Amazon Shows How to Be a Business During a Crisis, The company is in an important and unique position to help us get through this challenging time.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Amazon is one of the most important companies on the planet right now. With as many as 90 percent of Americans under ‘stay at home’ orders, Amazon has become more a part of our daily lives than ever before. 

It’s hiring 100,000 workers at a time when 10 million people filed for unemployment in just two weeks. It’s prioritizing the products that people need at a time when online shopping has surged. And its cloud computing platform is more important than ever as millions of people are working from home. That’s not even to mention the scientists and researchers who are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to find therapies and–hopefully–a vaccine for Covid-19. 

It may also provide some escape from the chaos and anxiety of the world around us through good books on our Kindles or by renting a movie to watch with our kids. Sure, it isn’t the only place you can find either of those, but right now, every little bit helps.

Oh, and Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million to food banks to help people who just lost their jobs and can’t afford to feed their kids. Don’t tell me how that’s no big deal because it’s basically pocket change to him. $100 million is real money no matter how you count it, and the people whose children will be fed couldn’t care less how much he has left over. 

And that doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t have issues. For example, employees at one of its facilities in Staten Island went on strike earlier this week over concerns that it isn’t doing enough to protect workers.

Then, the company faced backlash for firing the strike organizer, who Amazon said violated company policy by coming back to work after being asked to self-isolate due to his potential exposure to a coworker who tested positive for Covid-19. 

Read more: inc