Amazon Continues U.S. Takeover While Whole Foods Deals With Data Breach
As Amazon continues its rapid expansion, the large number of fulfillment centers it owns across the country are growing with it.
The e-commerce giant now has a total of 140 fulfillment centers across the U.S., ranging from large-scale warehouses used for shipping items like appliances and sporting equipment, to smaller depots, which tend to focus on shipping specialty items such as fine jewelry, Yahoo Finance reports.
Most of the fulfillment centers are in areas close to city centers or zones with larger populations in order to make it easier to achieve Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping promise.
Amazon recently hosted a massive job fair in order to support its goal of hiring 50,000 new employees by the end of the year.
But it is not all good news for the online titan.
In June, Amazon acquired high-end grocer Whole Foods for $13.7B. The e-commerce giant had been looking to expand its brick-and-mortar presence and the purchase not only gave Amazon access to Whole Foods' more than 450 stores, it also gave Amazon control of the full distribution network. It was a key play as Amazon works to improve its online and physical grocery delivery business.
Several months later, however, Whole Foods disclosed a data breach involving a violation of customer data, the Wall Street Journal reports.
While Amazon transactions and Whole Foods grocery shoppers were not affected in the breach, customers who ate at Whole Foods Market restaurants may have been hacked. The grocer has allegedly hired a cybersecurity firm to investigate the issue further.
