Amazon.com Inc, one of the biggest winners of the pandemic, posted record profits on Thursday and signaled that consumers would keep spending in a growing U.S. economy and converts to online shopping are not likely to leave. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, shoppers have relied increasingly on Amazon for delivery of home staples, and the company sees this trend continuing post-pandemic, particularly for groceries. While brick-and-mortar stores closed, Amazon has now posted four consecutive record quarterly profits, attracted more than 200 million Prime loyalty subscribers, and recruited over 500,000 employees to keep up with surging demand. Amazon said it expects operating income for the current quarter to be between $4.5 billion and $8 billion, which includes about $1.5 billion in costs related to COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, the world’s largest online retailer has been at the center of workplace tumult, with a failed attempt by organized labor to …