CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. -- In the late 1990s, the town of Campbellsville in central Kentucky suffered a powerful jolt when its Fruit of the Loom textile plant closed. Thousands of jobs making underwear went to Central America, taking the community's pride with them.Unemployment hit 28% before an unlikely
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — In the late 1990s, the town of Campbellsville in central Kentucky suffered a powerful jolt when its Fruit of the Loom textile plant closed. Thousands of jobs making underwear went to Central America, taking the community’s pride with them.
The outcome has been different in Campbellsville, the only sizable community in Taylor County. The county population has stalled at 25,000. Median household income has barely kept pace with inflation. Nearly 1 in 5 people in the county lives in poverty, more than in 2000. No one wants Amazon to leave, though. It is Campbellsville’s largest private employer. Its online mall has given the town’s shoppers access to a paradise of goods.
The company said it had spent $53 million remodeling its warehouse “to benefit employees.” The facility now includes a classroom for training workshops and, it said, “on-site college classes.” Amazon declined a request for a tour. “The needle has not moved in the last two decades on the quality of life in Kentucky, especially in places like Campbellsville. What does that tell you?” said Jason Bailey of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, a research and advocacy group.
To woo Amazon, the local fiscal court passed the payroll tax measure, which opened up the state coffers. Amazon’s workers, like other employees in the county, would pay a 1% payroll tax and a 4% state income tax. But that money went directly to Amazon as a reward for bringing in jobs. Her starting rate at Amazon was just $7.50 an hour, but she relished creating a digital outpost in Campbellsville. “We felt responsible for a lot of the success of Amazon,” she said. “We were just so proud.”
“We treated it like our company,” he said. “I have personally worked with Jeff Bezos. I actually liked the guy.”“My manager called me into the office one day and said, ‘Dave, your performance is not what it needs to be.’ I said, ‘How can I improve?’ He said, ‘You don’t fire enough people.’”Both Perkins, 64, and Dishman, 71, have Amazon Prime accounts. Dishman’s daughter works for Amazon as a data analyst.
Amazon is linked into the community in other ways that often end up benefiting Amazon. In 2016, the company donated 25 Kindle Fire tablets to Campbellsville kindergarten and first grade classrooms. It also donated $2,500 in “content.” The town schools are increasingly buying supplies from Amazon for a total of about $50,000 in the last fiscal year, records show.
Last spring, the local library was to receive a $10,000 gift from Amazon for science and technology education. Amazon planned to supply whatever the library wanted by ordering the material through its own site. As this article was being reported and Amazon was emphasizing what it had done for the town, the company just sent the library the cash.
The graffiti-covered shell was torn down, and a Louisville developer, Hogan Real Estate, cobbled together a deal. Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chain, would close its two Campbellsville stores. It would then become the Marketplace anchor tenant with a 123,000-square-foot superstore.
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