Amazon - How on earth do they do it?

[Nimby]

Oakey said:

I've noticed that recently if you choose free delivery it takes them an age to dispatch your items. I ordered something recently on a Friday that was in stock, chose free delivery and it was the following Thursday they dispatched it and it arrived on the Friday. The cynical part of me says this is to get people to sign up to Prime as they never used to be this slow.

I ordered a phone on Sunday afternoon (about 15:30) choosing free delivery and it arrived 09:10 yesterday (Monday). The "your item has shipped" email came about 45 minutes after I'd placed the order.

[Oakey]

Nimby said:

I ordered a phone on Sunday afternoon (about 15:30) choosing free delivery and it arrived 09:10 yesterday (Monday). The "your item has shipped" email came about 45 minutes after I'd placed the order.

That's what my experience with them used to be like. It's not been like this for a while now.

[Bullett]

Do they stock everything in every warehouse or is one for CD's one for books etc. Whenever I order I normally get everything in a single box. It's rare they are split up. And sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 separate packages of just CD's (old school)

[prand]

GTIR said:

Can I assume that you and every other male (including me) saying they cried or will cry at the movie do so because of what happens at the end to the robot?

Without revealing too much, yes it was the last bit with the robot, and his little watering can... blub

[BoRED S2upid]

supertouring said:

I frequently now find that items I purchase are being shipped from Europe, often individually from different locations.

The shipping costs alone must outweigh any profit they make on the items, as I order everything with free postage.

This is probably why out of billions of pounds of sales they manage to make a loss! Very very small margins.

Their strategy must be to put everyone else out of business and then make money.

[TimJMS]

BoRED S2upid said:

...

Their strategy must be to put everyone else out of business and then make money.

Indeed. Bezos must hate everybody. Elon Musk is a far more likeable character but I fear Bezos will own him, his cars, his space project and Paypal too, soon. Very worrying.

[MethylatedSpirit]

I worked in there over christmas


You're given a handheld device, a trolly and a pair of shoes. The handheld device tells you where to go and measures how lazy you are.

[Hackney]

Bullett said:

Do they stock everything in every warehouse or is one for CD's one for books etc. Whenever I order I normally get everything in a single box. It's rare they are split up. And sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 separate packages of just CD's (old school)

Yes, but they're reducing duplication, for example grocery products have moved to what they call "Edinburgh" but is actually Dunfermline.

[mondeoman]

Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Had a delivery promised for Thursday, then Friday, then absolutely guaranteed for today. Still waiting....

Oh and the carrier is Yodel...

And we're Prime members.

[elster]

Bullett said:

Do they stock everything in every warehouse or is one for CD's one for books etc. Whenever I order I normally get everything in a single box. It's rare they are split up. And sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 separate packages of just CD's (old school)

I have worked at a couple of Amazon Depots. I must say their SCADA system is excellent and conveyor belts work fantastically... (slightly biased)

For example at Milton Keynes Fulfilment centre they have books, stationary, small IT, mobile phones, electronics, DVDs. If they are short of a book/DVD/CD/Game they have the rights to print a lot of them.

When a new product comes to market, such as a new best seller or XBox they predict how many they will sell and keep pallets of them on the main floor and not bother stacking them. For most of the day to day items that are generally sold they are all stuck on shelves.
Items are 3D scanned on arrival and then given a location accordingly and the conveyor belt takes them to that location to be stored.
A picker has a scanner and on it they have a list of items, they go around put the items in a box and then off they go on the conveyor belt. Off the top of my head they have 4 4 storey towers inside all linked with conveyors. These are then taken to the packing end stuffed and sent though to the mailing conveyors sorted and shipped.

They calculate what stock they require. All new large scale items they don't pay for until sold, stock items are left on the shelf and can sometimes mean you get a dusty item as it has been sat there a while.

The larger scale items work on a similar model, but it is a bit more involved logistically and I have no idea how they work their stock.

The reason amazon make no money is they have a tiny mark up on products and rely on quantity. Any profits they do make go on investment into the company, they invest massive amounts on infrastructure. Hence they continue to grow.

[FiF]

One thing that seemed to come across in the documentary was that the people who had been employed didn't work for them for many years, 2-5 seemed typical.

Bezos seemed quite ruthless and got the impression that folk were quite intimidated if there had been a problem and got one of his "?" emails.

[elster]

FiF said:

One thing that seemed to come across in the documentary was that the people who had been employed didn't work for them for many years, 2-5 seemed typical.

Bezos seemed quite ruthless and got the impression that folk were quite intimidated if there had been a problem and got one of his "?" emails.

I have been doing contract work for them for 10 years. Most staff have been there since opening.

You get high turnover of low paid pickers, same as you would in retail or hospitality.

[FiF]

elster said:

FiF said:

One thing that seemed to come across in the documentary was that the people who had been employed didn't work for them for many years, 2-5 seemed typical.

Bezos seemed quite ruthless and got the impression that folk were quite intimidated if there had been a problem and got one of his "?" emails.

I have been doing contract work for them for 10 years. Most staff have been there since opening.

You get high turnover of low paid pickers, same as you would in retail or hospitality.

Most of these were Americans and not pickers, but included supervisory and management.

[Bullett]

Interesting, thanks.