Amazon Builds Out Network To Speed Delivery, Handle Holiday Crunch

Online retail giant has nearly doubled its fulfillment capacity since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. From a report: In the past two years, Amazon.com has added workers at an unprecedented clip to keep up with a pandemic-induced surge in demand. As it has done so, an even bigger expansion drew less attention: The company is close to doubling the size of its fulfillment network. Amazon blanketed the country with more than 450 new facilities used to store, sort and ship items, according to logistics consultant MWPVL International, doubling down on a logistics empire that aims to deliver items in one day or less, and increasingly to do so without the help of third-party shippers.

Many of the new buildings are concentrated near big cities, putting more items for sale on the website closer to large population centers. The facilities also include more than two dozen smaller outposts stocked mostly with bestselling items, allowing the company to prepare for supply disruptions while also expanding fast-shipping capabilities, according to MWPVL. During the pandemic, Amazon put on hold its promise to deliver many items to customers in one day. Nevertheless, the company continued to build out a network capable of such a feat. The work prepared Amazon for an unusual holiday shopping season in which a national labor shortage and global supply-chain challenges have constrained the ability of many companies to obtain and deliver certain products in as timely a manner as they did in the past.

Amazon has encouraged customers to shop early this year due to the supply-chain issues, and company executives have said they are "ready to deliver" and have been preparing for the holidays since the start of the year. As of mid-November, more than 98% of parcels that arrived at Amazon's delivery centers, which typically are in close proximity to packages' final destinations, were being delivered the next day, according to estimates from research firm ShipMatrix. At the same time, some items like household products and sporting goods were showing delivery windows of a few days, ShipMatrix said, emphasizing Amazon's message to shop early. Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, said the company's inventory increased in preparation for the busy period. For the first time in a while, he said, the company is not capacity-constrained.

and when amazon goes union they will see the real

[Joe_Dragon]

and when amazon goes union they will see the real cost of drivers.

Re:

[timeOday]

Are they paying less than UPS, FedEX, etc? Those have been around a long time so they should pretty well reflect whatever the market equilibrium is.

Re:

[fermion]

As we heard relentlessly starting about 5 years ago, AMA on was stealing from the USOS. Now, those of us who have had real businesses, and did cash flow, not just ask out parents for money, we understand there are large customers that cover costs and smaller customers that add to profit. When you piss off the large customers, it is very bad.

UPS profits were generated by insurance, and really were not reliable until Amazon upped the game. Those of a certain age know that unless you were willing to pay huge

Amazon will fail Christmas 2021

[MooseTick]

It's not exactly a stretch, but I predict Amazon will fail to deliver many Christmas gifts this year and leave a bad taste in many customer's mouths. Will it be the end of Amazon? Assuredly not. Will it take the shine away from the company that seems to deliver amazing deals to your door amazingly fast? Yes it will.

Re:

[Aighearach]

Delivery times already went from 2 days to "maybe in a week" when they switched from UPS to USPS.

Observed

[dsgrntlxmply]

One day in October, I noted around 25 Amazon vans and several overflow leasing service vans pass through one intersection in an hour on a nearby rural highway. It looks like Amazon set up a depot somewhere down the road. I have seen this frequently over the past couple of months, and had not seen it in previous months.

Great post...

[Jedi Holocron]

...on the day Amazon notes there was a delivery delay with my delivery scheduled for today. But not to worry, they will let me know sometime in the future when they will be able to delivery it.

Thursday - Monday

[antdude]

2nd to today (29th at night) which surprised me.

No need for Prime

[ayesnymous]

I don't have Prime, and the past few days I have placed a couple orders. Both orders were originally estimated to be delivered in about 6 days. But about a day after placing each order, I get an email from Amazon saying the items have shipped earlier than expected, and I am going to receive them 2 or 3 days within placing the order. Who needs Prime when I get fast shipping without it!

I just got a package from china in like 18 days

[drinkypoo]

And it was supposed to take up to 39 days.

That's not overnight but I give no fucks, what it proves is that you can get stuff straight from China for less in reasonable time. So if you're gonna buy that shit anyway, why give Bezos a cut? Fuck him.