National slowdown won’t stop Slidell center
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The second concern in the past few months about the planned Amazon distribution center in Slidell not opening has been cleared up again, said Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer.
Amazon named Slidell in 2021 as the site for one of their new distribution centers, one that is expected to hire close to 400 employees at a minimum starting wage of $15 an hour, plus benefits.
Original estimates had the Slidell center up-and-running by early 2022, but when that didn’t happen the rumors began that Amazon was abandoning the center. Cromer ran down an Amazon spokesperson who told him that was not the case, and that there were only supply chain delays that had bumped the expected opening until the first quarter of 2023.
Then, Amazon announced in the past weeks that due to slow sales they are closing or abandoning plans to build 42 distribution centers and delaying plans to build 21 others.
Again, questions were raised about whether Slidell was going to be one of those sites taken out of the plans. However, Cromer again contacted Amazon last week and was told that the Slidell site is still on target to open in early 2023.
“I talked to them in the past two weeks, and they told me that even though they have curtailed some of their plans, they are still actively looking for new places,” Cromer said. “And they told me very clearly that the Slidell center is not one that is going to be shut down.”