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Wayfair Opens Call Center In Pittsfield

New England Public Media | By Nancy Eve Cohen
Published October 10, 2019 at 6:56 PM EDT
Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair, speaking at the opening of the company's call center in Pittsfield, Mass.
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Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair, speaking at the opening of the company's call center in Pittsfield, Mass.
Nancy Eve Cohen / NEPR
Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair cuts the ribbon at the opening of the company's new call canter in Pittsfield, Mass.
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Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair cuts the ribbon at the opening of the company's new call canter in Pittsfield, Mass.
Nancy Eve Cohen / NEPR
The new Wayfair call center in Pittsfield, Mass, where the company plans to hire 300 employees.
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The new Wayfair call center in Pittsfield, Mass, where the company plans to hire 300 employees.
Nancy Eve Cohen / NEPR
Workers are being trained at the new Wayfair call center in Pittsfield, Mass.
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Workers are being trained at the new Wayfair call center in Pittsfield, Mass.
Nancy Eve Cohen / NEPR
The Wayfair customer service center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the former Sheaffer Eaton paper mill. Parts of the original building were constructed in 1883 for the Terry Clock Co.
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The Wayfair customer service center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the former Sheaffer Eaton paper mill. Parts of the original building were constructed in 1883 for the Terry Clock Co.
Nancy Eve Cohen / NEPR

Online furniture giant Wayfair opened a new call center Thursday in a historic mill building in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 

As part of the Economic Development Incentive Program with the state, Wayfair will receive more than $31 million in tax credits over the next decade.

As part of the deal, the company says it will create 3000 jobs in Boston and 300 in Pittsfield.

The Berkshires has a shortage of trained workers, but CEO Niraj Shah, who grew up in Pittsfield, said when hiring, Wayfair cares more about "cultural traits" than specific job skills.

"One of the things that I think will make Wayfair a great member of the community is that we tend to look for really talented, ambitious, collaborative, friendly people," Shah said.

Shah said the company has hired about 30 people so far. And the promised 300 new hires will be completed next year — one year earlier than Wayfair promised the state. 
Tags
Regional News BUSINESS & ECONOMYGOVERNMENT & POLITICSLABORINFRASTRUCTUREWESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Nancy Eve Cohen
Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
See stories by Nancy Eve Cohen
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