It’s easy to forget that plenty of America, which is made up of vast swathes of sparsely populated country, isn’t in on the joke of everything being just a day away from an Amazon Prime order.
In the US’ more rural counties, Amazon is still several days away. As next-day and same-day delivery became commonplace, first in the big cities and then in the suburbs, the infrastructure just wasn’t there to offer the same in the country.
Yesterday, however, Amazon announced a $4 billion investment to build out its rural delivery network, so large portions of the US’ rural areas may finally be stitched into Prime’s super-fast-shipping ecosystem, for better or worse.
the numbers
“At a time where many logistics providers are backing away from serving rural customers because of cost to serve, we are stepping up our investment to make their lives easier and better,” wrote Amazon in a press release on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
“This investment will also grow our rural delivery network’s footprint to over 200 delivery stations, and we estimate it will create over 100,000 new jobs and driving opportunities through a wide range of full-time, part-time and flexible positions in our buildings and on the roads.
“Once this expansion is complete, our network will be able to deliver over a billion more packages each year to customers living in over 13,000 zip codes spanning 1,200,000 square miles—an area the size of Alaska, California, and Texas combined.”
Amazon opened its first rural delivery station in 2020, according to Amazon itself, and began scaling its “small-town delivery network” in 2023. That investment has led to an overall 50% improvement in delivery speeds in those areas, by Amazon’s self-reporting.
By the end of 2026, they aim to triple it, with the goal of serving Prime members “from Milton, Florida to North Pole, Alaska (and thousands of small towns and rural communities in between)…”
As to what sort of impacts it’ll have on local businesses, one can only study the recent past in the rest of the country and make an educated guess.
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