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Amazon now has more than one million employees as demand for online shopping ramps up

Amazon has invested more than $30 billion this year in equipment, property, and other assets.

amazon logo with warehouse in background echo
Image: KnowTechie

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The coronavirus was disastrous for thousands of businesses and even entire industries. According to the World Bank, the global economy faced the biggest recession since World War Two.

At the same time, Amazon, the e-commerce titan, is experiencing unprecedented growth. Since the introduction of the first lockdowns and movement restrictions, online shopping started its exponential growth. Amazon, the biggest online retailer in the US, managed to net a big chunk of the pandemic-fueled online shopping hysteria. 

To meet this massive demand, the company promptly expanded its capacities, added new fulfillment and warehouses centers, improved its distribution channels. Amazon approximately fulfilled 250,000 new openings within the third quarter of 2020. As a result, it now employs 1.1 million workers worldwide. 

According to The Washington Post, Amazon has invested more than $30 billion this year in equipment, property, and other assets. At the same time, Amazon is apparently finding it challenging to deliver packages even after directing those massive investments at operations.

While the pandemic fueled Amazon’s eCommerce business, the coronavirus didn’t bypass Amazon’s workers, especially those working in the warehouses and the fulfillment centers

Earlier in October, the Jeff Bezos company announced that more than 20,000 of their workers tested positive for the coronavirus or were considered positive since the beginning of the outbreak. Lawmakers and its employees also harshly criticized the company for the lack of protection and poor work conditions. 

In April, the online shopping giant responded by stating they planned to invest over $4 billion in protective gear for their employees, testing, and other pandemic-related costs, such as decreased productivity because their workers can’t work closely next to each other.

As if that wasn’t enough, some warehouse employees also sued Amazon for policies and failing to provide protective gear on time. In some of the accusations, the company was blamed for dragging its foot to provide the protective gear.

Amazon’s reputation might have taken a hit by those accusations, but that had no adverse effect on its stocks. As a matter of fact, just in the third quarter of 2020, Amazon’s stock reached $12.37 per share, whereas their sales increased by 37% and hit $96.1 billion. 

Amazon expects an even stronger fourth quarter because of the holiday shopping season. They expect that sales on a year-to-year basis will increase by around 38%.

What do you think? How are you feeling about Amazon these days? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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