What an Amazon Warehouse Could Mean for Lubbock

Let's do a little speculation, shall we?

Reports say a $24 million dollar Amazon warehouse is being built in the Lubbock Business Park. There are two main ways a business like this will touch us. Number one would be order fulfillment, and number two would be jobs.

Let's hit number two first. If you're hoping for a job working in the Amazon warehouse, there is apparently a "pay floor" of $15/hour. The work is also supposed to be very stressful and has even been called "grueling." In 2018, the median Amazon employee made under $30,000 a year. Still, I know many people who would cut throats for a nice steady job, even if it's a hard warehouse job.

Now, how might it impact you on the personal level? Companies like Amazon have tons of raw data and you would expect that they may have many items in stock and ready to deliver to the surrounding neighborhood. I would imagine you might even see a little 'available for pickup or instant delivery' option on some items. It's simple, really. Amazon knows that x amount of bicycles are sold in Lubbock each year, so they could have some at the warehouse to spur impulse purchases.

Interestingly enough, I read one answer on Quora that said living near a distribution center did not speed up delivery of most items. There also seems to be instances of if you buy one item that's in stock in Lubbock and another is in New Mexico, that your Lubbock product may be shipped to New Mexico, then sent back to you in Lubbock.

So let's bottom line this: A new Amazon warehouse would most likely mean some decent-paying jobs and faster shipping on some, but not all items.