Or they spend their extra money at Amazon because prices are lower. Or you are right and it helps brick and mortar in the handful of cities with Amazon warehouses, but hurts everywhere else.
Worst case for Amazon is they maintain status quo by forcing competitors cost up. Best case for Amazon is that they drive some of their competition out of business, or take some of that business because super giant Amazon is better able to absorb the increased wage cost than smaller businesses.
It is very much like their state sales tax collection strategy. Oppose it for as long as possible, accept it, then lobby for everyone else to have to do it.
The thing is, this is a bit circular. How can Amazon pay more than others, but it hurts them less? Because they have some kind of competitive advantage, no? That advantage is going to manifest somewhere. Saying that they are going to get a competitive advantage by raising wages, which they could only do because they had a competitive advantage... Doesn't really go anywhere. This just happens to be the chosen manifestation of their advantage, and honestly higher wages are probably one of the more socially-positive manifestations.
Worst case for Amazon is they maintain status quo by forcing competitors cost up. Best case for Amazon is that they drive some of their competition out of business, or take some of that business because super giant Amazon is better able to absorb the increased wage cost than smaller businesses.
It is very much like their state sales tax collection strategy. Oppose it for as long as possible, accept it, then lobby for everyone else to have to do it.