By SCOTT AUST / Greater Garden City
About thirty local elected officials and community leaders toured the Amazon “last-mile” distribution facility in Garden City on Thursday morning during a celebration marking its one-year anniversary.
“Our job is immeasurably harder if we don’t have a good partner and a good collaborator and we found that here in Garden City/Finney County,” said Jason Vangalis, Central U.S. Expansion and Economic Development.
Amazon last-mile delivery facilities are the final local distribution points in Amazon’s supply chain where packages are sorted, organized by delivery route and dispatched to customers’ doorsteps.
Since opening last October, the Garden City Amazon center has created 45 jobs, and uses about 150 flex drivers for deliveries. The 12,000 square foot distribution center serves a roughly 60-mile radius around Garden City. \
More than 750,000 items have been delivered to Amazon customers so far.
“By the end of this year, this facility will have delivered 1 million packages, which for a facility of this size is amazing,” said Brian Kenner, Amazon’s global director of community engagement.
During the event, Amazon staff walked guests through the facility’s handling and sorting operation and the flex driver delivery system. Drivers use a mobile app to accept four-hour shift blocks and receive guided routes for deliveries. Amazon Flex drivers are independent contractors who use their personal vehicles to deliver packages.
The facility currently handles between 2,000 and 3,500 packages per day and 20,000 per week with the capacity to deliver up to 4,500 packages per day during busy times such as the upcoming holiday season. Total capacity allows for approximately 112 routes per day though occasionally they operate up to 117 routes per day.
All goods arrive at the facility via trucks from Oklahoma City, typically seeing two truckloads per day depending on volume. The facility focuses on maintaining a two-day delivery objective for Amazon orders.
Gary Rigdon, Station Leader, said he was well familiar with southwest Kansas due to family living in Ulysses. As a result, he jumped at the chance to come work here from Oklahoma City a year ago.
“That’s one of the reasons that we came here is for the supported community, the strong dedicated workforce that we have here. We’re proud to add our company’s investment to engage communities with great job opportunities,” Rigdon said.
Common categories of goods that move through the facility including everything from everyday essentials like toilet paper and cleaning supplies to clothing items – everything “from A to Z” as depicted in Amazon’s logo, Rigdon said.
Finney County and Garden City officials thanked Amazon for its investment in the community and congratulated the company on a successful first year.
“It’s exciting to see the operation in action and to recognize what you’ve accomplished during your first year here,” Finney County Commission Chair Vicki Germann said. “We appreciate Amazon’s investment in our community, the jobs you’ve created, and the role this facility plays in serving customers throughout our region. Most importantly, we appreciate your decision to become part of Finney County. We’re glad you’re here. We congratulate your entire team on a successful first year and we look forward to having Amazon as part of our community for many years to come.”
Garden City Mayor Tom Nguyen expressed gratitude for Amazon’s investment, commitment to customer service, and providing local residents with jobs.
“We are thankful for their commitment and for their contributions. Congratulations on your anniversary and we wish you many, many more years of success,” he said.
Kenner added that the Garden City facility is part of a larger investment for Amazon who he said is putting more than $4 billion into tripling its rural network delivery spaces across the country. Kenner said since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $10 billion in Kansas which has created thousands of jobs,
“We think it’s really important that we be able to serve our customers anywhere in the United States,” Kenner said. “Garden City is now part of that story, and we are so happy to be able to have them.”
Kenner said Amazon also believes in giving back to the community and being a good community partner. To that end, he presented a $10,000 check to Great Plains MakerSpace during the event.
“We feel very strongly that in places where we make an investment in a community… that Amazon has a commitment to pay back to the communities in which we operate,” Kenner said. “I want to say thank you very much to the elected officials, the community partners, to all the folks that are here to be able to celebrate this day with us.”
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