Amazon’s Presence in the Jacksonville Region is Strategic & Growth Oriented
Since its start in 1994, Amazon has been reshaping how consumers shop. Starting from its inception as an online marketplace for books, Amazon has expanded its offerings to cover virtually every product category along with its own product suite of electronics and entertainment. Moreover, Amazon’s customer-centric e-commerce application has set the standard and culturally changed how people buy as well as how products move through the supply chain. The Jacksonville region has been part of the company’s vision since it began investing in Florida and is now a crucial strategic point in Amazon’s fulfillment network.
“Jacksonville is the gateway to Florida and a strategic location to serving the Southeast,” said Sam Blatt, economic development manager for Amazon covering Florida and the Carolinas. “We continue to look for ways to improve how we serve customers from the first mile to the last mile. Jacksonville is an important market because it’s growing and is a critical connection for our transportation and logistics function.”
Amazon now has 10 facilities throughout Northeast Florida employing more than 8,000 people. The region’s facilities consist of larger distribution centers like the Pecan Park location and smaller, specialty locations like the one by Cecil Commerce Center. A new last mile facility is currently underway near Craig Airport to improve east/west connectivity in the city.
Part of the success of Amazon in the region is the availability of talent and the company’s desire to help it grow. With career opportunities across the Jacksonville region along with upskilling initiatives and tuition reimbursement through its Career Choice program, Amazon is helping prepare the workforce of the future. Amazon also partners with Duval County Public Schools to fund computer science programming for students in the area.
The Jacksonville region also plays an important part of how Amazon gives back to the community – their employees give back through many causes in the area, and Jacksonville serves as a staging area for disaster relief for the state of Florida.
“We continue to see Jacksonville as a growth market both for our needs to serve the region and also our customer base since more and more people are moving to Northeast Florida,” added Blatt. “As we look to expand, we always factor in how we can work together with the City of Jacksonville to best serve our long-term needs.”