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> it was built on top of a difficult but possible technical problem - building a much more efficient warehouse. Amazon did not solve this via technical means.

> it was built on top of a difficult but possible technical problem - building a much more efficient warehouse. Amazon did not solve this via technical means. Amazon relies on worker exploitation for this.

SQueeeeeL 4y ago
Yeah, but it exploited workers at a scale never before scene. Truly showing the power of technology.
- arrosenberg 4y ago
  I dunno, the cotton gin was kind of a banger in that regard.
Robotbeat 4y ago
In other words, they’re the same as retail.
hedora 4y ago
Many technical innovations went into Amazon warehouses. They pioneered random placement of items to load balance the aisles and workers, and rely more heavily on robotics than previous warehouses did. These things weren't feasible in the mid 90s. I suspect the reason it is so terrible to work at one is that designing a fulfillment scheduling algorthm that can handle 10% variance in human throughput is really hard. (The main complaints the workers have involve bathroom breaks!) They realize they are running out of people they have not burned out yet, and are looking into fixing it before exhausting the entire US labor pool, so clearly they've created a massive quality of life issue for the workers.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  I think reality is that there is minimum you can pay for a worker. And there is only so much you can get out of single worker over longer period. Clearly they have overshoot the later and it will eventually bite them. Main issue is that from numbers perspective only the throughput matters. Not if it is in general sustainable in long run.
  - hedora 4y ago
    Amazon pays warehouse workers well, though. I'm guessing throughout spikes and troughs cause bursty behavior for the trucks leaving the warehouse, which causes alternating backlogs/idle time for the delivery drivers. Also, how do you store big bursty backlogs of stuff that's already left the warehouse?
- ricudis 4y ago
  I'm wondering how long will they take till they think of exploiting the workforce of privatized prisons that's quite abundant in some places in US. They wouldn't be the first ones to do this either. IKEA had a similar model in Sweden.

SQueeeeeL 4y ago

Yeah, but it exploited workers at a scale never before scene. Truly showing the power of technology.

arrosenberg 4y ago
I dunno, the cotton gin was kind of a banger in that regard.

Robotbeat 4y ago

In other words, they’re the same as retail.

hedora 4y ago

Many technical innovations went into Amazon warehouses. They pioneered random placement of items to load balance the aisles and workers, and rely more heavily on robotics than previous warehouses did. These things weren't feasible in the mid 90s. I suspect the reason it is so terrible to work at one is that designing a fulfillment scheduling algorthm that can handle 10% variance in human throughput is really hard. (The main complaints the workers have involve bathroom breaks!) They realize they are running out of people they have not burned out yet, and are looking into fixing it before exhausting the entire US labor pool, so clearly they've created a massive quality of life issue for the workers.

Ekaros 4y ago
I think reality is that there is minimum you can pay for a worker. And there is only so much you can get out of single worker over longer period. Clearly they have overshoot the later and it will eventually bite them. Main issue is that from numbers perspective only the throughput matters. Not if it is in general sustainable in long run.
- hedora 4y ago
  Amazon pays warehouse workers well, though. I'm guessing throughout spikes and troughs cause bursty behavior for the trucks leaving the warehouse, which causes alternating backlogs/idle time for the delivery drivers. Also, how do you store big bursty backlogs of stuff that's already left the warehouse?
ricudis 4y ago
I'm wondering how long will they take till they think of exploiting the workforce of privatized prisons that's quite abundant in some places in US. They wouldn't be the first ones to do this either. IKEA had a similar model in Sweden.