Empty shopping malls could serve as Amazon’s fulfillment centers. That would allow Amazon to expand same-day delivery, offer its Prime Now service in more cities, and potentially reduce emissions from delivery vans that run from out-of-town distribution centers.
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If the negotiations are successful, Amazon would take over the empty Sears and J.C. Penney stores and convert them into fulfillment centers. Amazon has, in a sense, destroyed physical shopping, and now it will inhabit its corpse. This local presence would allow Amazon to offer even faster delivery options in downtown areas, but at the cost of even more delivery traffic.
“I would like to see Amazon work with other distributors to set up shared hubs with shared deliveries using electric vehicles,” Nicholas Bailey, emeritus professor of urban regeneration at the University of Westminster and a qualified urban planner, told Lifewire via email. “Amazon going it alone is not a sustainable solution.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon was in talks with Simon Property Group before the pandemic, but COVID-related bankruptcies of JC Penney and other companies have made much more former retail real estate available.
