Amazon Rallies Its Troops to Fight COVID-19

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote a letter to his employees over the weekend that shows just how quickly the company plans to adjust to the new America amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Bezos announced in a statement posted on Instagram and the company’s blog that Amazon will be hiring 100,000 new employees. He also urged laid-off restaurant workers to apply.

“We’re hiring for 100,000 new roles and raising wages for our hourly workers who are fulfilling orders and delivering to customers during this period of stress and turmoil,” Bezos wrote. “At the same time, other businesses like restaurants and bars are being forced to shut their doors. We hope people who’ve been laid off will come work with us until they’re able to go back to the jobs they had.”

Bezos also wrote that Amazon is immediately changing its logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing and third party seller processes “to prioritize stocking and delivering essential items like household staples, sanitizers, baby formula, and medical supplies.”

Bezos’s letter is a lesson for grocery retailers everywhere: The time for waiting to adapt to change and technology is over. Food retailers must figure out a way to adapt to the effects of technology, innovation and the ultimate disruptor — the coronavirus — now.

“This isn’t business as usual, and it’s a time of great stress and uncertainty,” Bezos wrote. “It’s also a moment in time when the work we’re doing is its most critical. My own time and thinking is now wholly focused on COVID-19 and on how Amazon can best play its role.”

Seattle-based Amazon is No. 10 on PG’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.