New England has officially opened its first Amazon fulfillment center, located in Windsor, five miles south of Bradley International Airport.
The facility is a testament to its time: half manual labor, half mechanics.
Robots do most of the heavy lifting by locating items ordered online in the 1 million square foot facility. An employee will then make sure each order matches up before shipping it off.
“Each new fulfillment center has its improvements for efficiency as we go,” said Amazon spokesperson Aaron Toso. “From the things we’ve learned, we have made our robots help us use this facility more efficiently.”
Toso says just about every package assembled here will serve customers in New England.
“We want to get as close to our customers to reduce those shipping times, because we don’t want you to have to wait for your package,” said Toso.
From an economic development perspective, Gov. Dannel Malloy sees this as a big win for Connecticut. Amazon received a 3.9 million dollar tax abatement from the town of Windsor over five years, plus tax breaks to build the facility. In exchange, Amazon brought in 800 full-time jobs and started collecting sales tax late last year.
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“We’re happy that we were actually the first location chosen in New England for a facility such as this one,” said Malloy. “We must be doing something right, and I appreciate the relationship we have of Amazon in all regards.”
When asked whether the use of drones have been discussed, Toso said Amazon does not have any such plans for Connecticut.
