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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

That does happen. The law doesn't back them up, but many companies have that culture and good luck proving you were let go because of that vs something that is legal.

There are plenty of jobs that are more reasonable. They tend to be boring jobs though, so many are willing to pay the price to work a more exciting job.

I think maybe you don’t understand the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees here in the US. The law absolutely backs employers up on this unfortunately. Especially if, like me, you live in an at-will state.

Exempt employees are expected to get their work done, but the work does need to be reasonable. If they give you 40 hours of meetings you can have a good case they are asking too much to expect anything more. While hours are not given by law, there is still an expectation of reasonableness.

Which is to say they cannot fire you for not getting your work done. However at-will means they can let you go - but that is not firing you for cause and there is a big difference in how the law treats that.

I wish I still had your optimism and naivety. Last time this happened to me I was let go for “not fitting in with the culture” (the aforementioned culture of working all day), which is a completely legal reason in my state. I was denied unemployment despite being able to prove that I had been told to work all night. 10 years earlier I was let go for the same reason after refusing to participate in prayer during a meeting.

There is no protection for employees in the manner you are speaking of, at least not here.

Asking about the culture and work environment is what you are supposed to be doing when they ask "are there any questions". I've never had a problem finding a job where I'm expected to work about 40 hours and go home. Once in a while they ask for extra work in an emergency, but that is rare and they have all made it up to me somehow.

The protection isn't great I'll agree, but it isn't hard to find places that don't treat you like that. Don't work for the rest no matter how interesting the job is.