Amazon will add more delivery stations in New York City in 2021

• Amazon will launch ten delivery stations in New York City in 2021 and beyond, a company spokesperson said.
• Delivering from a city-based facility is at least 22% more cost-effective, according to a Deloitte report.
• Each delivery station will offer around 100 to 150 jobs with a starting wage of $15 per hour.

Amazon plans to set up more delivery stations in New York City to power the last-mile of its order process and provide faster deliveries to customers, the company said.

The tech giant will launch ten delivery stations in the Big Apple throughout 2021 and beyond, two of which are now operational, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Insider in an email this week.

The new sites will be located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Amazon has five operational delivery stations across the five boroughs including two in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn, one on Staten Island, and one in Queens, according to the spokesperson. It also has two operational delivery stations on Long Island and a sortation center and a fulfillment center on Staten Island.

As online shopping surged during the pandemic, with people staying home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Amazon went looking for warehouse space to expand its footprint in New York City, the country's biggest market, the New York Times reported this week. None of Amazon's competitors, including Walmart and Target, have a warehouse in the city, the Times said.

It is at least 22% more cost-effective to deliver to New Yorkers from a city-based facility than from a facility located in New Jersey where packages typically came from, according to a report by Deloitte.

"We want to get as close to the customer as possible to ensure we can offer fast shipping speeds to customers," the Amazon spokesperson told Insider.

Each delivery station will offer around 100 to 150 jobs with a wage of $15 per hour and work benefits, the spokesperson said.

Amazon has had a fraught history trying to set up in New York City. In 2018, Amazon announced it would build part of its second headquarter in New York, saying the project would provide 25,000 full-time jobs and a $2.5 billion investment in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The company would have received an estimated $3 billion in tax incentives.

However, the tech company faced backlash from local politicians, New Yorkers, and labor union representatives who argued that the project could increase rents, overcrowd schools, and congest the subway system.

Amazon canceled plans to build the HQ2 in February 2019, citing local opposition.

Later in 2019, Amazon confirmed to Insider that it signed a lease for a new 335,000-foot office in New York City that is set to open in 2021. Located in the Hudson Yards area, the new office will employ over 1,500 people, Amazon said.

Amazon plans to continue benefitting from the online shopping surge throughout 2021 as it looks into ways to facilitate delivery and reshuffle inventory such as boosting its air cargo operations.

It launched over 200 new sites across the US in 2020, including fulfillment and sortation centers, and delivery stations, according to the spokesperson.

By late 2020, Amazon announced its plans to set up 1,000 small delivery stations in cities and suburban areas across the country to meet high shopping demands, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.