Increased Demand for Warehouse Space and Labor Created by COVID-19 Could be a Long-Term Trend
More retail sales were already expected to move online over the past few years. The pandemic might accelerate that shift.
March 30, 2020 | Sebastian Obando | National Real Estate Investor
As non-essential businesses are forced to close doors, some retail and e-commerce firms are ramping up hiring and operations in order to meet a surge in demand for necessities and home deliveries.
“There’s certainly good news and bad news happening in retail right now. We know that the bulking goods, the discount warehouses, the dollar stores, grocery stores are all doing very well. Most of those are national credit tenants, so if a tenant in your shopping center happens to be oriented towards value retail, or discount retail, or grocery, you should be pretty safe.” says Naveen Jaggi, president of retail advisory services at real estate services firm JLL.
E-commerce giant Amazon plans to hire 100,00 U.S. warehouse and delivery workers, while Walmart would like to hire 150,000 new employees by May, including store workers and those who will work at its fulfillment and distribution centers. Shipt, a delivery service owned by Target, is actively hiring thousands across the country to keep up with the growing demand.
