Bezos’ challenge to raise wages may have been a PR stunt, but I doubt it. And even if it was, frontline employees will benefit. Raising retail wages appears to be a growing trend. As noted, Target and Walmart are well on their way to increasing wages, benefits and training for employees. Ultimately, frontline employees have a significant impact on store experience and sales results. Higher wages will enable retailers to attract and retain the best employees. I believe that more and more retailers will follow this trend and I must say, it’s about time.

It’s always about PR with Bezos. I think most retailers pay their warehouse workers $15/hour-plus — after all, they are generally trying to keep unions out, and Amazon doesn’t have enough stores to matter, particularly (I don’t see Whole Foods Market mentioned in here, and even if it is in, Whole Foods has always been a good paying company).

So there’s not a lot of cost to Amazon, more endless free press and pressure on competitors.

Having said that, I have predicted that absent some kind of economic collapse, this year will find retailers with a lot of upward wage pressures in stores. If you really want your employees to engage with customers in a real way, or you really want them to work hard and stay around for a while, you have to be competitive. And that means paying a living wage.

I’m glad for it, honestly. It’s going to place tremendous pressure on store P&L’s, but there isn’t much choice.

It’s great that Amazon is jumping on the minimum wage bus. But they are certainly not first. Many retailers have already made significant strides here. This does fall into Amazon’s opportunistic mindset however. Many retailers are ill-equipped to raise wages or provide added employee services without ripping into their profits. Surely Bezos knows this. From the outside it looks like Amazon is using capital to eliminate market competition and even push low margin retailers out. Internally, maybe he’s become more magnanimous now that he’s the wealthiest of all. Retailers won’t be following his lead on this one though — they can’t afford to.

Let’s label this for what it is – a PR stunt. It costs Amazon nothing to challenge other retailers to raise their wages having done so itself already. As others have already noted they did for many reasons some of which may have been our of genuine concern for their workers but many of which were not. As Walmart’s retort indicated Amazon didn’t have to pay any federal taxes nor does every retailer have a non-retail revenue stream that contributes a large share of its income.

The playbook seems to involve owning the conversation, deflecting from related news (for example the reports of the working conditions that these $15/hour workers experience), and most importantly distract the competition. If only for a few hours yesterday preparing a response, or at most a few meetings running a cost/benefit analysis — it cost Amazon and JB nothing.

I feel like this is part PR and part competitive challenge for all retailers. I guess I am more sensitive to this than others, but it always scares me when huge retailers make a move and sometimes literally make other retailers meet them … It smacks of one competitor running the other’s business. I am all for fair wages and advancement. I do not think it wise to start a race of upping the ante by a buck. Who knows where that goes or what it starts.

While Jeff Bezos never passes up an opportunity for more PR (and the media sure does feed the beast), in this case, I am happy to see the coverage of the minimum wage issue. While it isn’t necessarily a fair fight as Amazon has so few stores to staff, I think the conversation is good for everyone. Higher wages across the board will help associates stay in their jobs and be happier (and hence more productive). Happier, productive associates deliver better experiences, which leads to happier customers, who visit more/spend more. Which leads to happier quarterly returns. Oh, and the economy will benefit from more people with more disposable income, too, which helps retail. A win-win-win-win. What’s not to like about this public wage-shaming?

Amazon has huge advantages that the competition doesn’t – a massive cash cow in AWS and an extremely low cost of $$. They can provide wages even higher and put more pressure on their competition to follow suit (and hurt their margins). As others have already said, this is good PR – the likes of which few are better at than Bezos.

First of all Bezos is probably — as always — looking for a new way to get positive PR. As to the response, in a tight labor market employers are forced to raise starting wages, so anything is possible. Of course, if Amazon’s competitors fall into the trap Bezos has set and raise starting salaries to $16 an hour, he’ll just turn around a raise them a dollar an hour — a cheap investment for positive publicity.

Yes, this is about PR. It’s always about PR with Amazon. We see this truth further revealed in the silliness Amazon released about third-party sellers. Now that investor-funded losses have bought the loyalty of third-party sellers, Amazon wants those sellers to help protect against a government mandated breakup.

My advice to Amazon’s rivals is just to go about your business. Amazon loves to try to manipulate the world — and has been able to do that with press releases. But would a $15.50 per hour minimum at Walmart be a good response? Never. Amazon has won the “we have been lousy and are trying to be better” sweepstakes. Walmart (and the rest) should just sit back and let Amazon spin themselves into a train wreck.