Amazon to open 100 more distribution centers this month

E-commerce giant has rapidly expanded its office and industrial footprints this year

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (Getty)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (Getty)

Amazon is riding the online-shopping boom brought on by the pandemic.

The e-commerce giant plans to open 100 facilities, including fulfillment centers, delivery stations and sorting centers, in September, the Wall Street Journal reported. That’s on top of more than 75 others opened this year in the U.S. and Canada.

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Amazon has seen revenues soar in 2020, as governments’ shelter-in-place orders fueled demand for online shopping. The company saw a record $88.9 billion in second quarter sales, a 40 percent jump from a year earlier.

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On its second quarter earnings call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company would continue expanding its industrial footprint. “Once these buildings open they are a headwind to profitability,” he said.

But the company’s expansion hasn’t been exclusive to the industrial market. Earlier this month, it agreed to lease an additional 2 million square feet of office space outside of Seattle. In March, it closed on its purchase of the 630,000-square-foot, former Lord & Taylor building in Manhattan. That’s on top of its new 335,000-square-foot office at SL Green’s 410 Tenth Avenue, which is currently undergoing renovations.

Amazon also signed a 40,000-square-foot lease at Rubenstein Partners and Heritage Equity Partners’ 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg for its streaming-service arm, Amazon Music.

For those added space nationwide, Amazon plans to hire 100,000 additional employees in the U.S. and Canada. [WSJ] — Akiko Matsuda