Amazon could end some N.J. warehouse leases as online shopping slows, sources say

TRENTON, N.J. – Amazon is arranging to sublease some of its warehouse house now that the pandemic-fueled surge in online browsing, which assisted the e-commerce giant rake in soaring profits in the past two yrs, has eased.

Subleasing will allow the enterprise to “alleviate the monetary obligations linked with an existing setting up that no lengthier fulfills” its wants, Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll claimed.

Carroll did not disclose how a lot place the firm options to sublet. But citing anonymous resources, Bloomberg Information and The Wall Road Journal documented before that the retailer would sublease at minimum 10 million sq. ft of place and could conclusion much more of its leases in states including New York, New Jersey and California.

Seattle-primarily based Amazon doubled the size of its operations all through the pandemic, introducing additional warehouses and employees to keep up with demand from homebound people who felt additional comfy shopping for matters on the web. But as the worst of the pandemic eased, it located itself with far too considerably warehouse space and too many workers.

“Subleasing is one thing many established corporations do to assistance take care of their actual estate portfolio,” Carroll mentioned.

Last month, the organization noted its very first quarterly decline considering the fact that 2015, fueled by the e-commerce slowdown and a massive publish-down of its investment in the electrical-automobile startup Rivian Automotive. In a assertion unveiled last month with its earnings final results, CEO Andy Jassy reported the enterprise was now targeted on increasing productiveness.