Startup Talk: Amazon opens new 1,000-employee fulfillment center in Colorado

Editor’s note: Each Thursday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Startup Talk,” a round-up of startup, technology and entrepreneurial news.

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AMAZON OPENS NEW 1,000-EMPLOYEE FULFILLMENT CENTER IN COLORADO
Online retail giant Amazon.com on Monday (Jan. 23) announced plans to open its first fulfillment center in Colorado. The one-million square foot facility in Aurora is expected to create more than 1,000 new full-time jobs, which is in addition to the hundreds of associates currently employed at the Amazon sortation center located in the same city.

Amazon employees at the Aurora fulfillment center will pick, pack and ship larger customer items, such as sports equipment, musical instruments and furniture. The new Colorado facility is part of the online retailer’s strategy to keep up with the one- and two-day delivery demands of its growing Prime customer base.

According to a recent article by Forbes magazine’s Trefis Team, 12 percent of Amazon’s net sales go toward fulfillment costs. In June, Amazon announced plans to open two fulfillment centers in Edwardsville, Illinois, and create more than 1,000 full-time jobs between the facilities when they open. The company also recently announced plans for a new fulfillment center in Joliet, Illinois, and the creation of 2,000 full-time jobs there. An existing fulfillment center in Joliet already currently employs 1,500 full-time employees.

In late 2015, Amazon also announced plans to open a new state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Edgerton, Kan., creating 1,000 full-time hourly positions there. Amazon plans also include purchases of 20 Boeing cargo planes as part of the company’s air cargo network, and efforts to rely less on UPS and FedEx to deliver its goods.

SPRINT HIRES NEW COO TO STREAMLINE OPERATIONS, CUT EXPENSES
Only a few weeks after announcing plans to bring back 5,000 jobs to the U.S., Sprint on Tuesday hired a new chief operating officer to be responsible for strengthening the wireless giant’s systems and processes across businesses, cutting expenses and improving company operations.

Nestle Cano, 52, will join Sprint on Feb. 2, reporting directly to President and CEO Marcelo Claure. Cano was president of European Operations at Tech Data, one of the world’s largest distributors of IT products and services. He also held other senior executive roles at the company where he fixed management processes and controls to drive the best-ever profit in the company’s European operations.

NEW SURVEY FINDS WIDESPREAD PRIVACY CONCERNS AMONG U.S. CONSUMERS
A recent survey conducted by International Data Corp. (IDC) finds that a whopping 84% of U.S. consumers expressed concern regarding the security of their personally identifiable information and 70% said their concern is greater today than just a few years ago.

The newly published special study highlights the fact that younger consumers, those age 18-35, demonstrate a higher concern for their personally identifiable information than do their 36-50 year-old counterparts. In addition, hyper awareness and growing sensitivity toward data exposure appear to have consumers on the verge of making serious changes in their behavior. The IDC report measures consumer privacy sentiment across four vertical industries, including financial services, healthcare, retail and government.