There aren’t many decisions in online retail that depend on smart geographic selection and rent negotiation, but determining where to set down fulfillment centers is one of them. Amazon is a world leader at it, though, which is why more warehouses under the Amazon banner shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to anyone.
Amazon announced on Wednesday (May 25) that it would launch three new fulfillment centers. Two of the warehouses will be located in California — in the towns of Tracy and Eastvale, to be exact — with the third landing in Joliet, Illinois. Both the Tracy and Eastvale centers will clock in at about 1 million square feet and will bring upwards of 1,500 jobs, while the Joliet facility should measure around 700,000 square feet and will add 2,000 workers to pick, pack and ship the Midwest’s purchases.
“We are excited to continue our rapid growth in California in order to serve customers with super-fast shipping speeds and vast selection,” Akash Chauhan, vice president of North American operations at Amazon, said in a statement. “Since we first broke ground in California four years ago, we have found a network of support from community leaders to statewide officials, a dedicated workforce and fantastic customers.”
According to Internet Retailer, these three new fulfillment centers bring Amazon’s physical footprint in the U.S. to 76 full-sized facilities. Another 85 smaller warehouses focused on sorting and connecting shipments to other destinations flesh out the company’s corporeal presence, which is growing larger than many brick-and-mortar retailers can claim for themselves.
That’s all in addition to a rumored 19 fulfillment centers that should be up and running in the near future.
