BY FRANK DANIELS IV
Staff Writer
In the weeks following its early November launch, Amazon spokesperson Greg Rios said “we are still in the process of ramping up our operations,” adding that the site is hiring through an online portal for interested applicants.
“Open roles are posted weekly and fill quickly, so candidates should check back often,” said Rios.
That portal indicates the company hires 250,000 employees nationally during the holidays, with average starting pay ranging from $19 to $23 per hour.
Rios said earlier this year that last-mile delivery facilities like WNC8 in Southern Pines are typically staffed by smaller teams working flexible hours based on availability and needs. Similar locations often do not employ drivers. Instead, the company contracts with drivers through either its Delivery Service Partner program or its Amazon Flex platform. Those programs seek to hire businesses to manage a team of drivers and allow individuals to apply as independent contractors for deliveries respectively. Some third-party logistics providers also handle fulfillment.Amazon has declined to share employment figures for WNC8. Reporting on a 60,000-square-foot delivery station in Mount Airy, announced in conjunction with the Southern Pines location, quoted a local official saying the company would hire at least 50 workers for that facility.
In addition to those two facilities, the release also said the company was constructing last-mile sites in Jacksonville and Tarboro, and a “same-day delivery” facility in Kannapolis, between Concord and Salisbury. That 200,000-square-foot distribution center, located across the street from another Amazon fulfillment center built in 2018, “created more than 100 full-time jobs in the region,” according to the release.
Recent reporting by The New York Times, citing the company’s goal to hire 250,000 people, also revealed internal communications pointing to increased automation efforts as the company continues to gain market share, aiming to double the number of products sold by 2033. That reporting centered around goals to fulfill contingent warehouse and sorting requirements using automation technologies — an effort restricted to a certain group of employees, according to a spokesperson. That could represent roughly 600,000 workers the company would otherwise need to meet those needs if relying on human resources.
In March, the company announced plans for a 650,000-square-foot robotics fulfillment center near Wilmington along the New Hanover-Pender County line that would serve the growing network of logistics facilities in North Carolina.
“At fulfillment centers, employees pick, pack and ship customers’ orders,” the company said in a news release. “This is considered Amazon’s ‘first mile’ network, meaning it’s the first point for a customer’s package in the flow of materials within the supply chain before it’s passed along to ‘middle mile’ centers, then a delivery service provider to be dropped off at a customer’s doorstep.”
Amazon announced in June plans for a $4 billion investment to triple the size of its delivery network “with a focus on small towns and rural communities across the country” by the end of 2026. As part of the announcement, the company said up to that point this year it increased the number of same-day and next-day deliveries by 30 percent compared to 2024.
The 2025 holiday shopping season is down to its final days. In Southern Pines, that coincides with the opening of a 65,000-square-foot Amazon “last-mile” delivery station announced earlier this year.
The construction was approved late in 2024, with planning documents calling it the WNC8 distribution center. That designation is Amazon’s own internal label for the facility, and packages from the location can be identified by finding the “WNC8” on shipping labels from the Seattle-based company.
Rios said that once the Southern Pines location is fully operational, “the facility will process more than 10,000 packages per day.” In the nearby historic downtown, the local office for the United States Postal Service is already feeling the impact.
“(The opening) has reduced our daily workload tremendously,” said Southern Pines post office supervisor Stan Reddick.
He said the downtown post office was regularly receiving 14 pallets each day from Amazon — down to three with the opening of the facility off Air Tool Drive north of town. Reddick declined to go into further detail, and it remains unclear whether the change will impact local USPS employment.
Currently, Amazon is the postal service’s largest customer, accounting for approximately $6 billion of its annual revenue, but the contract for those services ends late in 2026. The USPS has already announced plans to hold a reverse auction, opening a competitive process for other businesses, such as national retailers, to bid on the government agency’s services.
Contact Frank Daniels IV at (910) 693-2486 or frank@thepilot.com.
