Workers unpack items shipped from affiliates to Amazon Fulfillment Center in Enterprise South Industrial Park in Chattanooga. While jobs have been lost in brick-and-mortar stores, many more have been gained from e-commerce and warehousing. Amazon accounts for much of the additional employment.WASHINGTON – When the robots came to online retailer Boxed, dread came, too: The familiar fear that the machines would take over, leaving a trail of unemployed humans in their wake.
“I had a lot of people asking me, ‘What is going to happen to us?'” says Veronica Mena, a trainer for the e-commerce startup, recalling the anxiety that rippled through her co-workers after company executives announced plans to open an automated warehouse in nearby Union, New Jersey.
Yet their fears didn’t come to pass.
When the new warehouse opened this spring, workers found that their jobs were less physically demanding than at the older, manual warehouse in Edison, New Jersey. Instead of walking thousands of steps a day loading items onto carts, employees could stand at stations as conveyor belts brought the goods to them.
And rather than cutting jobs, the company added a third shift to keep up with rapidly growing demand.