Lately, we see news of quite a few redundancy procedures: H&M is negotiating the departure of 106 people; Nestlé has proposed a redundancy plan for several hundred workers; Telefónica closed another massive layoff process a few months ago.What is surprising is that the economy is doing well. Spain, although with less strength than a few years ago, is still growing. The GDP is holding up. We are controlling inflation. Consumption is resisting. Restaurants are full. Airports too. People continue to buy. Why, then, so many EROs?Here appears Amazon. And not just Amazon, of course. But Amazon better than anyone summarizes the reason for the massive layoffs in an environment of economy that is not in crisis.In 2024, Amazon surpassed 8 billion euros in gross sales in Spain. It's half a point of GDP; an outrageous amount. The general e-commerce figure is, however, misleading. It's said to be one in every ten purchases. But in certain sectors, it has skyrocketed. For example, in fashion, almost 25% of clothing purchases are already made online.Here, what is happening with occupation is better understood. Fashion stores, for example, do not compete only against the store next door or the other brand. They also compete against the sofa at home, the mobile phone in hand, the desire to give yourself a treat, and, above all, a return without explanations or queues at the checkout.In economics we use a concept: friction. In consumption, friction is having to leave home, travel to the store, compare and search, look for fitting rooms, wait for your turn, try on clothes, queue at the checkout, carry bags... If something went wrong, you had to go back and argue.Now all of this is done in a few clicks. One click. Another click. In about twelve clicks, you have the product. Delivery the next day to your home and easy returns if it's not what you expected. The friction is minimal: the consumer encounters almost no obstacles.Word of honor: this week, a colleague told me that at five in the morning he woke up without sleep, grabbed his cell phone and bought himself a Bad Bunny t-shirt. It was Tuesday, not the weekend.Some redundancies are better understood from here. Employment is shifting. Fewer people at the counter and more in the warehouse; fewer at the checkout and more programming algorithms; fewer sales assistants and more delivery drivers…Buying in the afternoon and receiving the next day a product located perhaps 600 kilometers away requires data, prediction, automation, routes, intelligent warehouses, and systems capable of anticipating demand. This is also AI!The topic is not technology, but how it modifies social habits.
