In Pictures: Massive Macy's warehouse has Christmas shoppers covered
Macy's Inc. opened a 1.3-million-square-foot state-of-the-art 'fulfillment centre' this year in West Virginia to ship its online orders to northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. It's part of a growing trend toward online shopping by bricks-and-mortar stores.
Associate Bonnie Joswick fills an order in her automated lift truck in the vast shoe section at the Macy’s-Bloomingdale’s fulfillment centre in Martinsburg, West Virginia Dec. 6, 2012.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Associate Joseph Rodeheaver fills clothing orders at the fulfillment centre. The 1.3-million-square-foot centre cost $150-million (U.S.) to build.Gary Cameron/Reuters
The packing section is shown at the fulfillment centre, which ships orders for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s growing online sales.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Associates process orders at the fulfillment centre in Martinsburg, which was expected to create 1,200 year-round jobs when fully operational, plus seasonal part-time positions.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Five-star packer-associate Marilyn Jarboe fills orders at her work station.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Blue bins full of customers’ orders move down a conveyor belt. Workers at the centre prepare and ship orders primarily to U.S. customers in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Associates monitor the overall work flow of the Macy’s-Bloomingdale’s centre.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Associates Dennis Kleptach, left, and Thomas Harder ready packages for a mail scanner.Gary Cameron/Reuters
An infrared mail scanner weighs and records outgoing packages.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Associate Elijah Katsanis loads an outgoing tractor trailer truck with packages.Gary Cameron/Reuters
A portion of the vast exterior of the Macy’s-Bloomingdale’s fulfillment centre is shown at sunset in Martinsburg.Gary Cameron/Reuters
An associate is surrounded by incoming product boxes at the Macy’s-Bloomingdale’s fulfillment centre.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Associate Robert Rutherford fills a shoe order on his automated fork lift.Gary Cameron/Reuters
Building engineers overlook one of the vast bin areas.Gary Cameron/Reuters