Amazon corporate employees were requested on Monday to assist in the company’s warehouses with grocery deliveries ahead of its yearly promotional event, Prime Day.
A message sent via Slack to thousands of office workers in the New York City area—including engineers and other professionals—called for volunteers to support operations during Prime Day. According to the note, reviewed by CuriosityNews, an Amazon manager sought assistance to handle deliveries on what they described as their “biggest days yet.” It is unknown how many employees agreed.
The request was issued one day before Prime Day began. Volunteers were asked to work between Tuesday and Friday in two-hour shifts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at a warehouse in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, part of the company’s grocery delivery service. Employees assigned to the warehouse would collect items, prepare grocery carts and bags, pack boxes, and help maintain team morale. The message stated they could still attend meetings remotely if needed and emphasized that this effort aimed to bridge corporate and warehouse teams.
Amazon typically brings in additional warehouse staff ahead of Prime Day, a major sales event featuring discounted products that drives high order volumes. The grocery delivery service, available to Prime subscribers, is also running promotions this week, including a 90-day free trial and a $30 discount on deliveries for current users. Timely delivery services remain unchanged. New York is among the company’s most active U.S. markets.
An Amazon representative, Griffin Buch, confirmed this was not the first time corporate employees had been asked to volunteer in fulfillment roles.
“Participation is voluntary, providing corporate staff an opportunity to engage more closely with customers while allowing store teams to focus on critical tasks,” Buch said.
The grocery service has experienced challenges in recent years. As part of cost reductions in 2023 and struggles to make grocery delivery profitable, CEO Andy Jassy shut down multiple physical locations and cut hundreds of jobs in this division. Since 2022, Amazon has eliminated over 27,000 positions company-wide.
Last week, Jassy discussed on CNBC the potential use of drones and robots for deliveries in the future.
“As we expand robotics in our facilities, they will increasingly handle fulfillment and transportation,” he said.
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