Amazon to open robotics fulfillment center in central Texas

Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced plans to open a 700,000-square-foot fulfillment center in the central Texas city of Waco. 

The new facility will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs and is expected to come online in 2021. It will be located on a 90-acre site on the city’s south side, just off of Interstate 35.

Waco, which has a population of 144,000 people, is located 100 miles north of Austin along I-35.

Seattle-based Amazon’s new fulfillment center in Waco marks the eighth facility the company has opened in Texas since June. The company also opened two fulfillment centers in northern Mexico in September.

The new facility in Waco will also be one of Amazon’s robotics fulfillment centers, one of 50 around the world. 

The robotics fulfillment centers are warehouses largely operated by different kinds of robots designed by Amazon. Employees making $15 an hour will be working alongside thousands of robots.

The aim of Amazon’s robotics fulfillment centers is to speed up delivery of products by using robots for certain tasks, such as moving shelves to employees to reduce picking time for orders.

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