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- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Wednesday visited one of the company's warehouses and a Whole Foods, thanking employees who are working during the coronavirus pandemic.
- In a video posted by Amazon, Bezos can be seen touring the facilities while greeting and waving at employees.
- The tours took place near Dallas, according to Bloomberg.
- Bezos' visits come as employees have raised concerns about safety inside the company's fulfillment centers. Employees at multiple facilities have gone on strike, saying the company hasn't kept them in the loop about new coronavirus cases among workers and hasn't provided enough protective gear.
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Jeff Bezos stopped by an Amazon warehouse and a Whole Foods on Wednesday, touring the spaces and thanking workers who are laboring amid the coronavirus outbreak.
According to Bloomberg's Spencer Soper, Bezos' visits took place in the Dallas area. Amazon posted a video of Bezos visiting the fulfillment center, wearing a mask and getting his temperature checked before entering the building. Bezos is shown walking around the space, waving and saying thank you to employees.
At Whole Foods, Bezos walks through the aisles greeting employees. To one employee, Bezos can be heard saying, "I can't shake your hand. It's a hard habit to break."
Tweet Embed://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1248094415752749059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Today's visits by our founder and CEO @JeffBezos to say thank you to Amazon fulfillment center and @WholeFoods employees. We're all incredibly proud of the thousands of our colleagues working on the front lines to get critical goods to people everywhere during this crisis. pic.twitter.com/wxth2yURON
Despite Bezos' precautions, he doesn't appear to be abiding by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's social distancing guidelines, which encourage people to stay six feet away from others. At both locations, Bezos is shown walking within a few feet of employees. While Amazon and Whole Foods employees are all seen wearing masks and gloves, Bezos is seen wearing a mask, but no gloves.
A spokesperson for Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Bezos' visit, and what precautions he took.
Amazon has more than 75 fulfillment centers across the US, and according to The New York Times, the virus has spread to more than 50 facilities, infecting dozens of workers. Amazon has said it plans to hire 100,000 workers to meet demand during the global outbreak. Currently, 95% of Americans have been ordered to stay at home, resulting in a surge in online ordering through Amazon and Whole Foods.
Amazon's warehouses have been deemed "essential," which has allowed them to keep operating, but employees have raised concerns that the company isn't keeping them in the loop about new cases of coronavirus among workers, and that Amazon isn't properly sanitizing the fulfillment centers or supplying enough sanitation supplies or protective gear. Workers at multiple Amazon warehouses around the country have since gone on strike.
The company has said it has "adjusted practices to ensure social distancing within our buildings," but eight Amazon employees across the country recently told Business Insider's Paulina Cachero that they're afraid to go to work.
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See Also:
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- Jack Dorsey's $1 billion commitment to tackling the coronavirus outbreak has impressed fellow billionaires and tech execs
