Warehouse Nation

As the US emerged from the Great Recession, cheap real estate and the rise of e-commerce collided to create a warehousing boom.

As Amazon and others began building million-square-foot distribution centers, construction skyrocketed. Since 2011, over 2.3 billion square feet of new warehouse space has come to market — enough room to comfortably stuff 3 ½ Manhattans inside.

Past industrial booms created coal country, steel cities, and oil towns. Now warehouse boomtowns shoot up in places like California's Inland Empire, Pennsylvania's Lehigh County, and Columbus, Ohio, and the number of warehouse workers has nearly tripled in a decade.

Here, Insider explores how the rise of warehouses and warehouse work has changed the US and its citizens as we became a Warehouse Nation.

A guide to Warehouse Nation

Warehouses and employers like Amazon bring new jobs and higher wages for some blue-collar workers, but also can be hard on cities — and on the human body.

A surge in warehouse work

Using data and on-the-ground reporting, Insider looked at the opportunities and hidden costs of the rise of warehouse work.

Read more from 'Warehouse Nation'

A look from Insider at how the warehouse boom has reshaped America.

Credits:

Series Editors: Jake Swearingen, Lily Katzman, Alex Davies, Drake BaerEditors: Hana Alberts, Eric Bates, Amanda Cantrell, Gloria Dawson, Alyse Kalish, Monica Melton, Hayley Peterson, Josée Rose, Stephanie Russell-Kraft, Bartie Scott, Graham Starr, Cadie Thompson, Zach Tracer, Albert YoonReporters: Alex Bitter, Emma Cosgrove, Robert Davis, Tom Dotan, Dan Geiger, Aki Ito, Juliana Kaplan, Katherine Long, Nancy Luna, Andrew Moseman, Kelsey Neubauer, Alex Nicoll, Jenny Powers, Sindhu Sundar, Danielle WalkerCopy Editors: Kevin Kaplan, Jonann Brady, Nick Siwek, Jonas Dominguez

Research: Hannah Beckler, Andy Kiersz, Walter Hickey, Elisa Xu

Design, Development, and Art: Skye Gould, Jenny Chang-Rodriguez, Kazi Awal, Shayanne Gal, Taylor Tyson, Annie Fu, Tien Le, Rebecca Zisser

Video Producers: Robert Leslie, Katie Nixdorf, Noah Lewis, Katherine Long

Videographers: Jovelle Tamayo, Giorgio Litt

Photo Editors: Hollis Johnson, Crystal Cox, Erika Ramirez

Photographers: Tariq Tarey, Vincent Gonzalez, Giorgio Litt, Jovelle Tamayo

Social Producers: Tanita Gaither, Virginia Alves, Tyler Murphy, Rachael Lupton