KDKA gets look into how Amazon's Pittsburgh facilities prepare for Prime Day
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Millions of items are expected to be ordered next week through Amazon's Prime Day. The massive deals will run next Tuesday and Wednesday. Our area sees some of the most packages compared to other markets on the continent.
In a KDKA exclusive, we went to see how they are preparing for the influx of orders in our area and if any supply chain or worker shortages are impacting them.
Minutes after you hit send, an employee will grab your order and start the "journey of the package." The fulfillment center out near the Pittsburgh International Airport has about 2.5 million items ready for just about any order. The company keeps many products in stock in preparation of shoppers' needs.
"We prep like this is our Super Bowl. Similar to peak, we are prepping months in advance to make sure those items are here," senior operations manager Gabe Crowe said.
They said supply chain issues shouldn't hamper orders next week. After your order is boxed, it heads over to the sorting center just down the street. It's estimated about 80,000 packages will move through the fulfillment and delivery center while 300,000 will move through the sorting center on Prime Days, about 30-40% more than normal days. Workers said it's similar to the holiday season.
"Most of them have been through a Christmas peak season as well, so they are used to the increased volume and having to run a little bit longer during the day," operations manager Patrick Kennedy said.
The Pittsburgh market is unique because all three stages - order, sorting and delivery - happen here. The company said we're one of the top 10 markets in North America for number of orders. Orders for parts of Ohio and West Virginia flow through here, in addition to the orders for western Pennsylvania.
"We have a very large delivery area. (We) deliver to three different areas, and then just a very large amount of orders," delivery station manager Perry Booth said.
The delivery station is the last stop before it comes to your house. While delivery drivers are becoming hard to find, Amazon says they still have 300 for their Coraopolis center.
"We've been able to handle everything pretty well. We haven't been too, too impacted here," Booth said inside the warehouse.
Amazon said it should take about two to three days to get your order to your door.
