A birthday girl and her family were waiting at the end of a very rural road with their birthday hats on when a driver for Erin Tiedeman’s company Righteous Routes Logistics showed up. 

The company is among those on the front line of Amazon’s push into rural America, bringing same-day and next-day deliveries to remote locations mostly in Montana, but with some routes also in northern Wyoming.

“You get notified when the delivery is on the way, that it should be there within whatever, however many minutes or within the hour,” Tiedeman said. “So, the entire family was out there.”

And while they weren’t jumping up and down for joy as they saw Tiedeman’s truck approach, they were definitely excited for the occasion, none more so than the birthday girl, who Tiedeman said appeared to be around 7 or 8 years old.

That family’s reaction is playing out all over Tiedeman’s routes. 

Amazon is pouring more than $4 billion this year into speeding up deliveries to rural America, and Wyoming is one of the states where that investment is reshaping delivery routes and jobs.

People living in the middle of nowhere are showing their appreciation for faster rural delivery service, baking cinnamon rolls to thank drivers.

Ranchers also are calling Tiedeman up to offer help any time a driver becomes stuck. That’s an offer she has already had to use once, and the rancher didn’t even want to accept any money for the help. She gave him an Amazon gift card anyway.

“Everyone wants to be on the cinnamon roll route,” Tiedeman added with a chuckle. “She’s just a lovely, lovely woman who always wants to say thank you. People may not have a lot in the dollar perspective out here, but they give from their heart, and they give in kind.”

From Caution To Excitement

Although now everyone’s all smiles and waves and cinnamon rolls, there was some caution when the deliveries first began, Tiedeman said. 

“Having a van approach out in a rural area, there was definitely uncertainty at first,” she said. 

But caution quickly gave way once Tiedeman presented people with their packages, much earlier than they had expected. 

“This is my Amazon package?” many ask with a puzzled look. “But I just ordered this …”

She gives them a chipper smile and says, “Yep, it’s all here.”

“It’s like here are the things you wanted for your craft project, your graduation, or whatever,” she said. 

For many of the people on her route, the fast, rural deliveries really are game-changing.

“We have a lot of people who run small businesses out of their homes,” she said. “To be able to just have what they need delivered there and not have to drive somewhere or wait seven to 10 days, it’s incredible.”

The deliveries have also included medicines as well as many other household essentials — cat litter, pet food, toilet paper and more.

“We’re delivering everything from the tiniest computer chips to car seats and exercise bikes,” she said. 

Investing Billions In Rural Delivery

Amazon’s recently announced $4 billion investment into rural delivery service is on top of a roughly $350 billion investment last year that boosted its overall delivery network nationwide.

In Wyoming, the company’s investment so far totals more than $70 million since 2010, a figure that comes with more than 300 jobs. It’s also contributed more than $60 million to the state’s economy.

Tiedeman said her business, which is based near Billings, is now employing 140 people, many of them from the rural areas that she covers. 

“These are good-paying jobs,” she said. “It’s steady work. I offer benefits. They get paid time off, and it’s something that can work around their schedules.”

Amazon opened what it calls Rural Super Rural (RSR) delivery centers in Gillette and Casper in October 2024 and will soon open another in Rock Springs. 

By the end of 2026, Amazon officials have said in their earnings call they plan to triple the overall size of their rural delivery network, expanding to more than 200 locations in more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities. 

At the present pace of 40 to 50 new delivery hubs a year, Amazon officials say they should be able to ship packages to every U.S. ZIP code within four years. 

Some economists and small retailers in other states have raised concerns that Amazon’s approach could make rural communities more vulnerable by squeezing out brick-and-mortar shops. 

Tiedeman and the businesses on her route, however, are hoping faster service will mean more sales and, ultimately, more new jobs. 

Amazon says it’s leaning into rural deliveries because its independent sellers — many of whom are small- to medium-sized businesses — make up 60% of sales from its online stores. 

“In Wyoming, independent sellers sold more than 22 million-plus items through Amazon’s store in 2025, with average sales of $225,000 per seller,” an Amazon spokesperson told Cowboy State Daily. 

Keeping It Wyoming

Amazon sellers are supporting more than 100 jobs across the state, an Amazon spokesperson told Cowboy State Daily. Among them are 23 jobs at award-winning optics manufacturer Maven, which is headquartered in Lander.

Company officials were unavailable to talk with Cowboy State Daily about Amazon’s role in their startup. 

Their story was recently highlighted, however, by Amazon Selling Partners. In it, founders Mike Lilygren and Cade Maestas tell how they started their company to solve a personal problem — they personally like Lander and weren’t interested in moving. 

Both had offers for high-paying leadership roles after the Wyoming-based optics company where they worked was acquired by a much larger corporation. 

But they didn’t want to move.

As they thought about what they could do in Lander to stay there, an idea began to form. What if they could cut out retail markups and do a direct design-build product instead? Then they could put together premium optics at better price points than competitors. 

It was an idea they could try out from their garage — the “Garage Mahal,” as Lilygren calls it — thanks to Amazon’s network of tools that enabled them to sell products anywhere in the United States.

Amazon’s platform is still 12% of their business, but they’ve since been able to build a bonafide headquarters that overlooks the Wind River Mountains and has 23 employees and counting. 

It’s one of many examples of how small businesses in tiny towns across America have hitched their wagons to Amazon and are helping fuel the company’s decision to build a delivery network that works for them.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.