What's it like inside an Amazon same-day delivery center?
The online retailing giant provided a peek Tuesday at the new center that has begun providing the service in the Des Moines metro.
The facility, Amazon's second in Ankeny, opened the 150,000-square-foot warehouse at 6910 S.E. Four Mile Drive on Dec. 4. Amazon Prime customers within 50 miles — an area covering the entire Des Moines and Ames metros— can order items and get them delivered on the same day.
The facility employed 40 people when it opened. It now has 170 workers and is still hiring, said Amazon site lead Alina Carstea.
Same-day delivery is available for grocery items, household goods and office and pet supplies, as well as electronics, kitchen items and home de?cor. Carstea said the facility ultimately will be able to handle up to 10 truckloads of goods a day.
The facility has been ramping up slowly, she said. Part of it still is under construction, but Amazon wanted to open it before the holiday season.
"We have 900 feet of conveyers in the entire facility. As we ramp up at the beginning of next year we will receive additional volume," Carstea said. "So we'll be getting additional items and inventory."
A truck being unloaded at noon Tuesday had 24,000 items on it, she said. The items are then sorted by workers and many are placed on robotic shuttles for the trip to stations where they're packed for delivery.
"Everything is the latest technology,' Carstea said.
Once the orders are processed, they are taken to their destinations by independent contractors, who typically drive their personal cars and not the grey-and-blue Amazon Prime box vans.
Nationwide, Amazon has more than 50 same-day delivery centers. The company began building facilities in Iowa just five years ago but now has six in operation in the Des Moines metro and five more elsewhere in the state. Among its largest is its 645,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Bondurant.
Andy DiOrio, a regional spokesperson for Amazon, said the company is investing in central Iowa because the population is growing, other companies are investing there and creating demand, there is a large pool of potential workers and there are great warehouse sites.
"Finding the sites, leasing the buildings, good partners on that front to spur economic growth and business, those are four factors that typically play, especially the state of Iowa," he said.
Across the state demand for Amazon's services is growing, and the company wants to increase the speed at which Iowans get products they order, he said.
"Iowa has seen four or five Amazon sites come on board in the last 12 months," he said. "It speaks to the state of Iowa's growth."
For same-day delivery, Amazon said items ordered from:
Philip Joens covers retail and real estate for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, [email protected] or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.