While much of the city slept on a recent Tuesday, about 15,000 packages were being sorted at the Amazon delivery station in Anchorage. The senior station manager, Austin Empey, reached for a white envelope from a flowing conveyor belt of packages.
“This particular package is going to B14,” Empey said, referring to the bin the package would go to.
Amazon’s Anchorage delivery station opened in November 2023. The 66,000-square-foot facility is the last stop for packages before they’re delivered to residents of the state’s largest city.
Inside, massive conveyor belts weave around countless rows of silver shelves and stacked blue bins. Packages tower over employees as they’re wheeled off of large box trucks.
The facility used to be a Sears warehouse.
The station was only serving the Anchorage area when it opened, but in recent months, Empey said deliveries have stretched between the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Girdwood.
“We’ve been able to expand all the way out through there,” Empey said. “So grow incrementally and make sure we’re taking care of everyone.”
Amazon’s delivery station has processed over 3 million packages since opening last year. The retail giant says the new facility has reduced the average delivery time — from the time you order your package to it being delivered — for customers in the Anchorage area from two weeks to two days.
But have Alaskans noticed a difference?
Cassie Thomas lives on the Hillside in Anchorage and she said she always tries to buy items locally before ordering on Amazon. She said ordering from Amazon can feel like playing “delivery roulette.” Her experience is that it can take two weeks for an item to ship.
But she said once her items are in transit, they arrive quickly.
“If an item that I order is shipped more or less immediately, it will get here pretty fast. And especially with the new center, it will get here within two or three days. It definitely makes delivery faster,” she said.
Thomas was one of more than 200 people who responded when we asked Alaskans to share their experience with the largest e-commerce site in the world. Roughly half, like Thomas, said they’ve noticed speedier delivery, but the other half disagreed.
Alaskans reported ordering products like cleaning supplies, living room furniture and even dry foods like chips and cereal. Many praised the faster shipping service, but others complained that it’s inconsistent and has even slowed down since the delivery station opened.
When someone in Anchorage places an order on Amazon, it’s picked and packaged at a fulfillment center in Seattle. Then, the package is flown on a daily Amazon Air flight to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, where it gets loaded and trucked to the distribution station.
At the station, packages are unloaded and scanned, then placed on snaking conveyor belts leading to opposite ends of the building. Empey said delivery routes are formed by artificial intelligence and are often clumped by zip code or geographical area.
“So your package with your neighbors’ packages, or whatever it may be,” Empey said. “So it’s going to start clustering those together to build the most efficient route for that driver so we can get it delivered in a timely manner.”
In the Lower 48, consumers have more Amazon delivery options than in Alaska. Many areas offer delivery in just a few hours, and deliver fresh produce and groceries.
Amazon’s “holiday season,” which starts Thanksgiving week and runs through the end of the year, is a busy time for the delivery station. Empey is expecting the facility will process at least 5,000 more packages a day — for a total average of 20,000, and will require a second Amazon Air delivery.
“With the holiday season coming up, this will be our first year in several years of having two flights a day coming from Seattle to here,” he said. “So (we’ll be) bringing more packages.”
The delivery station employs over 100 people, but Empey expects he’ll hire about 50 more for the holiday season.
He has worked across the country for Amazon, and said he’s noticed some unique trends in what Alaskans order.
“There’s been a lot more like snow blowers, snow shovels showing up since the snow came last week, and then during the summer, a lot more, like fishing gear and stuff,” he said.
He said the biggest challenges for deliveries are weather, and the occasional wildlife interaction.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported in May that the company plans to open a delivery station in Fairbanks.
Ava White reports on economics and hosts the statewide morning news at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at awhite@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8445. Read more about Ava here.
