Amazon to hire 3,000
Amazon plans to bring 3,000 new full- and parttime jobs to metro Phoenix — more than 1,000 of them at a Goodyear facility featuring high-tech robotics — by the end of the year, the e-commerce giant said Wednesday.
Amazon plans to bring 3,000 new full- and part-time jobs to metro Phoenix — more than 1,000 of them at a Goodyear facility featuring high-tech robotics — by the end of the year, the ecommerce giant said Wednesday.
The Goodyear site is planned as an 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center, off Bullard Avenue and Yuma Road, where robotics will work alongside employees to pick small items such as books and toys off the shelves and pack them for delivery, Amazon announced.
The fulfillment center will be Amazon’s only robotics facility in the Valley. At four stories, it will also be the largest structure ever built in Goodyear.
Amazon earlier this year paid $20 million for land at Indian School Road and Cotton Lane, in Goodyear’s growing Loop 303 business corridor. That’s expected to open next year as a cross-dock facility, which receives large inventory shipments and sends them out to Valley fulfillment centers.
The Seattle-based company plans to open 10 new sites across metro Phoenix, including six “delivery stations,” which hire a third party to deliver packages, groceries and restaurant orders as part of Amazon’s “Last Mile” drive.
“Amazon employs thousands of people in our state, and the company’s decision to expand their operations here will create thousands more job opportunities for our citizens,” Gov. Doug Ducey said. “We are grateful for Amazon’s continued investment in Arizona.”
5 Amazon sites in Goodyear
Amazon has built a presence in the southwest Valley for years. This new robotics-heavy fulfillment center and the cross-dock facility will take the company to five sites in Goodyear.
The company already has a fulfillment center, a global operations center and a delivery station in the city that straddles Interstate 10, west of Phoenix.
“We just can’t get enough Amazon in Goodyear,” Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord said in a statement. “Despite the pandemic, development in our city is thriving ... and we are thrilled that Amazon will contribute to our continued growth.”
The announcement is good economic news for the city, after Nike in July pulled out of plans to open a manufacturing plant there that would have brought 500 jobs.
Where the 10 new Amazon facilities will be
Most of the new facilities Amazon plans to open this year are “delivery stations.” Here’s where each of the 11 sites are planned:
● Avondale: 103rd Avenue and Roosevelt Street. “Merch by Amazon” print on demand service that prints and sells designs uploaded on the internet.
● Chandler: Arizona Avenue and Warner Road. Delivery station.
● Chandler: McQueen and Pecos roads. Delivery station.
● Goodyear: Bullard Avenue and Yuma Road. Fulfillment center with robotics.
● Mesa: Higley and McDowell roads. Delivery station.
● Phoenix: 75th Avenue and Buckeye Road. Delivery station.
● Phoenix: 40th Street and University Drive. Delivery station.
● Phoenix: 59th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road. Fulfillment center and delivery station focused on large products, such as TVs and furniture.
● Phoenix: 83rd Avenue and Roosevelt Street. Cross-dock facility that receives large orders of goods and sends them out to fulfillment centers.
● Tempe: Priest Drive and Broadway Road. Delivery station.
The company also plans to open two more West Valley locations in 2021. They’re planned for:
● Goodyear: Indian School Road and Cotton Lane. Cross-dock facility. Surprise: Litchfield Road and
● Sweetwater Avenue. Delivery station.
Amazon recently announced Tempe expansion
Amazon on Tuesday announced a smaller expansion in a technology hub near Tempe Town Lake.
The company plans to hire 500 at the Tempe building under construction at Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway over the course of the next two years.
The company already has about 3,000 employees in the surrounding downtown Tempe office buildings.
Company has roughly doubled Arizona employees in 18 months
Amazon is one of Arizona’s largest employers with about 17,500 full-time and part-time employees.
That’s nearly twice as many Arizona employees as the company had just a year and a half ago.
Most of its employees are in fulfillment centers, where they take online orders for everything from books and electronics to clothing and assorted bric-abrac and send them down miles of conveyor belts to be packed on a delivery truck and driven to an Arizona doorstep.