Picked, packed, shipped: Amazon shows off Shakopee distribution center
Amazon gave reporters an inside look at its massive Shakopee distribution center Friday.
More than 2,000 people work there, and Amazon is looking to hire more. Entry-level jobs pay about $14 an hour with benefits.
Some sections of the facility are four stories high.
"Think about 14 football fields. That's the footprint of this facility," said general manager Brian Urkiel.
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The center is designed to fill an order fast.
"It can be within minutes that the order comes in," Urkiel said. "It gets picked, packed and then loaded on a truck to be shipped."
Merchandise is stored in more than 50,000 pods and ferried to order pickers by over 5,000 robots that look like Roomba vacuum cleaners on steroids.
After orders are packed, they're routed to the postal service or other delivery services.