Times have changed:
archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com
"Business : Saturday, December 11, 1999
Amazon again short on help
by Michael J. Martinez
The Associated Press
As the busiest holiday-shopping weekend of the year approaches, Amazon.com is having difficulty filling warehouse jobs at its new distribution centers and is once again calling on its executives and headquarters staff to help pack orders.
Amazon.com spokesman Bill Curry, who has already spent a week packing orders, said yesterday that seasonal help has been hard to come by. Seattle-based executives have been heading to distribution centers in Georgia and Nevada, in addition to the company's Seattle warehouse.
"In an economy when unemployment is 4 percent, and our local areas can be even less than that, it's been difficult finding people," Curry said.
After last year's holiday season, when Amazon.com had many workers on double shifts to get orders processed and even CEO Jeff Bezos could be seen processing orders, the company went on a $300 million spending spree to bolster its distribution network. The company bought five new warehouses in Nevada, Kentucky, Kansas and Georgia to go along with two others in Delaware and Washington state, increasing its warehouse space to nearly 3 million square feet.
But Amazon.com grew its product lines just as fast. Last Christmas, the company featured books, videos and music. This year, it has added toys, video games, consumer electronics, computer software, home-improvement items and a gift ideas section. Only the home-improvement addition came with a built-in distribution infrastructure.
Sales are also up substantially from 1998. On "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, Amazon.com reported that its sales were up 250 percent from the same time last year.
Erica Rugullies, an analyst with the Giga Information Group, says the problem isn't necessarily in the infrastructure that Amazon.com has created, but rather in a lack of people to hire.
"Knowing Amazon, they have enough money and enough resources that they'll do whatever it takes to get those orders out in time for Christmas," Rugullies said.
The true test will be this weekend, when Amazon.com expects to get the biggest influx of holiday orders.
"We don't consider this a disaster," Curry said. "We're really proud to go and pitch in during the holidays."
Amazon.com's performance will be closely watched by Wall Street, which has been indecisive on the company's future. Just this week, J.P. Morgan gave the company its first rating, a "buy," which sent the stock flying. Other analysts, however, downgraded the stock last month out of concern that the company was spending too much on expansion, ignoring the bottom line.
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