Amazon is opening a series of small, regional distribution depots under the brand "Amazon Logistics" for faster deliveries to customers in and around the "spokes," the Telegraph reported. Seven 50,000-square-foot fulfillment centers have opened thus far at leased sites near Birmingham, Oxford, Milton Keynes and several locations around London. Four more "mini" centers will launch next year.
Amazon is teaming up with smaller companies, including City Sprint and Transline, which take the product to customers' doors, and the "name Amazon Logistics first appeared on deliveries earlier this summer, surprising rivals in the distribution business and customers alike," the Telegraph wrote.
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Amazon is apparently considering dealing with labor problems at several of its warehouses in Germany by considering opening five warehouses in neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic, where wages are lower than in Germany, the Economic Times reported, citing newspapers in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The new warehouses would be about 1.1 million square feet and cost between 50 and 60 million euros (about US$67.6 million-$81.1 million).
The German union ver.di has campaigned for high pay at Amazon's warehouses in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld. Last month some workers at the two warehouses stayed home for three days.
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Amazon announced today that it is hiring more than 70,000 full-time seasonal workers in its U.S. warehouses to meet an increase in sales, "a 40% rise over last year." The company said some of the jobs would become year-round, full-time positions, as had happened with 7,000 temporary jobs last year.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Amazon's "seasonal workers earn roughly 6% less on average than full-time workers' starting wages, which typically run about $11 an hour."