Over the last three months, Amazon has canceled plans for nearly 10 million square feet of warehouse space, shelving plans for more than a dozen fulfillment centers and delivery facilities around the U.S. as the company wrestles with a costly space glut on the heels of the pandemic.
The scope of the pullback, which is previously unreported, shows how quickly Amazon has reversed course on an aggressive build-out. Amazon shuttered a former Cadillac dealership in Manhattan that it had turned into a hub for last-mile delivery outfitted with e-cargo bikes. And it’s working to find new tenants to sublease two sprawling fulfillment centers built to its specifications, among many others.
The moves mark a notable departure from Amazon’s historical expansion strategy, in which the company typically was more comfortable having excess capacity that it could grow into, one former senior Amazon fulfillment executive told The Information.
