Amazon fulfillment center to open in July

LOS LUNAS — Construction on the more than 1 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Los Lunas is complete, and the facility is hiring and will be officially open in mid-July.

“The presence of a multi-billion-dollar company like Amazon in our backyard will have a big impact for the village of Los Lunas, Valencia County and the surrounding areas because having a company like this is going to provide hundreds of jobs and opportunities for local residents and other neighboring rural communities,” said Los Lunas senior economic developer Victoria Archuleta.

Construction of the massive building on the north side of N.M. 6, west of Meta’s data center, began in November 2021 and will serve as an in-bound fulfillment center.

“A fulfillment center is a place where, if you place an order, the packages start there,” said Amazon U.S launch leader Derick Logan at an informational event held June 11. “We have major ports all over the U.S., so think of this site as the first stop from those ports. Massive amounts of various different types of product come to the fulfillment center before we start that whole process.”

Logan said the kind of fulfillment center built in Los Lunas is the largest type of center. There will be some robotic automation involved, but the majority would be manual labor.

Amazon has made a commitment to deliver packages to Amazon Prime customers within two days. To accomplish that, he said the company needed to consolidate its product throughout the region and central New Mexico is one of the regions it’s focused on.

“This is a very central region, and we feel like we can get to most U.S. cities within four hours from this area by flight,” he said.

Amazon will hire more than 1,000 people at the Los Lunas facility, Logan said, but not all at once. They will be phased in. Logan also announced the Los Lunas fulfillment center is now hiring.

“We believe that the backbone of every community is economic stability,” said Logan. “Amazon is going to be offering at this site starting pay of $17 per hour, and I think that’s really significant because the cost of living is not going down.”

While most of the jobs are entry-level jobs, Logan said they do not have to remain that way as “our managers want to promote every two years.”

He also said Amazon hasa wide variety of hourly roles and shift structures and has also removed common employment barriers.

“We no longer test for marijuana; we found that if it was legal in the state, then we would let it be OK for us,” Logan said. “We no longer have a GED requirement, (you can be employed) as long as you’re 18. We don’t require resumes or prior skills to work at Amazon. We teach candidates what they need when they walk through the door.”

Logan said Amazon also provides a large range of benefits, and their associates receive medical, dental and vision insurance on day one.

The first positions the company will be focused on filling, he said, will be full-time, tier-one roles, which will make up the bulk of the more than 1,000 jobs they are ramping up to.

“We’re also going to offer part-time roles at this site, which is 20 to 29 hours and we’re going to offer flex time. Flex PT is a part-time role that lets our associates choose when they work,” Logan said. “It’s great for college students or those who have another part-time or a full-time job “

Logan said associates will work primarily four days, and have three days off every single week.

“We believe that it’s important for you to have work-life balance, so we arrange the 40 hours in four 10-hour shifts, and they’re usually together,” he said. “We also offer seasonal (work) between September and January; it’s a really busy time for us then.”

Logan emphasized the inclusive hiring practices and career advancement initiatives, such as Amazon's career choice program, which offers “pre-paid tuition and reimbursement of books and fees up to an annual limit” for employees looking to advance their education.

Logan noted Amazon hires very differently than most companies and those who want to apply can do so online at Amazon.com/flexiblejobs. He said they hire incrementally every week and they will be hiring anywhere from 150 to 300 people every Friday as they fill positions.

Since hiring works on a weekly, incremental basis it may show there are no jobs available, but that just means there are no openings available that week. Logan recommended checking in the following week and to sign up for text alerts on the application page that will let you know when more openings are available.

“The application process typically takes 30 to 35 minutes or so, and then here’s where it gets a little interesting — we don’t interview,” he said. “If the job was available and they secured it, it’s theirs. We hold it for them as long as they pass contingencies.”

From an economic development standpoint, Archuleta said, “Having Amazon, especially following a company like Meta set up shop in Los Lunas, is the official stamp of approval that Los Lunas is a great place to do business, and that we’re welcoming to big companies.

“We have the infrastructure here, we have over 2,200 acres of industrial land between our three business parks, so having these big companies already in place shows Los Lunas has the land, physical infrastructure, and human infrastructure to support more companies like those two coming in.”