Amazon donates cactus sent to lure company to Tucson

PHOENIX — Everyone has received a gift they may not have liked, but this one is more unusual than a bad sweater: Amazon has donated a cactus sent to it by a Tucson group hoping to convince the company to open its second headquarters in Arizona.

Amazon announced the donation to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in a tweet sent earlier this week, saying it “can’t keep gifts (even really cool ones).”

Thx @SunCorridorInc! Unfortunately we can’t accept gifts (even really cool ones) so we donated it to @DesertMuseum 🌵 https://t.co/ZJPQfs44cq pic.twitter.com/Fot06Kgs9P

— Amazon News (@amazonnews) September 19, 2017

The museum seemed quite excited to accept its gift.

We are really excited to receive our prickly present! 🌵 https://t.co/8LCNOdFfMP

— Desert Museum (@desertmuseum) September 19, 2017

The economic development group behind the cactus idea, Sun Corridor, Inc., said the gift was intended to show Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that Arizona is serious about landing the new headquarters.

“We wanted to make sure Mr. Bezos and his team notice us and send a message of, ‘We have room for you to grow here for the long term,'” Sun Corridor President and CEO Joe Snell said in a release. “Nothing signifies that better than a saguaro.”

Tucson will be competing with Chicago, Detroit, El Paso, Philadelphia, Toronto, Pittsburgh and others — Phoenix included — although no other city appears to have made a gesture as big as offering a massive plant.

About half of Arizona residents said they would support efforts to bring the internet giant’s second headquarters to the state, though there was no word on if they backed shipping a cactus.

“By more than a 3:1 ratio, Arizonans want their leaders to aggressively pursue landing Amazon’s [headquarters],” Mike Noble, the managing partner and chief pollster at OH Predictive Insights, said in a release.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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