Stocks Up, Warehouses Shut: Weal And Woes Of Amazon Inc During Covid-19

While retailers like Walmart and Dollar General that sell essential products have seen their shares soar 8 per cent and 15 per cent respectively,

stocks are up by 22 per cent so far this year.

However, at the same time, Amazon's vast empire is showing cracks. Deliveries that used to take just hours to arrive can instead take weeks or even months. High demand items like toilet paper and paper towels are frustratingly out of stock.

But the biggest issue faced by the company is persistent complaints by warehouse workers of grueling hours of backbreaking work with little protection against catching the

This has increased pressure on the company to take steps that could further slow down operations, including shutting down some of its warehouses and easing productivity quotas.

Recently a French court ordered

to stop delivering non-essential products for a month and to work out better worker safety measures. Amazon responded by closing all its French warehouses, saying it is too complicated to separate out its activities. Small groups of workers have staged walkouts at Amazon warehouses in New York, Chicago and Detroit, demanding that the facilities be closed for deep cleaning after workers there tested positive for the virus. Kentucky's governor ordered a warehouse in Shepherdsville closed for several days last month after workers there got infected.

However, the e-commerce giant dismissed the move as part of the Trump administration's "personal vendetta" against it. The company statement read, "We strongly disagree with the characterization of Amazon in this USTR report. This purely political act is another example of the administration using the US government to advance a personal vendetta against Amazon.'' The Seattle-based company said it has taken aggressive steps to combat counterfeiting."