If I reduce the amount of employees, then I can minimally raise the hourly wages for others.

For those 3k cashierless jobs, Amazon if off the hook for:

taxes
insurances
payroll
other perks

So, I believe it plays a role regardless of how long it has been in the works.

I could picture some analyst walking in and making the suggestion to do this. It's easy to picture because I used to be one of those analysts.

Either way, I'm hopeful for a happy medium but we know that it does not work that way all the time.

No ties. Somebody wins. Somebody loses.