over time it would dramatically increase the size of the pool of talented engineers, among tons of other stuff. That's a great thing for all the tech companies in the city or companies with engineering divisons (and there are quite a few). This is optimistic, but it might create enough demand for immediately adjacent housing that more areas get cleaned up (abandon houses torn down, etc..). Realistically amazon employees are well paid though, so they could live in almost any nearby community with a couple exceptions.
I don't know that it would affect Shipt's business a ton; its not like they are super tied to just the local (grocery) market any more.
That said, as much as I'd love it, Birmingham almost definitely isn't getting HQ2. Public transit is next to non-existent, the greater metro area BARELY meets their minimum requirement (~1.1m as of 2010), and while we are close to some major universities they don't have super strong CS departments (which might not be the end of the world); UAB probably has the strongest (and there are ~18k students total).
But, if somehow BHM HQ2 happens I will glady streak naked through my neighborhood wearing an Amazon box as a helmet.
I don't know about Shipt, but their moving there would start moving the marks on a lot of quality-of-life measurements and perhaps lift it out of dead last for nearly everything.
