Amazon engineers and marketers were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery
Amazon engineers and marketers were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery
Exclusive: Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm’s busiest time
For those who haven't been paying attention, it appears Amazon is trying to "disrupt" the grocery market. Anecdotally they have been selling shit for crazy low prices and they'll make like 30 separate trips to your house all on the same day with lined/insulated packing for the perishable items and frozen water bottles (no extra charge to the customer) in each bag to keep the food cool in transit.
It seems like there is no way they can be making money on this process, which tells me they are speedrunning Walmarts strategy of operating at a loss to force other grocers out of the market.
Amazon bought Whole Foods a few years ago.
Jesus that sounds awful.
I've had a decent experience with Kroger. They don't have any stores in my market, just a big warehouse. A Kroger employee on a Kroger refrigerated van delivers it all at once and always on time.
Imperfect Foods used to deliver weekly, perishables included, and they ended up being bought out by Misfit Market. Now, it’s overpriced crunchy product, like shopping Whole Foods from home instead of saving on ugly carrots, grapefruit sized cabbage, and overstock.
They’re not out of business yet. There is a market for perishables and produce delivery. and people are used to Amazon so they may win on this, sadly.
So they are taking a page from YouTube where they out price the market until they are the market, and then will drastically raise prices because there’s no longer any competition?
Multiple deliveries a day ?! Why would anyone use that?
It's bad enough not knowing when they'll arrive and having to be ready, but at least after they've been you can get something done. Wow, Amazon are really bad at this.
they'll make like 30 separate trips to your house all on the same day
OMG they should try this here LOL
They would all have to explain such crazy shit all day long to police, neighbours etc.
Assumed this was volunteering to do like charitable grocery deliveries to people in need or something, but nope, it was just volunteerimg to do regular work to pad the pockets of the c-suite.
The manager noted such an effort would help “connect” warehouse and corporate teams.
Are they trying to build support among the white-collars for unionization of the blue? I can't think of a better way to boost union support among the white-collars. I hope they get the full experience of having to piss into bottles because break times are too short.
If this is how we achieve class consciousness, so be it.
Corporate suits should work more regularly the minimum wage jobs. And not for just 1 day where they never touch all the bullshit workers have to deal with. So they will maybe see the disconnect between corporate suits and "low paying jobs" they look at as just the numbers.
This should be an arrestable offense. Fuck these pieces of shit.
Maybe I read this differently than you. I don’t see this as volunteering personal time, but asking people during their work time to help iwith a different job. Not that the article says either way, but volunteering personal time seems unlikely
Also, even the article mentioned this, but Amazon has always done this. For example, engineers can volunteer to help out wrapping presents at Christmastime.
An engineer can barely do these jobs properly and they aren't used to manual labor, so they work fewer hours than normal. And yes, it replaces their normal work.
And, these white collar workers are many times more expensive than normal warehouse workers. This only makes any financial sense because they are desperate for extremely short time workers during rush times.
This article isn't really news. Just rage bait.
What happened with just going to to grocery store?
This isn't really the demographic they're catering to but Food Deserts are a sad reality for many in the US. Being able to order staple food and have them delivered (even if it's not same day) is often less painful than driving 30-50 miles to the closest grocery store.
My optimistic side is imagining a truck filled with a small town's worth of nutrient-rich groceries, making one trip to replace dozens of individual trip to a less-than-convenient grocery store.
My pessimistic side is imagining a truck with one or two people's worth of shitty "American" groceries, making the same trip they would have made to a grocery store down the street.
I feel like the reality heavily leans to latter, but I only have anecdotal data to back that up.
The article indicates this was for their Prime Day event.
Are people really waiting for an annual event to buy their groceries? Or are the Fresh delivery personnel reassigned to other verticals for the event's duration?
Former is shocking and borderline dystopian. Latter is just poor planning and resourcing.
My guess is that Amazon fresh makes its prices even more absurdly low to get more people buying.
I can rationalise holding off on buying a new phone or furniture until a sale. But for groceries?
One either needs groceries or they do not.
Perhaps, there are some categories of groceries that one may not buy unless there is a good occasion but might buy them if there is a good deal on it?
Or maybe, one may buy the pricier variety like “organic” groceries during such sales?
This is a really great way to make rage bait ahead of prime day and get into the news. It’s like free advertising.