RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Amazon is closing or delaying three warehouse and delivery stations in North Carolina as part of a nationwide cutback, according to reports. Among them is a delivery station in Durham that employs some 400 people.

Amazon began to wrap up the operations at a Durham delivery station along North Hoover Road in July, largely transferring the operations of that station to a newer delivery station that the company says includes more amenities along Person Street.

“We regularly look at how we can improve the experience for our employees, partners, drivers, and customers, and that includes upgrading our facilities,” said Steve Kelly, a spokesperson for Amazon.  “As part of that effort, we closed a delivery station in Durham and offered all employees the opportunity to transfer to several different delivery stations close by.”

Kelly told WRAL TechWire that no workers from the North Hoover Road facility have been or would be laid off and that all workers had an opportunity to transfer.

But the company is reducing the total number of facilities, including two others in North Carolina.

Citing information from logistics focused firm MWPVL, CNBC notes that Amazon’s reductions include:

  • Greensboro:  Fulfillment center canceled. No reason given.
  • Enka Village (near Asheville): Delivery station on hold. No reason given.

Kelly told WRAL TechWire that plans for a fulfillment center at the designated site in Greensboro were never finalized by Amazon.  Amazon operates more than 1,200 sites across the U.S.

MWPVL says Amazon is shutting 44 facilities and delaying 25 sites.

Too much space in NC?

The cutbacks come as online commerce sales slow. The company has  “too much space…versus our demand patterns,” Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said in April, CNBC noted.

The moves come after Amazon has aggressively expanded its warehouse and delivery network across North Carolina in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An earlier version of this story stated that reports indicate plans for an Amazon Wilmington delivery station had been canceled with no reason given.  A spokesperson for Amazon told WRAL TechWire on Thursday that the company still intends to develop this site, which is currently vacant land.

“The Wilmington piece of land is still in our plans to develop, down the road,” the spokesperson said.

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Amazon: Growth continues

In a statement published by CNBC, Amazon acknowledged some closures but added more are being built:

“While we’re closing some of our older sites, we’re also enhancing some of our facilities, and we continue to open new sites as well. In fact, since 2020, we’ve added more than 350 new modern facilities to our network in the U.S. alone and have dozens more facilities under construction here in the U.S. and around the world.”

Last September, Amazon said it anticipated adding as many as 6,000 jobs in North Carolina, but did not disclose the location of those roles.  And the rush to hire continues as the company announced it would open a second facility in Cumberland County last year.  Amazon also operates a relatively new distribution center in Cary, a huge warehouse in Garner, and is expanding in Johnston County as well.

Amazon’s workforce in the state soared to more than 32,000 full- and part-time jobs in the period between 2010 and the end of 2021, a spokesperson for Amazon told WRAL TechWire in March.  According to the spokesperson, the company had made investments in excess of $5.5 billion, as of the end of 2021, with plans to continue to hire.

At the time, the spokesperson noted that it had eight fulfillment centers and nine delivery stations in North Carolina, as well as two Prime Now fulfillment centers, one wind far, one solar farm, and a 4-Star Store.  Amazon would go on to shut down its 4-Star Stores, including the one at Crabtree Valley Mall, in March of this year.

Amazon also is facing growing challenges from labor unions who are organizing to represent workers at warehouses, including at the Garner operation.

Read the full report about the warehouse closures at:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/14/map-of-amazon-warehouse-closures.html

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