On Monday, 16th March, Amazon.com Inc said it would hire 100,000 workers for warehouse and delivery in the United States to deal with the surge in online orders. During the coronavirus outbreak, people have turned to the web to meet their needs.
Retails shops are being cleaned out by people in the fear of quarantine or product shortages. Retailers are trying to keep hygiene items and food products in stock and have employees ready to work in store or for delivery.
U.S. supermarket chains like Kroger, Albertsons, and Raley’s have planned to hire staff to the busy sections and fulfil the online orders just like Amazon. They are targeting the people in the businesses like restaurants, travel, and entertainment who are suddenly looking for work because of the virus outbreak.
In a blog post Amazon said, “We want people to know we welcome them on out teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.”
Major shipper, United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), said that its air and trucking deliveries were still going on inspite of the government restrictions. It also said that on Monday it met the demand with the existing workforce.
The novel coronavirus lockdown has led to items being out of stock on Amazon and some deliveries are also taking much more time than the usual.
The impact of the restriction on deliveries by the new government was not clear. In the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, officials asked that people stay indoors unless and until they are out for some essential purposes, such as work for “businesses that ship or deliver groceries, food, goods or services directly to residences.”