Why I Don't Think Amazon is Coming to Miami.

I want to make this clear, I am not being negative.

Personally, I would love Amazon to have HQ2 in the Miami area. We are a wonderfully diverse, vibrant, exciting place to live with lots to offer. But in thinking about the viability of an HQ in South Florida like the MBA I am, there are several reasons why I don’t think it is going to happen. Disagreements are welcome by the way.

1: Miami is at the bottom, southeastern tip of the US. This makes the supply chain to the rest for the southeast region much longer, not shorter (there is a reason FedEx and most fulfillment centers are around Nashville, TN... that isn't accidental). Anyone who has driven from Miami to anywhere else out of Florida has wondered after ten hours in the car “are we even out of the state yet”.

2.  The infrastructure is total crap.  Road construction is magnificent, but congestion is a problem already. There are only two freeways that bisect the state. Only two freeways go South to North on either coast. Congestion on either effectively eliminates alternative routes.

3.  Frequency of the possibilities of shutdowns because of natural events like hurricanes that can halt everything for a week or more. 

4.  Let's be honest about that elephant in the room; employees from Miami at that price-point aren't exactly famous for their work ethic or punctuality.  In my personal experience I have done a significant amount of business with Amazon and other shippers. Items routinely leave the fulfillment centers on time, get to Miami, and then are frequently delayed, lost, or (like the couch I ordered from Wayfair) just disappear. The problems seem to begin as soon as items get to South Florida.

There might be factors that outweigh this; no-state income tax, friendly state and local government, probably tax incentives, a multi-lingual sales force, the unlikelihood of a snowstorm shutting down operations, a great quality of life for employees. And maybe amazon has an eye toward South American operations with Miami as the perfect jumping-off point (although the socialist direction South America is turning will destroy that market entirely and very quickly). But for just the geographic piece alone, I'm not feeling this.