Dive Brief:
- Robbinsville, N.J., has threatened to sue Amazon.com and shut down a busy fulfillment center due to the traffic problems it is creating for the municipality.
- The Robbinsville fulfillment center has 1.2 million square feet of floorspace and about 4,000 workers—double what it was approved to house.
- Accident rates surrounding the massive fulfillment center have risen 300% since the beginning of the holiday season, according to town officials.
Dive Insight:
Amazon’s massive success is creating friction in Robbinsville, N.J., home of one of its massive fulfillment centers. With more than 4,000 workers traveling to and from the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse repeatedly every day, the town says that Amazon is creating traffic snarls and a safety threat that Mayor Dave Fried wants resolved immediately.
Fried charges that the town’s roads are not able to handle the center’s traffic, since the warehouse was only approved to house about 2,000 employees. After being disappointed in Amazon’s participation in a meeting to discuss the concerns, Fried promised to sue the company to shut down its warehouse until traffic problems are mitigated.
Amazon has since announced it will stagger warehouse shifts in Robbinsville beginning Monday to alleviate the gridlock. But since it is now responsible for more a third of holiday e-commerce in the United States, the marketplace needs to be able to absorb surges in business fast—or risk alienating customers and communities alike.
