Amazon engineers and marketers were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery
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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.
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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.
Hard to say. I'm not sure of the delivery radius that's allowed here and whether rural food deserts would even be eligible or not. I was just mentioning that ordering (non-perishable) groceries online and having them shipped does have a legit and unfortunate use case.
Back when I lived 45
milesminutes from the closest grocery store, I'd order my non-perishables online and they'd usually come via UPS or FedEx. -
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.
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?
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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.
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Hard to say. I'm not sure of the delivery radius that's allowed here and whether rural food deserts would even be eligible or not. I was just mentioning that ordering (non-perishable) groceries online and having them shipped does have a legit and unfortunate use case.
Back when I lived 45
milesminutes from the closest grocery store, I'd order my non-perishables online and they'd usually come via UPS or FedEx.I did that during the height of COVID, when my household was only going to the store once a month. Imperfect Foods was how I got fresh produce in between those trips.
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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.
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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?
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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?
It’s not about waiting, it’s about enticing people to use Amazon fresh rather than the other grocery options they typically use.
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In the cases where I've been asked to do things like this it was instead of my regular work, not on top of it. US labor laws are tricky, but in general they need to assign you an amount of work that can be done in a reasonable amount of time. (contact a lawyer for details)
I was literally told once “yes we can have meetings all day because you have all night to finish your code.” The same was expected when they had ‘team building’ outings.
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It’s not about waiting, it’s about enticing people to use Amazon fresh rather than the other grocery options they typically use.
I had not thought of this serving as an entry or a trial for new customers. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
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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.
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.
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labor laws are tricky, but in general they need to assign you an amount of work that can be done in a reasonable amount of time
I very much doubt it. It may help your argument when you're applying for unemployment but I very much doubt it's illegal for them to assign whatever work they feel like reasonable or not. Unfortunately.
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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.
That makes sense. Thanks for helping clarify
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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.
Kroger owns a bunch of other brands. Do you have one of them in your market, and it's just a branding difference?
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Kroger owns a bunch of other brands. Do you have one of them in your market, and it's just a branding difference?
No, there are no Kroger brands in my market (Florida) at all. Not anymore, they left decades ago.
They're using us as a test market for the delivery-only format.
There's three big warehouses (or maybe not, I think some closed), that's it.
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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?
Yeah but I feel like that only worked because YouTube was still fairly new and a niche market compared to groceries, which everbody needs. I don't see how even Amazon can try to kill the competition in a market that huge, regardless of price or convenience.
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Shifting personnel to grocery duty during work time to handle a surge or whatever is fine. Asking them to volunteer their free time is bullshit. I might do it if Bezos volunteered to come clean my house.
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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.
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Yeah but I feel like that only worked because YouTube was still fairly new and a niche market compared to groceries, which everbody needs. I don't see how even Amazon can try to kill the competition in a market that huge, regardless of price or convenience.
I don't see how even Amazon can try to kill the competition in a market that huge, regardless of price or convenience.
So I assume you wrote this after picking up groceries from your locally owned grocery store? Because you still have one - it didn't collapse due to a Walmart coming to town?
Most of us have a solid example of what driving a grocery store out of business looks like, though.
