Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, unveiled its state-of-the-art Fulfillment Center in Tracy more than a year after it was launched in 2013 with 1,000 full-time workers.
On Tuesday, the Tracy facility had a total of 1,500 full-time “associates,” as workers are referred to by the company.
The occasion was an opportunity for the giant retailer to show the world the deployment of its latest technology and innovation in North America. In a guided tour of the eighth-generation facilities in Tracy, members of the news media, elected officials, and community leaders were shown the innovative technologies that Amazon associates use on the job on a daily basis to process customer orders. These state-of-the-art innovations included the Kiva robotics which has greatly improved the delivery of items ordered by customers throughout the world.
The “very impressive little guys,” or Kivas, as described by Amazon North America Operations Vice President Mike Roth who led the news media tour, weigh 320 pounds and can lift up to 750 pounds. They are one of the most exciting new developments at the Amazon Fulfillment Center, he said. The Kivas offer a lot of benefits including allowing associates to do their job a lot faster. Thanks to the Kivas, the associates don’t have to walk to get the product orders for processing; the products come to them thereby facilitating the speed of the orders’ delivery to customers.
From this Fulfillment Center in Tracy, the millions of orders processed everyday here are delivered via Fed/Ex, UPS, the United Post Office and other smaller carriers to customers throughout the United States and to 185 countries.
Tracy Mayor Michael Maciel said the city is “thrilled” to have Amazon in their backyard because it has “put money in our pockets” especially since San Joaquin County was hit hard by the Great Recession.
“This has been a win, win, win for us,” adding that “I like to think” Tracy is taking the lead in turning the economy around with companies like Amazon.
“Amazon is in great hands in Tracy,” said Mike Anderson who, as the representative of Congressman Jeff Denham, presented Amazon a certificate of recognition.
Presenting a certificate of recognition as well to the company was Supervisor Bob Elliott, chairman of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and a Tracy resident.
“Amazon is all about innovation,” Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development Kish Rajan said during the press conference that preceded the guided tours. That innovation includes the benefits being enjoyed by the company’s employees who are referred to as associates. “Our associates are partners with us,” he said. They enjoy “amazing benefits” which include ‘health care from day one,” 401(k), “unlimited upward mobility” on the job, on top of “great salaries.” There are no limits to the ways associates can move up to their full potential, Rajan said.
Coinciding with the grand opening of the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Tracy Tuesday morning was a similar ceremony held at the Amazon facility in Patterson which was held in the afternoon.
