Amazon closes another distribution center in the United States

According to foreign media reports, Amazon plans to permanently close a distribution center in the Twin Cities and lay off nearly 700 employees at the end of March this year .

Employees who accept internal job transfer opportunities will not lose their jobs, according to a letter Amazon sent this week to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

An Amazon spokesperson said that every employee working at the distribution center has the opportunity to relocate to one of Amazon's other 10 sites in the Twin Cities . He said that the closure of the distribution center is to optimize Amazon's logistics network in the region , not simply to reduce the number of employees.

"We are continually evaluating the use of our logistics networks to ensure they meet our business needs and improve the experience for our employees, customers, partners and delivery drivers, " Amazon said in a statement to the Business Journal on Monday.

“ As a result, we sometimes close older sites , optimize existing facilities, or open new sites, and we weigh a variety of factors when deciding where to develop future sites or maintain existing sites . ”

However, Amazon said that this decision will not affect the logistics delivery in the area. That being said, it may not be realistic to quickly return to normal after closing a distribution center .

It is understood that Amazon's sorting centers are generally considered to be "intermediate transition " stations - they are located downstream of large distribution centers and are mainly responsible for sorting packages according to postal codes and then transporting them to Amazon's express stations , where the express will be sorted again , then classified by delivery routes, and finally loaded onto vans.

Amazon has expanded its distribution network in the Twin Cities and across the country in recent years , helping drive demand for industrial real estate and new construction.

According to CNBC, the company's expansion has nearly doubled in the last two years, with warehouse space growing from approximately 272 million square feet at the end of 2019 to 525 million square feet by the end of 2021.

But according to MWPVL International, a specialized supply chain, logistics and distribution consulting firm that tracks Amazon's distribution network, Amazon closed, canceled and postponed more than 90 warehouses in 2022 , most of them in the United States, and this trend is expected to continue in 2023 .

Amazon is currently experiencing the largest round of layoffs in its history. The poor macroeconomic situation and over-expansion during the epidemic have begun to backfire on this e-commerce giant. Careful budgeting may still be the main theme of Amazon this year.

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