DENVER, Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Colorado local governments and school districts spent $7,177,022 on Amazon in 2023 — over 150% times the inflation-adjusted $2,678,614 it spent in 2016 — according to estimates in a major new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). The report found school districts could have saved 17 percent of costs if Amazon had not overcharged them.

The report highlights how local governments and schools are subject to Amazon's AI-driven "dynamic pricing," which raises and lowers prices constantly according to the company's "vast trove of data" about customers.

In 2023, an employee of the City of Boulder bought a 12-pack of Sharpie fine-point black markers for $8.99. The report states, "That same day, an employee of the Denver Public Schools, just an hour away, bought the identical pack of markers. But this time Amazon charged $28.63 — three times as much."

Amazon even charges different prices within the same school district. Denver County School District 1 paid $15.39 versus $61.87 for the same stapler in a matter of days.

Drawing on purchasing records from 128 cities, counties, and school districts serving 51 million Americans, a sweeping new investigation by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) — Turning Public Money into Amazon's Profits: The Hidden Cost of Ceding Government Procurement to a Monopoly Gatekeeper — exposes how Amazon has used its market power, political influence, and opaque pricing algorithms to insert itself into public purchasing systems with little transparency or oversight.

"Public officials should be deeply concerned by what we found," said Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of ILSR. "Amazon is reshaping public procurement in ways that expose taxpayer dollars to waste and risk. It has persuaded cities and schools to abandon safeguards meant to ensure fair prices and accountability — while driving out independent suppliers, eroding competition, and putting Amazon in a position to dictate terms."

Denver city, county, and school district purchases on Amazon divert business away from its own communities. According to the report, "Of the district's $5.6 million in Amazon purchases, only $49,000 went to Colorado-based sellers, while $2.4 million went to Amazon itself and $1.6 million to businesses outside the U.S., again largely in China."

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SOURCE Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)