Amazon Fulfillment

[josh]

Saw this stat yesterday and was quite shocked. The median pay at Amazon is not even $28,500, which seems insanely low for a huge tech company. Sure there are some high paid smart folks there but there are way more low paid warehouse workers.

I believe that was for the company as a whole. Amazon fulfillment associates (a great majority of those 1,000 plus jobs) make about 24/25k a year, which is insanely low for the work they do, imo.

[jn1780]

Great minds.... I just read this and was going to post it. This is not a good set of jobs we're getting.

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/19/...housing-wages/

"Our survey of just six states shows that Amazon ranks in the top 20 employers of SNAP recipients in nearly all of them, and those figures don’t include temp workers who likely rely on the program at even higher rates"

Right, there is nothing revolutionary about how Amazon does business. They just strong arm 3rd party sellers and pay its distribution force super low and they still only break even in retail.

[Laramie]

Amazon probably factored the wage & salary equation as a positive compared to other cities in our central region; their experience with the sorting center operations certainly factored into their decision to go with the Fulfillment Center. That's why there's probably more planned for OKC--if you have an HQ2 in Atlanta.

They will save on personnel based on the relatively low cost of living advantage to operate in OKC coupled with the location and potential airport growth.

[hoya]

1500 jobs is still 1500 jobs.

The people who will be taking these jobs aren't downgrading. No one is going to quit their $50K a year job to work here. But this will give more opportunities to a certain segment of our population.

[Laramie]

Our estimated metro population is 1,375,000 for 2017: https://www.forbes.com/places/ok/oklahoma-city/

It's the accumulation of 5 or 6 companies that bring 300+ yearly quality jobs (new or expansion) added to our local economy that OKC can absorb without putting a strain on housing. We've built quality housing in the core--we're housing ready. Suburban homes are available as well. Just feel the break-out momentum kicking in as the recent price of oil continues to rise.

Growth is evident since 2010--oil prices did slow OKC's metro growth from 22,000 since 2010 to 10,500 in 2016-17; however from a 1% to approximate 2% job growth rate is great for our economy.

OKC has aggressive addressed the improvement of roads & navigation throughout our city.

An Amazon HQ2 headquarters would have been a lot to absurd over a 1-3 year hiring span.

[catch22]

1500 jobs is still 1500 jobs.

The people who will be taking these jobs aren't downgrading. No one is going to quit their $50K a year job to work here. But this will give more opportunities to a certain segment of our population.

Absolutely. I think it’s inportant to have jobs in all sorts of sectors and pay scales. For many people this will be an opportunity to advance. So we should never turn our nose up at new jobs. I think it’s just important we don’t try and make this something it isn’t - and that’s 1,500 “high quality” jobs. It’s still 1500 jobs with people who will be buying groceries, eating out occasionally, buying gas, etc. it keeps the economy moving. I’m happy to see it but I’m a little unsure of the location. Closer to I-40 would have made more sense to me.

[G.Walker]

When they say 2,000 or 1,500 jobs, they can be direct or indirect. Direct jobs, meaning positions pertaining to the work needed to fulfill certain requirements. Indirect jobs meaning, jobs like maintenance, janitorial, food service, construction, etc.

[Laramie]

Just curious catch22, what advantages do you see with the facility closer to I-40 vs. the WRWA complex?

Forbes - Best places for business & careers: https://www.forbes.com/best-places-for-business/list/#tabverall_header:jobGrowth

Population estimates 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tistical_areas

Metropolitan rank 2017 & cost of business:

39. Milwaukee 1.57 million - growth +1.13% #144
40. Jacksonville 1.5 million - growth +11.84% #104

41. Oklahoma City 1.38 million +10.44% #32 . . . & 54. Tulsa 1.0 million +5.68% #38

42. Memphis 1.35 million +1.77% #54
43. Raleigh 1.34 million +18.10% #37
44. Richmond 1.3 million +7.13% #84
45. Louisville 1.3 million +4.71% #55

This is why you would anticipate more to come from Amazon.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm curious as well why people think the location closer to I-40 is better than here? They're both close to interstates and this one actually seems like more of an advantage being closer to the airport.

[catch22]

I'm curious as well why people think the location closer to I-40 is better than here? They're both close to interstates and this one actually seems like more of an advantage being closer to the airport.

I-40 is one of the nation’s main E/W interstates and is also centrally located in the city and has somewhat easier access to I-35. Also the heavy trucking infrastructure is already in place along I-40. Not only are the streets built to accommodate them, there are tons of truck service providers along there.

[Plutonic Panda]

I-40 is one of the nation’s main E/W interstates and is also centrally located in the city and has somewhat easier access to I-35. Also the heavy trucking infrastructure is already in place along I-40. Not only are the streets built to accommodate them, there are tons of truck service providers along there.

I can see some of those points but you have think that since the airport seemed to shift focus to this type of development given their recent update to the Lariat Landing Masterplan, that they bank on new road and freeway upgrades. I also would assume a light rail station will come closer to this area than the area at I-40 given the airports and OCCC proximity.

The interchange at I-240 and I-44 is sh!t and needs to be reconfigured. There are currently plans as shown to widen I-44 south of I-240, add certain GP or aux lanes on the stretch of I-44 between SH-152 and I-240, and I know SH-152 will be widened to six lanes in the early 2020s not to mention the turnpike extension along with the Sara RD widening will bring several road improvements to this area will no doubt ease traffic and make it easier to access the areas you mentioned that are beneficial to trucking.

Will this facility utilize the airport for cargo or more trucking?

[catch22]

Amazon does most of their air freight out of distribution centers. Fulfillment centers are aimed at serving the general area and stock commonly used products. This is to cut down on air shipments by stocking products evenly across the country and having them within a day drive of any point. 2-day shopping without having to pay to overnight it by air.

[Pete]

Thousands of robots will roam OKC's huge new Amazon facility

As OKCTalk was first to report, plans are well underway to bring a huge Amazon fulfillment center to an area just to the east of Will Rogers World Airport.

Building blueprints have already been drawn for the facility and OKCTalk has obtained them along with details of how it will operate.


State-of-the-art facility
The Oklahoma City fulfillment center at SW 89th and Portland will be one of the first built from the ground up with the express purpose of utilizing their new Robotics Service Platform, a layout that maximizes the benefits of thousands of small robots.

The footprint of the warehouse will be 640,000 square feet with three upper levels, bringing the total size of the facility to a staggering 2.5 million square feet.

The ground floor will facilitate material handling and sorting equipment. The upper floors will house a large automated storage system with shelf-like storage units (“pods” in the parlance of Amazon) that are stocked with millions of consumer products.

When an order is placed through Amazon.com, it is transmitted to the fulfillment facility. Then, the low-profile robots are automatically dispatched to retrieve the pods holding the requested items and delivered to workers at the perimeters of the upper floors where they are placed in a tote and conveyed to the ground floor where sorting, combining, packaging and shipping occurs.

Once the items have been pulled by workers, the robot returns the pod to a storage location in the field.

The 'RSP Clear Zone' shown on the top 3 floors of OKC's facility designates 'Robotic Service Platforms' where the small robots follow predetermined markings on the floors, using special sensors to avoid obstacles.

Not only is the time to complete packaging an order greatly reduced by eliminating the need for workers to walk to item locations, but the facility itself will contain 50% more items in the same space. A typical Amazon fulfillment center stocks more than 20 million separate item types.

As the first Amazon fulfillment center to be located in Oklahoma, local Amazon Prime members in particular can expect faster delivery on a greater variety of items, as now orders originate in other states.

Amazon has retrofitted some of it's centers to accommodate the robots but OKC will see one of the very first built around a new prototype specifically designed to maximize efficiency. Based on documents reviewed by OKCTalk, the OKC facility plans are already being used for other in-progress Amazon fulfillment centers in other markets.


Understanding Amazon's Facility Types
In addition to the new fulfillment center at SW 104th & Portland and the operating sortation facility at SW 15th & Council, Amazon has also submitted plans for a 60,000 square foot delivery station on the northeast corner of I-35 and Hefner Road, meaning Oklahoma City will soon be home to 3 of the most common links in their distribution chain thereby expediting the delivery of millions of items to customers in Central Oklahoma.

As the first physical presence by Amazon in the state of Oklahoma, a sortation facility opened at SW 15th & Council road on October 24th of last year. The 300,000 square foot warehouse receives packages from fulfillment centers and sorts them by zip code before placing them on pallets and delivering directly to the corresponding post offices.

From there, the USPS performs the final delivery to the customer, sometimes on Sunday through a unique agreement with the internet retailer.

Sortation centers also ship packages to Amazon's extensive delivery station network.

Delivery stations are smaller facilities typically found in larger urban areas and the primary role is to sort packages for outbound routes to enable last mile delivery within a tightly defined urban area. Often deliveries are performed by multiple local courier companies that are contracted by Amazon to service specific routes and also by independent Amazon Flex drivers.

Job Creation
Although robots will eliminate a lot of the walking and retrieving typical in traditional warehouses, the new facilities still require a large workforce.

The exact number to be employed in Oklahoma City has yet to be specified but a similar facility in the Denver area – also being designed for heavy robotic use – will soon be hiring 1,500 full-time 'associates' as Amazon calls its workers. Part-time seasonal workers will also likely be added as order flow dictates.

The work is demanding and physical, with most of a shift being spent walking and standing with some lifting required.

Pay varies by market and in areas closest to Oklahoma, hourly wages are typically $10.00 to $12.00 but includes healthcare benefits from day one, along with a 401(k) program, holiday and overtime pay, paid time off, maternity and paternal leave benefits, employee discounts and flexible work schedules which is particularly beneficial to those in school.

The Amazon sortation facility in Oklahoma City is currently advertising part-time jobs at $10.25 per hour and quickly filled its 350 full-time positions through job fairs held last summer.

Almost all of the 1,500 employees will work on the warehouse floor although a small amount of office workers -- approximately 50 to 75 based on similar facilities -- will receive higher pay. Typical office functions include training and human resources.

Plans show a total of 1,899 parking spaces and a maximum expected occupancy of 2,000.


Publicly funded incentives
As has been well publicized, Amazon frequently seeks financial incentives and the Alliance for Economic Development – a nonprofit group that coordinates new development and employers while dispensing millions from various economic development programs – has been working with the company for months. The Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce has also be aiding in the recruitment effort.

The Alliance is not subject to open meetings and records laws and often uses code names for prospects in order to avoid public scrutiny. However, once a tentative agreement has been reached, it is most usually reviewed and approved by the Economic Development Trust then City Council has final authority.

OKCTalk learned some time ago that the OKC Amazon fulfillment center was given the name 'Project Star' and that name has appeared on various public documents over the last several months.

The amount of incentives being negotiated with Amazon is not known at this time but based on other markets, it is expected to be in the millions.

According to various studies, it is projected that by 2021 Amazon will handle 50 percent of all online sales.

[stile99]

So if I order a Roomba through Amazon, Roomba's offspring will retrieve the order? We're living in the future, folks.

[Laramie]

Thanks Pete, this explains Amazon's potential & presence (warehouse & fulfillment centers) in OKC.

[Zuplar]

Don’t know if anyone cares but I actually got a call from the Penn 89 post office today with an apology for it taking 2 extra days to get my package. She said the clerk that sorts straight up dropped the ball and it was completely an error on their end both days and should not have happened. I had low expectations but I was actually quite surprised they took full blame for not delivering the package. Doesn’t change the outcome but I appreciate them being honest and admitting they have a problem.

[Martin]

Don’t know if anyone cares but I actually got a call from the Penn 89 post office today with an apology for it taking 2 extra days to get my package. She said the clerk that sorts straight up dropped the ball and it was completely an error on their end both days and should not have happened. I had low expectations but I was actually quite surprised they took full blame for not delivering the package. Doesn’t change the outcome but I appreciate them being honest and admitting they have a problem.

wow... from all of my experiences with usps, i can't imagine that they apologize very often... if that apology came in the form of a letter, you might look into getting that framed. : )

[Swake]

Just because the company has cool technology, doesn't mean the company is cool to work for. Bezos is a ruthless titan no different than a Rockefeller or Carnegie. The white collar workers at Amazon are treated like royalty and the blue collar workers are treated like mules. Same story, different industry.

What cool technology? The website and it's technology are basic. AWS is impressive but that's because of the scale of it's infrastructure, other than that it's nothing special and behind competitors. The impressive part of Amazon is the logistics, not the technology.

And Amazon treats it's people like crap, even outside of the warehouses.

[u50254082]

Don’t know if anyone cares but I actually got a call from the Penn 89 post office today with an apology for it taking 2 extra days to get my package. She said the clerk that sorts straight up dropped the ball and it was completely an error on their end both days and should not have happened. I had low expectations but I was actually quite surprised they took full blame for not delivering the package. Doesn’t change the outcome but I appreciate them being honest and admitting they have a problem.

Can't comment on that particular location, but the rare times I've had to call a post office regarding a unique situation, they were generally quite helpful.

I once had a package delivery issue in Bronx NYC and was dreading calling their post office, fully expecting them to be either busy or unhelpful. Surprisingly, the nice sounding lady took my info and called me once a day for status updates until it was resolved. Very professional.

[Zuplar]

Can't comment on that particular location, but the rare times I've had to call a post office regarding a unique situation, they were generally quite helpful.

I once had a package delivery issue in Bronx NYC and was dreading calling their post office, fully expecting them to be either busy or unhelpful. Surprisingly, the nice sounding lady took my info and called me once a day for status updates until it was resolved. Very professional.

Not sure if you had read my previous comments but I had called that location on 3 different occasions one time letting it ring for 10 straight minutes and no on answers. I inquired in that when she called because she told me to call them directly and I said well I do but you guys never answer. She said that’s because only the supervisor can answer and they are typically too busy doing other things to do that and I’d get a better response coming in.

It is what it is. USPS is a joke in reality and Amazon is about the only thing keeping it afloat and they know this. I really think that’s the only reason I got a call because I got Amazon involved.

[catch22]

I disagree entirely. While it’s not perfect, the USPS is my preferred shipping option. My packages NEVER get rerouted, or miss sorts like UPS and FedEx routinely do. Usually my packages arrive on time or early with the USPS.

I’ve had UPS and FedEx packages sit in hubs for days, waiting to be found. Anytime I see a tracking number that’s UPS or FedEx I dread the experience.

[HangryHippo]

I disagree entirely. While it’s not perfect, the USPS is my preferred shipping option. My packages NEVER get rerouted, or miss sorts like UPS and FedEx routinely do. Usually my packages arrive on time or early with the USPS.

I’ve had UPS and FedEx packages sit in hubs for days, waiting to be found. Anytime I see a tracking number that’s UPS or FedEx I dread the experience.

This mirrors my experiences as well.

[u50254082]

Not sure if you had read my previous comments but I had called that location on 3 different occasions one time letting it ring for 10 straight minutes and no on answers. I inquired in that when she called because she told me to call them directly and I said well I do but you guys never answer. She said that’s because only the supervisor can answer and they are typically too busy doing other things to do that and I’d get a better response coming in.

It is what it is. USPS is a joke in reality and Amazon is about the only thing keeping it afloat and they know this. I really think that’s the only reason I got a call because I got Amazon involved.

I wasn't refuting anything you said, but just adding on another positive experience with USPS.

[Zuplar]

I wasn't refuting anything you said, but just adding on another positive experience with USPS.

Yeah I got what you, just wasn't sure if you'd seen some of my other gripe fests, lol.

When I lived a couple miles further West I was serviced by the Mustang PO and that one was quite a bit better than the OKC one that serves me now. I think like anything some are hit and miss.

What I like about UPS and Fedex is when I do have problems, I can call right that moment and get to the bottom. Yes they still screw up, but I don't have to wait 4 business days to be told sorry we screwed up.

[DoctorTaco]

y'all need to chill out the USPS v. FedEx discussion before Pete has to move it all to a new thread called "USPS Business Practices" and the new thread will be so boring that we will all die and OKCTalk will be no more. Sad. I'm sad just thinking about how boring that thread will be. Also sad about all of us dying.