I don't know that incentives were really a driving factor here. I think the competition between the 200+ cities was so Amazon could basically build a database filled with information that most people don't even know about their own cities. North American cities just gave Amazon a virtual treasure trove of information, free of charge. Amazon will use this to extort concessions when it comes to building distribution and data centers and other potential offices in the future.
If incentives were the factor then why not pick NJ or Maryland? Those two each offered over $6 billion, NJ over $7 billion I believe. VA's incentives will clock in at about $1 billion and change, NYC around $3 billion and Nashville (I'd hardly call that an HQ announcement) is around $100 million (all this is based on what I've seen so far). This is still a boatload of money, but not anywhere close to what they could have extracted from another state. If it was about incentives, Amazon lefts billions upon billions on the table.
The whole thing was a sham. The writing was on the wall from the start if you ask me. Bezos owns a $23 million mansion in DC and the Washington Post and lo and behold 3 DC locations made the short list. He was going home all along...he just decided to take everyone else along for the ride.
