Was Amazon's headquarters contest a bait-and-switch? Critics say yes

The company got information from dozens of cities about how much they would pay for a strong Amazon presence, valuable data that it will no doubt use to expand

What a farce.

That was one of the immediate reactions when word leaked out on Monday that Amazon’s much-ballyhooed search for a second headquarters outside of Seattle would result in not one, but two new locations. On Twitter, people used farce, sham or stunt to describe what had happened. 

Amazon’s critics were apoplectic at what they called a bait-and-switch.

“I was shocked,” said Robert B. Engel of the Free & Fair Markets Initiative, a nonprofit that is a determined foe of the retailer on all fronts. “They’ve duped more than the bidders. They’ve duped all of us. They can’t even