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Wayfair Drops Bangor Customer Service Center, Favors Remote Environments
Popular online retailer Wayfair recently revealed it will no longer be utilizing the Bangor office building that hosted the company’s call center operations over the last five years. Wayfair has officially moved all operations out of the building, with the original lease set to expire at the end of this year.
Like many other big retailers in the digital space, the pandemic forced Wayfair to shift the company’s workforce to remote setups as a medical precaution. After successfully navigating the challenges of this unusual time, Wayfair executives decided to carry on with the current business strategy. The increasingly remote workforce is proving to have a number of useful benefits, such as cost savings and increased employee satisfaction, that many business executives simply cannot ignore.
Before the pandemic began, the Bangor building was expected to be a huge economic resource for the city, with Wayfair originally planning to employ 450 people, supported by a $1 million infrastructural investment from the local government.
As a result of office closure, the Bangor customer service employees have been absorbed into Wayfair’s “virtual team” based out of Boston, Massachusett. The team will be a major asset as the company looks to solidify a long term hybrid strategy, which is becoming an increasingly popular opinion for businesses with digital resources. The company will likely experience some financial relief with this new approach, as the monthly rent for the building sits at $16,250, which would have risen to $17,725 after five years.
Wayfair’s farewell to operations in Bangor may appear to be a major loss for the city, but thankfully city officials have reported that numerous inquiries have been made about occupying the space.
Edited by Maurice Nagle