Amazon wraps up peak season

Employees at Lebanon’s Amazon fulfillment center can soon catch their breaths.

As increasing numbers of people shop online, Amazon has quickly devoured a good chunk of holiday shopping dollars in recent years.

“On Cyber Monday last year, customers ordered more than 17.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which is a record-breaking 204 million items per second,” said Kelly Cheeseman, a spokesperson for Amazon.

The company hired thousands of seasonal temporary employees in Tennessee to help accommodate the workflow.

More than 400 Amazon employees work at Lebanon’s 350,000-square-foot facility, which is one of 40 fulfillment centers in the U.S. for the popular Internet retailer.

“The [fulfillment center] sites combine a lot of high-end technology, but the employees are really the key,” said Cheeseman.

Lebanon’s facility houses and ships many of the retailer’s smaller items, such as books, DVDs and small electronics.

Amazon has not yet released sales figures for this year’s holiday shopping season.