Amazon is really just an inevitability. Walmart could have easily beat them to the model if they weren't so focused on physical locations at the time that Jeffy B. was expanding ecommerce.
The irony about Amazon buying up these defunct properties is that Sears has every opportunity to be Amazon - they held (and still do technically) massive amounts of real estate, all of which was very well positioned to become micro distribution centers (aka exactly what Amazon is doing now). All they needed to do was get their heads out of their asses and turn their famous mail order catalogs into an ecommerce version, but then we'd all be railing about the dominance of Sears and their shitty practices.
Although Amazon is just being opportunistic, it's still really shitty - sure they pay $15 an hour, but for the vast majority of workers there's little to no chance at upward mobility. Often Amazon is also the only game in town, and even if someone is reasonably skilled and intelligent there's still a really good chance they would just end up working for Amazon because they don't have the means to escape the area they were raised in - since Amazon had edged out so many other small businesses.
But darker than that, Amazon is systematically competing with sellers on its own platform across nearly every category. They are deliberately making themselves the only game in town - just look at all the Amazon Basics or other Amazon branded products across a huge range of categories now. You can't compare it to store-brand (like Kirkland, or Great Value, etc.) either because Amazon is taking data on every transaction, scraping every review, and figuring out just how it can manufacture its onw products to edge out and eventually eliminate the competition within its own platform.
Roll that into AWS, Prime Video, its publishing house, Prime Music, Whole Foods, and what do you get? A fucking monopoly. A monopoly which is glad to crush the will of its own workers. Amazon workers in most segments are completely fungible, not a great thing for people who need a stable job.
I think the statistic is that 8% of all things bought or sold in the US are down through Amazon.
And they've used that power to crush local economies that decide to insource a warehouse - seeking massive tax breaks, preferential treatment, and carte blanche to set themselves up to be as efficient as possible while giving fuckall to the people who actually live there.
Those Amazon vans driving through Costco? They're saving themselves a few precious seconds to get their first deliveries out, because all those drivers know that the guy with the worst stats for whatever period Amazon evaluates them over is going to be canned, so who gives a fuck about the Costco shoppers? I've got to get my first delivery out.
But like I said, it's an inevitability. We literally asked for this to happen. Maybe not people here, but I know I have had a hand in it, and much of the country has as well. An endless catalog of products, at some of the lowest prices, delivered faster than anyone else? Sounds great, as long as you pretend there are no societal implications associated with those asks.
Amazon's not the only bad guy, but boy are they the worst of them.
