There's been coverage of Amazon's reversal of a postpandemic pullback in logistics expansion, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported. But an examination of the company's financial filings raises the question of whether there had been any pullback at all.

Amazon's warehouse leasing has been growing, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. So far this year, the company has signed at least six warehouse leases of at least 1 million square feet, "matching the number of leases for spaces that size signed by the company in all of 2023." All were in the western part of the country while the company pulled away from small-to-mid-sized warehouses and East Coast locations.

Many of the current moves, the Wall Street Journal reported, are about Amazon restructuring its distribution network to speed delivery and cut costs. "The changes are aimed at setting up Amazon to better compete with the nation's largest retailer, Walmart, and low-price online upstarts Shein and Temu," the Journal wrote. Canadian supply-chain consulting firm MWPVL International told the paper that Amazon had bought, leased, or announced plans for more than 16 million square feet of additional warehouse space.