Healey: Amazon facility a 'distribution warehouse'
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Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (right) with state Sen. Karen Spilka (D-Ashland).
Attorney General Maura Healey said Tuesday she believes an Amazon facility in Stoughton that plans to open on Thanksgiving qualifies as a "distribution warehouse," rather than a retail store that would be barred from opening on the holiday under state law.
Massachusetts stores are prohibited from opening on Thanksgiving. An employee at the Stoughton sort center has asked Healey's office about the legality of Amazon being open Thursday, arguing that the warehouse is a part of the online company's retail operations.
"We'll take a look at it," Healey told reporters after a press conference about student loan assistance. "I don't have anything further to say about it at this point."
Healey was then asked if she considered the Amazon facility here a retail business.
"I understand this is a distribution warehouse," she said. "It's something we're looking at and as I said I don't have any further comment on it at this time."
There are 55 statutory exemptions to the Thanksgiving and Christmas closing law, including a provision allowing the "transport of goods in commerce."
"Our facility in Stoughton is a transportation hub, which unloads packages, sorts them, and re-loads the packages for delivery. It is not a store or shop, and it does not offer retail goods for sale," Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said in a statement.
Camille Carrigan, the worker who contacted Healey's office, said she believes her company should be closed like brick-and-mortar retailers are, the News Service reported Tuesday morning.
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