Amazon announces new HQ sites, Starbucks announces cuts, and Consumers Expect to Spend More on Gifts in 2018

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) announced Tuesday that it will build two new Headquarters facilities in the United States amid record-high consumer confidence while Starbucks (SBUX) announces layoffs, Fox Business’ Charles Payne reports.

Amazon chose New York City and the Washington, D.C. area, specifically Alexandria, Virginia, for its two new headquarters campuses placing them firmly in the nation’s financial and political centers. Amazon is set to receive almost $3 billion in taxpayer-funded incentives from New York and Virginia. The two cities are bastions of liberal bias similar to Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, Washington.

Another Seattle-based company, Starbucks, is going in the opposite direction as the company announced that it will cut 5% of its workforce in a bid to appease investors.

“Today will be a difficult day for all of us,” Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson wrote in an email to employees. “As we continue evolving our core areas of marketing, creative, product, technology and store development, we are making some significant changes to these areas, as well as other functions across our global business.”

The two left-coast companies are making their latest moves just as consumers are set to spend more money during the holiday season. Consumer confidence is at a record high and this year and a new survey says that more than one-in-three Americans expect to spend $500 or more this holiday season. The same survey says that 60% of Americans feel better off financially than they did last year.