ From Gizmodo, here’s one small example of Amazon’s influence. How Amazon Now Shapes What Our Stuff Looks Like. “Part of the challenge for companies that see sales shifting from store shelves to Amazon warehouses is the fact that selling certain goods comes with a lot of special Amazon-specific packaging requirements.”