NEW YORK — Getting an Amazon packaged delivered from the sky is closer to becoming a reality. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it had granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones. Amazon said that the approval is an “important step," but added that it is still testing and...
Mercedes Gets Big Electric Van Order From Amazon
BERLIN — Amazon says it's buying 1,800 electric delivery vans from Mercedes-Benz, the biggest such order for the German automaker to date. In announcing the order Friday, Mercedes said it would also join a climate initiative established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. By signing up to The Climate Pledge, Mercedes-Benz...
Amazon Unveils Shopping Cart That Knows What You're Buying
NEW YORK — Amazon has a new cure for long supermarket lines: a smart shopping cart. The cart, which Amazon unveiled on Tuesday, uses cameras, sensors and a scale to automatically detect what shoppers drop in. It keeps a tally and then charges their Amazon account when they leave the...
Amazon's Homeless Shelter Faces Seattle Crisis, Criticism
SEATTLE — A homeless shelter built on Amazon’s perfectly manicured urban Seattle campus is a major civic contribution that pushes the company to face the crisis and criticism in the hometown it has rapidly transformed. Believed to be the first homeless shelter built inside a corporate office building, Amazon’s partnership...
How Much is Our Personal Data Worth?
Regulations proposed on June 1, 2020, to implement the recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), provide that consumers will now have the right to know what personal information businesses collect, use, share or sell; the right to delete personal information; the right to opt-out of the sale of personal...
Trump: Postal Service Must Charge Amazon More, or No Loan
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he won't approve a $10 billion loan for the U.S. Postal Service unless the agency raises charges for Amazon and other big shippers to four to five times current rates. “The Postal Service is a joke because they’re handing out packages for...
Some Instacart, Amazon Workers Strike as Jobs Get Riskier
NEW YORK — Some Instacart and Amazon warehouse workers walked off the job Monday demanding greater safeguards against the coronavirus, even as both companies are speed-hiring hundreds of thousands of new workers to handle a surge in delivery orders. The one-day strikes had little impact on consumers, but the unrest...
More Wipes, No Jeans. Amazon Limits Warehouse Shipments
NEW YORK — Amazon, in an attempt to fill its warehouses with toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other items in high demand, said Tuesday that it will limit what suppliers can send to its warehouses for the next three weeks. Among the items that suppliers can ship include as canned...
Amazon Seeks to Hire 100,000 to Keep Up with Surge in Orders
NEW YORK — Amazon said Monday that it needs to hire 100,000 people across the U.S. to keep up with a crush of orders as the coronavirus spreads and keeps more people at home, shopping online. The online retailer said it will also temporarily raise pay by $2 an hour...
Pentagon Reconsiders Microsoft Contract After Amazon Protest
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process. U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and...