Amazon is reportedly ready to start shipping nonessential items again

Fear not: Everything you used to go out in public for will reportedly soon end up at your door once again.

When the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed its warehouses and delivery capabilities, Amazon deprioritized shipments of "nonessential" items and blocked third-party sellers from restocking those products. But after hiring thousands of warehouse and delivery workers over the past few weeks, Amazon is ready to get back to normal, people familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal.

Even before social distancing measures became widespread and deterred Americans from going to stores themselves, Amazon saw a massive surge in orders amid the new coronavirus' rise. That led the company to tell third-party sellers on March 16 it would only accept shipments of "household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products," which it would in turn ship out to shoppers. Third-party sellers protested the decision, saying it would devastate their businesses.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Amazon also announced on March 16 it was hiring 100,000 more warehouse, distribution, and delivery workers to accommodate the influx. The company's hiring spree seems to have filled some much-needed gaps, and so it "will allow more products into our fulfillment centers" later this week, an Amazon spokesperson told the Journal. "Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritizing products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities."

Workers at a Staten Island, New York, Amazon warehouse recently held a strike to protest the company's handling of an employee's coronavirus case; employees at the Amazon-owned grocery chain Whole Foods also called in sick en masse to demand increased workplace protections.