Chewy.com opens fulfillment center in Goodyear

GOODYEAR, Ariz. (KSAZ) -- Hundreds of jobs are coming to Arizona, thanks to a fulfillment center that setting up shop in Goodyear.

The fulfillment center is for online pet retailer Chewy.com, and had its opening day on Thursday. Members of the media were given a tour of the building.

"This side of the building is our outbound operations," said Gary Garrett, Regional Director of Human Resources for Chewy. "So that's where we're gonna do all of the pick up, all the merchandise for customers and send it outbound to the customer."

Now, leaders at Chewy say they can keep up with the growing demand for quick delivery for their online customers in the Southwest.

"We've hired over 400 team members here for our fulfillment center, where we're operating seven days a week," said Greg Walsh, VP of HR Operations for Chery. "We have dayshift, nightshift. inbound, outbound operations."

Walsh says most of the hires are locals, including Samantha Cloos.

"Get up 5:30 in the morning, there are smiles everywhere, and I love that," said Cloos.

Cloos said she previously worked as a manager in Ross, and is so thankful for her new job as a fulfillment specialist at Chewy, which is more convenient and where she got a pay raise.

"Pay was already better, even though I was a manager and have been there for eight years," said Cloos. "I was already making more starting out then when I was working there after eight years, so it was a big incentive to come here, but it was also closer to home."

With more pet owners choosing to buy their pet supplies online, Chewy leaders say they hope to expand further and hire more folks through 2019, if all goes as planned.