Amazon Faces A Big Warehouse Closure (Just In Time For Christmas)

The various problems with the state of New Jersey are blamed on many things. Bad taste, political corruption, the mafia, the Turnpike — we could go on, but the point is that of all the things enumerated in the list of things wrong with New Jersey, Amazon.com never makes the list.

Similarly, while Amazon has been accused of many things, including slave labor conditions, releasing the Fire phone, reckless disregard for worker safety, hating women, being a soulless dystopia — again, we could go on, but the point is the same: Amazon has never been blamed for New Jersey’s myriad problems.

Until now.

The mayor of Robbinsville, New Jersey, home of one of Amazon’s massive fulfillment centers, has vowed to sue the eCommerce giant for the havoc it has wreaked with local traffic.

The 1.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Robbinsville is actually ruining traffic for miles around, as 4,000 workers are coming and going in the area during rush hour.

Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried says that the area is not able to handle the volume of Amazon employees, given that the number working in the plant is double the number the plant was originally approved for.

“We have a system that was built for a number of cars and it’s twice as many cars,” he said. “It wasn’t built to handle that much volume.”

And it is not just a matter of a traffic annoyance. It is also becoming destructive, as the accident rate has risen 300 percent since holiday production mode has gotten underway.

Fried had arranged a meeting with Amazon representatives to discuss solutions and mitigation for the unfolding issue. However, key Amazon representatives did not show — and now the mayor is vowing to sue. His demands? The shutdown of its 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse until the traffic problems are resolved.

“I’m stunned that they didn’t show up,” Fried said, adding that the township wasn’t notified by phone or email. “This is a situation that they created by hiring significantly more people and creating between 200 and 300 percent more trips than they were approved for. They sent one of their PR people instead of sending an operations person and I think this just shows that they don’t care about the situation they’re creating in both of our communities.”

Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said the company had a presence at Wednesday’s meeting.

“We are going to continue to work with local officials to mitigate traffic issues outside of our fulfillment center,” he said.