Amazon To Add 400 Jobs At Hazle Twp. Facility

The Amazon fulfillment center in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township is growing.

The company said Wednesday it is adding 400 full-time positions to the 1,500 already there.

Kelly Cheeseman, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the new people are being added “to help pick, pack and ship customer orders.”

Cheeseman said the positions are being added now “to meet growing customer demand.”

Interested candidates can apply at www.workatamazonfulfillment.com.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/amazon-to-add-400-jobs-at-hazle-twp-facility-1.1850160

Amazon.Com Distribution Center Planned For Pittsburgh’s West End

Locator map with the Fairywood neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amazon.com is coming to Pittsburgh.

The Seattle-based Internet giant has leased 250,000 square feet — equivalent to 4.3 football fields — in the former Roomful Express warehouse at 2250 Roswell Drive in the Fairywood section of the West End where it will establish a “sort center” that can deliver items within 24 hours of purchase.

The site is part of a new Amazon network of “sort centers,” where customer orders will be sorted by final destination and consolidated onto trucks for faster delivery, said Nina Lindsey, an Amazon spokeswoman. Amazon expects to increase its sort centers from 8 to more than 15 by the end of the year.

Pittsburgh’s sort center will serve the immediate area and nearby regions, she said, though she declined to specify the areas.

Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/6499265-74/amazon-sort-center#ixzz38VZOOh6W
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The Heartbleed Bug: Here’s What You Need To Know

How does local cybersecurity expert James Koons describe the Heartbleed bug?

MASSIVE.

“That’s the theme here,” said Koons, who has worked on IT security for the U.S. military and Amazon.com.

Currently he is chief security officer for Listrak, a Lancaster provider of online marketing services, and a board member of the Online Trust Alliance.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/the-heartbleed-bug-here-s-what-you-need-to-know/article_186a3f04-c0cb-11e3-a09f-001a4bcf6878.html

Amazon May Predict And Ship Your Next Order Before You Buy It

Deutsch: Logo von Amazon.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Amazon believes it may have the ability to anticipate consumer demand on a granular level – so much so, that it could actually begin shipping an order before you even buy it. The online retailer is working to refine predictive logistics in an effort to further shorten shipping times to customers. “Anticipatory package shipping” – a process patented by Amazon late last month – may become a part of that process.

By analyzing consumer data, such as prior orders, product searches, wish lists, shopping cart contents – and even cursor activity — Amazon could predict a consumer’s future purchase and move merchandise to a nearby fulfillment center in anticipation of a subsequent order.

By forecasting customer behavior, Amazon seeks to speed transit times to customers while utilizing lower-cost ground shipping rather than expedited methods “that may rival the price paid for the merchandise.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/philly/story/amazon-may-predict-and-ship-your-next-order-you-buy-it-0/1

Amazon To Hire 70,000 Seasonal Workers

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lehigh County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amazon.com Inc said it expects to hire more than 70,000 full-time seasonal employees across its order fulfillment centers in the United States, a 40 percent increase from last year.

Amazon operates a fulfillment center in Upper Macungie Township.  That warehouse had about 2,000 Amazon employees last year, making it the Lehigh Valley‘s ninth-largest employer.

Amazon, which has about 88,400 employees, said it has converted more than 7,000 temporary employees in the United States into full-time employees so far this year.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-amazon-hire-seasonal-workers-20131001,0,3597728.story#ixzz2gVPZBw86 
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Sears, Penney Sever Ties With Paula Deen

Sears Essentials (Kmart) logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW YORK — Paula Deen’s media and merchandising empire is collapsing.

Sears, J.C. Penney and Walgreen said Friday that they’re cutting ties with Paula Deen, adding to the growing list of companies severing their relationship following revelations that the Southern celebrity chef used racial slurs in the past.

Meanwhile, Paula Deen’s publisher has canceled a deal with her for multiple books, including an upcoming cookbook that was the No. 1 seller on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

Ballantine Books announced Friday it would not release “Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up,” which was scheduled for October and was the first of a five-book deal announced early last year. Interest in it had surged as Deen, who grew up in Albany, Ga., and specializes in Southern comfort food, came under increasing attack for acknowledging she had used the N-word.

Read more:  http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130628/NEWS04/130629609/sears-penney-sever-ties-with-paula-deen#full_story

Amazon Workers Cool After Company Took Heat For Hot Warehouse

This time last year, online retailer Amazon.com had ambulances parked outside its Breinigsville warehouse complex on hot days, with emergency medical personnel ready to take workers suffering from heat injuries to nearby hospitals.

Today, Amazon warehouse workers say the facility is refreshingly cool when it’s hot and muggy outside. The company recently installed 40 roof-top air conditioners in its 615,000-square-foot warehouse, part of a $52 million investment in cooling its warehouses around the country.

“I didn’t even break a sweat today,” one worker said at the end of his shift Tuesday, when Lehigh Valley temperatures topped 90 degrees. “It was really nice. I noticed the difference as soon as I walked in the door.”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-amazon-warehouse-air-conditioning-20120602,0,7480474.story

Amazon A Virtual No-Show In Hometown Philanthropy

SEATTLE — Conceived on Wall Street, born in a Bellevue, Wash., rental house, and based in a dozen buildings in downtown Seattle, Amazon has grown into one of the Internet’s most-recognized name brands.

But Amazon, which employed 1,381 in 2011 at its Breinigsville warehouse complex, cuts an astoundingly low profile in the civic life of its hometown.

It’s a minor player in charitable giving in the Seattle area. Some nonprofit officials say it can be difficult to find someone at Amazon to even talk with them. Other business leaders say they’re hard-pressed to name examples of Amazon playing a significant role on broader public issues.

And while Amazon’s logo smile appears on billions of boxes that criss-cross the globe, neither that smile nor its name can be seen on a single building at its sprawling new campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union area. The company, which turns 18 this summer, won’t even acknowledge how many employees it has in the area.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-amazon-charity-20120407,0,5273935.story

Online Retailers Hoping Congress Acts As PA Delays Enforcement Of Sales Tax Law

HARRISBURG — Out-of-state retailers will not collect sales tax on goods they sell online to Pennsylvania residents until Sept. 1, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

The clarification in the Pennsylvania tax law has spooked several advertisers into terminating their agreements withPennsylvania publishers in December.

As retailers adjust to the newly interpreted tax law, state residents must track the 6 percent sales tax on the goods they purchase and declare that amount on their 2011 tax return forms, according to the state tax code.

Opponents of the new law, which originally was expected to go into effect Wednesday, said the state will lose more than $22 million in revenue, because Internet companies won’t do business here.  (NO KIDDING!)

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/montgomery-news/story/online-retailers-hoping-congress-acts-pa-delays-enforcement-sales-tax-law/1