Shoppers to Benefit from Faster Shipping Times, Greater Availability
SEATTLE, January 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Moving to enhance its service to customers, leading online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has obtained a highly mechanized distribution facility in Fernley, Nevada that will reduce standard shipping times to key markets in the western United States by a full day.
The 322,560-square-foot facility (more than seven acres) will also allow Amazon.com, the Internet's No. 1 music and No. 1 book retailer, to significantly increase the number of books, CDs, and videos kept on hand for immediate shipment to customers.
The result is that customers in such places as Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, and Houston will receive their orders much faster, thanks to greater availability, faster processing, and shorter delivery times.
"Everything we do at Amazon.com is designed to continually enhance the shopping experience, and reducing delivery time does exactly that," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "And this place is so huge, we can stock far more titles ready to ship right away."
The Fernley facility gives the company much-needed capacity and distribution capability. Located in the Nevada Pacific Industrial Park 30 miles east of Reno along Interstate Highway 80, the facility formerly belonged to Stanley Tools and was recently acquired by Panattoni Development of San Francisco. It will be leased by Amazon.com and is expected to begin operations during the first half of 1999. Terms of the leasing arrangement were not disclosed.
The Fernley center will employ by year's end more than 300 people, although some of them are expected to be current Amazon.com associates, who will be offered an opportunity to work at the facility. Amazon.com will have recruiters at the Fernley center for an open house on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to receive applications. In addition, the company has established a toll-free jobline at 1-877-975-4273 and will also take applications by e-mail at dc-jobs@amazon.com.
This is the second major regionally targeted increase in Amazon.com's shipping service. In November 1997, the company opened a 202,000-square-foot center in New Castle, Delaware, outside Philadelphia.
The company's Seattle distribution center has 93,000 square feet of space and is at capacity. Amazon.com is currently evaluating how to place all current and future product lines to best utilize its distribution centers.
Amazon.com reported earlier this week that sales in the fourth quarter of 1998 were approximately $250 million-three and one-half times the 1997 fourth-quarter level of $66 million. During the holiday season, Amazon.com acquired more than 1 million first-time customers and shipped 7.5 million items, more than the company shipped in the entire year of 1997. Holiday shipments peaked at $6 million in one day.
About Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet's No. 1 book and No. 1 music retailer, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995. Today, the Amazon.com store has expanded to offer more than 4.7 million music CD, video, DVD, computer-game, book, and other titles, plus secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, and streamlined ordering through 1-Click(SM) technology.
Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, the unpredictability of its future revenues, and risks associated with capacity constraints, management of growth, and new business opportunities.
More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997, and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 1998.
Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Internet Movie Database, PlanetAll, Earth's Biggest Bookstore, and 1-Click are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.