By The Biz Team (Nicholas)
Amazon declared that it is planning to hire 100,000 workers to meet the surging demand during the COVID-19 period. The move is in line with expansion objectives for the workforce showing the merits of ballooning online spending from the previous six months. The latest hiring drive will be both for full and part-time jobs. It is also the fourth large scale campaign the retailing giant has done in 2020. In total, 380,000 people have been employed thus far compared to 798,000 Americans who were hired during 2019.
The positions will be centered around the fulfillment centers and the delivery network of the company. Amazon indicated in a blog post that they had seen a significant increase in the levels of demand, meaning the labor requirements are unprecedented for this time of year, hence the hiring drives. The company declared that companies could experience more extended delivery times than usual, considering the high order volumes as coronavirus continues to pummel social life.
Amazon has been speeding up the shipments as a significant part of its business strategy since the past year. They also indicated the company was out of stock of some famous brands and items, mainly when it came to household staples categories. Searches by the CNN business showed that Amazon is out of stock among some of the things that include brand type toilet papers and disinfectant wipes. In a blog post, they indicated the critical objective of serving customers and the community is crucial during this time, and they would like to make sure people would get the items they require when necessary. Amazon is working tirelessly with selling partners to ensure there is availability on all products and bring on the additional capacity to deliver on the orders.
In addition to hiring new workers, Amazon declared they would be investing more than $350 million to increase the pay for the workers working on an hourly basis in the warehousing and distribution roles during April. That entails a higher base pay to $17 or more. That is depending on the region in the United States, however. It should also increase by more than 2 euros per hour in the European nations.
The response to hire as many workers as possible is good news, but it is also reactionary on Amazon’s part. The giant retailer could not fulfill the two-day delivery pledge earlier when shoppers in the COVID-19 lockdown flooded the company with more orders than it could handle. Though the delivery times have vastly improved after hiring hundreds of thousands of workers, amazon finds itself having to honor a pre-pandemic pledge that would get the products to prime subscribers within the same day. Considering the holidays are approaching, Jeff Bezos is also doubling down on investing billions in proximity to place warehouses and swarms of vans in urban areas that have fast-food joints, shopping malls, and big-box stores.
Typically, Amazon has eaten away at the solid store competition using warehouses. That had been working well when the company had a two-day promise to its customers. Other leading options, such as Target and Walmart, are using their reach and distribution to gnaw away at Amazon the same way it did to the competition. They are now offering same-day delivery when the most efficient stores will attract the largest market. Wal-Mart also started its Prime style subscription service, thereby increasing the competition as well.
Beyond the retail rivals, the opening of small quick delivery warehouses is a threat to the United Parcel Service and the US Postal Service. Considering it is the fastest in the online delivery race, it does not trust the job to other parties, so it withdraws from long-time delivery partners.
Amazon also said they were consulting with the medical and health experts concerning the recommended safety precautions within the facilities, and they had implemented social distancing within the workspace. Enhanced cleaning measures are also being used to make sure there is little chance of contamination. During the month, Amazon stated they pulled more than 1 million products for price gouging or false advertising concerning their level of effectiveness in league with consumer safety and COVID-19.
According to the Guardian, there were cases of items being sold on Amazon through its product pages as miracle cures for coronavirus. The chlorine dioxide solutions were being sold under the NatriClor and CD Kit brand names. Third-party sellers would signal the bleach as water treatment and then include legal disclaimers saying the liquid is not marketed for internal use. The Food And Drug Administration Agency has issued numerous warnings about the lethality of these products when consumed.