SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — After months of speculation and construction, the new Amazon fulfillment center in Spokane Valley is open. The facility's new General Manager said it has a few differences from the fulfillment center in the West plains.
GM Joe Wistos said the Spokane Valley facility is designed to ship larger products. That's anything from a 40-pound bag of dog food to patio furniture and lawn mowers.
"A good example is bed in a box, the new memory foam mattresses that you open, and they just expand into a bed," Wistos said. "That's the type of thing we sell here, and that is an increasing product category for us and there is a need for that to serve the community of Spokane."
The new facility is referred to as GEG 2, whereas the West Plains fulfillment center is GEG1.
You might remember, GEG1 uses warehouse robots to sort product. But the new facility does not because it sorts larger products.
That means GEG 2 employees are instead using traditional machines, like forklifts, to move and sort in the warehouse.
Now with two fulfillment centers in Spokane County, what does this mean for delivery times?
In short, Wistos said they need to build up inventory first. But then, he said, customers should still expect a faster delivery.
"Ultimately, if we add a delivery station here, which are the stations that have the Amazon vans that do direct delivery, that really expedites to the point where we could have same day shipping," Wistos said. "For now, I would say it's just going to get faster, especially for those products that customers in Spokane are used to get."
The Spokane Valley facility is currently hiring and will eventually employ 1,000 people. You can apply online or in-person at the onsite recruiting office.