Amazon (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report is one of the few companies in the world that can bypass a supply chain crunch using almost entirely its own resources, and has nearly doubled the size of its fulfillment network to do so.
Amazon has built more than 450 new facilities nationwide to store, sort and ship items, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing logistics consultant MWPVL International. Those facilities also include more than two dozen small outposts dealing mostly with bestselling items.
Since the end of 2019, Amazon has added about 670,000 people to its 1.4 million person workforce, During that same time period, the company has nearly doubled the size of its fulfilment network with more than 930 facilities across the country.
Amazon has been investing heavily in its ability to deliver orders on its own for years, but that initiative has accelerated over the past 18 months amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, the Journal reported.
Amazon delivered more than 56% of its own packages in the first quarter, according to research firm Nielsen Consumer. LLC.
Along with supply chain issues, retailers and other consumer facing companies have experienced a dearth of employment candidates in recent months.
That’s compared to Amazon, which earlier said it plans to hire 150,000 workers heading into the holiday season with wages as high as $21 per hour.
The holiday season officially kicked off last week on Black Friday. The worst of the supply chain crunch seems to be behind the global economy, but Amazon appears prepared for the worst.
Amazon shares were rising 0.8% at last check premarket.
