The electronic commerce giant Amazon (AMZN  ) has been looking for a second home. After a global search across three countries, with 238 possible locations from the U.S., and along with other choices from Mexico and Canada, the company has narrowed their list to 20 finalists. Amazon head of worldwide economic development, Holly Sullivan, noted that "getting from 238 to 20 was very tough - all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity. Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation." Of the finalists, several U.S. cities make the list, as well as the city of Toronto in Canada. As expected, most of the selections were major metropolitan areas, such as New York City and Los Angeles. But other cities that were thought to be strong contenders, such as Detroit and San Diego, were surprisingly denied. Areas from Mexico were not considered further. In a flurry of bids, cities are making themselves desirable by offering tax breaks and other incentives such as workforce training, promises to support permits and approvals, and infrastructure spending.

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Amazon has specified the criteria for its most ideal location: a cosmopolitan city that has a diverse population of greater than one million, as well as the likelihood of attracting and maintaining technical talent. In addition, the company has noted their desire for an airport nearby, reasonable commutes, and local schools that produce future employees. As a reward for the city that is ultimately chosen, Amazon plans to offer a stream of approximately 50,000 new young workers that will have an average income of $100,000 over the course of 10 to 15 years. Amazon also plans to spend $5 billion on the project alone.

Although the Seattle-based company offers many advantages for the chosen city, some advise against the reciprocal offer of heavy incentives by cities. A principal at the location-advisory firm Site Selection Group, Josh Bays, remarked, "Economic development is a useful tool, but I would never advise a company to use economic incentives to ID a long list of candidates," further noting that features such as the availability raw materials and the size of the location's workforce hold greater importance. Likewise, others have critiqued the competitive nature of the entire bidding war itself. Given that the majority of cities considered are all in the United States, the collective focus to appeal to one company worries some. In one essay, Arthur J. Rolnick and Melvin L. Burstein said that "while states spend billions of dollars competing with one another to retain and attract businesses they struggle to provide such public goods as schools and libraries, police and fire protection, and the roads, bridges and parks that are critical to the success of any community."

While Amazon looks for a new city to host their second headquarters, they are not alone. Multinational technology company Apple (AAPL  ) is also looking for a new location for its next campus. Unlike Amazon, however, the company will not use a public bidding method.