PODCAST: Behind Amazon's Expansion And Contraction With Logistics Expert Marc Wulfraat
Bisnow's audio series, Bisnow Reports, examines every facet of the international commercial real estate industry — from the murky future of retail and office to real estate’s reckoning with diversity to the effects of climate change on the built world, and so much more. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music, or scroll down to listen in your browser.
On this episode, we speak with MWPVL founder and President Marc Wulfraat, a logistics consultant who tracks Amazon's industrial footprint.
Wulfraat cataloged Amazon's exponential growth that took off when the pandemic hit the United States and has been following its retraction this year as it has closed, subleased or canceled warehouses it planned to occupy. Wulfraat said the company is still having "a spectacular year," but it overshot the mark on its network expansion.
“They started opening up buildings at almost an irrational pace in 2020 and 2021, especially in the United States,” Wulfraat said. "In some cases when we were updating the database, we were looking at the map and saying, 'Well, some of this just makes no sense.' Putting a delivery station, brand new, right up beside another one they already operate."
We also hear from reporter Jarred Schenke, who discusses the impact the company's moves have had on the broader industrial market and what the landscape looks like amid broader economic uncertainty.
