At the heart of Amazon's sorting is its internal division. Now the second-largest private U.S. employer, Amazon is now a company with clout in both white-collar and blue-collar work.

An antitrust lawsuit from 17 states and the Federal Trade Commission this week against Amazon represents the US government’s biggest regulatory challenge yet against the e-commerce juggernaut.

Amazon continues to rake in record profits by selling a multitude of cheap goods from Chinese factories. It’s estimated that as much as 75% of all new goods sold on Amazon come from China.