Amazon is closing, canceling, or delaying the opening of nearly 70 warehouses as consumer demand drops following the pandemic surge.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York have launched a effort to unionize
AFP / SEBASTIEN BOZON

Amazon (AMZN) is looking to reduce the number of warehouses in its U.S. real estate portfolio after expanding rapidly due to high demand during the pandemic.

At the height of the COVID pandemic, Amazon was inundated with orders as Americans turned to the retail giant for their needs as physical store locations were temporarily shut down to prevent the spread of the virus.

The surge in demand from shoppers prompted Amazon to add warehouses quickly to keep up with increased orders. Amazon is now shuttering warehouses because demand has waned.

According to supply chain and logistics consulting company MWPVL International, as many as 71 warehouses have been closed, canceled, or delayed as of this week. A total of 21 warehouses have already closed, with 21 new sites canceled, and another 27 facilities have been put on hold for various reasons.

From 2020 to 2022, Amazon’s new warehouses nearly doubling its footprint from 272 million square feet at the end of 2019 to more than 525 million square feet at the end of 2021, CNBC reported.

But then the pandemic eased, orders slowed and consumers returned to brick-and-mortar stores, leaving Amazon with too many warehouses. As a result, Amazon is scaling back its operations, including the shuttering of fulfillment centers and last-mile delivery locations, MWPVL reported.

It’s unclear how many workers will lose their jobs. CNBC reported that 190 workers recently lost their jobs in Hanover, Maryland and another 163 employees were let go in Essex, Maryland, according to WARN notices posted.

Amazon told the news outlet that all affected employees will be offered jobs at another location.

In the second quarter of 2022, Amazon reduced its workforce by 99,000 people after a major hiring spree to bring on employees to staff its growing warehouse workload, CNBC said. It now has a workforce of 1.52 million, according to the news outlet.

“While we’re closing some of our older sites, we’re also enhancing some of our facilities, and we continue to open new sites as well,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “In fact, since 2020, we’ve added more than 350 new modern facilities to our network in the U.S. alone and have dozens more facilities under construction here in the U.S. and around the world.”

Here’s the list of Amazon warehouses that are closed, canceled, or delayed in the U.S., according to MWPVL.

Closed Locations