Why Amazon will (and should) put Performance Bike out of business

[mtechnica]

One other thing, many or most of these companies buying automated equipment aren't displacing workers. They typically keep them and either train them as operators or move them elsewhere in the facility. I have personally installed a machine right next to where 8 people were taping up boxes all day long. These people had a quota of 75 boxes an hour or something, and just stood there in shifts folding and taping boxes. It's a job, but not a job you would want.

I talked to the director of operations of the aforementioned facility, a multi billion dollar company by the way, and he said when it comes to these unskilled, repetitive labor jobs, they have a very difficult time even finding people that will do the job, let alone people that are reliable. Apparently it's a big problem. These jobs are basically last resort jobs for the unskilled, or people that don't make it in other jobs. Everyone talks about automation stealing jobs but there ARE NOT lines out the door with people applying for these jobs.

The real problem, in my opinion, is our society's idea of working and productivity. It's just not going to be compatible with the future and things are going to have to change because at some point there will be very few unskilled jobs. What do you do with millions of people unable or unwilling to do work beyond unskilled labor?

[Gummee]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

Everyone talks about automation stealing jobs but there ARE NOT lines out the door with people applying for these jobs.

Where's Mike Rowe when you need him.

The real problem, in my opinion, is our society's idea of working and productivity. It's just not going to be compatible with the future and things are going to have to change because at some point there will be very few unskilled jobs. What do you do with millions of people unable or unwilling to do work beyond unskilled labor?

Friend of mine is the HR person at her nursery. She's desperate for workers that'll work. Very unskilled positions...

Part of the problem stems from the 50s and the Red Scare. The USSR was graduating lots more scientists and engineers than we were. OMG! The Reds are getting ahead!

Fast forward to today... That 'the path to wealth and/or a 'better life' is education' mindset means that the lower skilled jobs and even some skilled blue-collar jobs are unfilled because they don't fit the narrative.

...but we're veering towards a political discussion, so I'll stop

M

[William]

Well worth a read...





William

[Davist]

Originally Posted by marciero

My sense is that AWS is increasingly used by research institutions. And it's not in many cases because these places dont have their own resources. I've spoken with researchers at two leading institutions that have the money and resources to do their computing in-house, but use AWS as standard practice. I was very surprised to hear that, and maybe a little naive. Here you are curing cancer or whatever and you're trusting a glorified supermarket with your precious data and computations. They said it was simply more cost-effective to have AWS handle all that when projects got to be a certain size.

AWS main customer is Netflix. Netflix is about 40% of internet traffic in the US on any given weeknight. "Commodity" cloud service is also an AWS prime business, and yes, no way you can do it "in house" for any where near what they charge, but some items (research, real time decisions, proprietary stuff) need to be either in private cloud or on premises, of course. If, to your curing cancer problem, you need to rent 10,000 servers for 2 weeks or build a dedicated data center for the same problem, the choice is easy. They offer reasonably priced analytics as well. It can be secure as you need, they're not a glorified supermarket, AWS is the portion of the company that makes money. The issue with Amazon retail is that they are predatory, no or little focus on making money, so they can drive out competition...

[jumphigher]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

One other thing, many or most of these companies buying automated equipment aren't displacing workers. They typically keep them and either train them as operators or move them elsewhere in the facility. I have personally installed a machine right next to where 8 people were taping up boxes all day long. These people had a quota of 75 boxes an hour or something, and just stood there in shifts folding and taping boxes. It's a job, but not a job you would want.

I talked to the director of operations of the aforementioned facility, a multi billion dollar company by the way, and he said when it comes to these unskilled, repetitive labor jobs, they have a very difficult time even finding people that will do the job, let alone people that are reliable. Apparently it's a big problem. These jobs are basically last resort jobs for the unskilled, or people that don't make it in other jobs. Everyone talks about automation stealing jobs but there ARE NOT lines out the door with people applying for these jobs.

The real problem, in my opinion, is our society's idea of working and productivity. It's just not going to be compatible with the future and things are going to have to change because at some point there will be very few unskilled jobs. What do you do with millions of people unable or unwilling to do work beyond unskilled labor?

^Totally agree with this.

[loimpact]

Amazon returns are not effortless. I, and my wife both, have had a few instances now where they don't want to pick up freight on the return. We eventually get it worked out but........

#1.) We lost time on several transactions requesting an account manager to waive the freight & e-mail a new label with which we could return

#2.) We already pay for Prime and that $100 seems to be forgotten by many folks. You are paying real money which some take great advantage of & others not. That is the what their bean counters do the math on.

#3.) Want to buy some Rock & Roll Absolute Dry from Amazon or from Jenson USA?

A wise person once said.....there is no free lunch!

And if we follow the Amazon mentality to its end then the next easiest thread to start reads like this ------> WHY VIRTUAL REALITY WILL (AND SHOULD) PUT AMAZONG OUT OF BUSINESS.

[jlwdm]

Originally Posted by loimpact

...

#2.) We already pay for Prime and that $100 seems to be forgotten by many folks. You are paying real money which some take great advantage of & others not. That is the what their bean counters do the math on.

...

I pay the $100 for Prime Video. The shipping perks are just a bonus.

Jeff

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by loimpact

Amazon returns are not effortless. I, and my wife both, have had a few instances now where they don't want to pick up freight on the return.

What was the reason for the return?

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by marciero

My sense is that AWS is increasingly used by research institutions. And it's not in many cases because these places dont have their own resources. I've spoken with researchers at two leading institutions that have the money and resources to do their computing in-house, but use AWS as standard practice. I was very surprised to hear that, and maybe a little naive. Here you are curing cancer or whatever and you're trusting a glorified supermarket with your precious data and computations. They said it was simply more cost-effective to have AWS handle all that when projects got to be a certain size.

It's not even a certain size. The company that laid me off, a Fortune 100 company, has jettisoned its entire IT staff and outsourced everything to another fortune 100 company who is migrating everything to AWS. Even though there are plenty of us that worked for the company that have the right AWS experience to do it ourselves.

And so it goes.

[Gsinill]

Adding a 2nd HQ and estimating 50,000 new jobs.
Guess Amazon already added a dedicated phone line for calls from all the lobbying mayors

[54ny77]

if you live near a fulfillment center, it's mind-boggling what you can get literally same day.

was just announced they're opening one in staten island, creating 2500 jobs.

[fiamme red]

Originally Posted by 54ny77

was just announced they're opening one in staten island, creating 2500 jobs.

How many of those jobs are for humans, how many for robots?

Eventually, as robots become more sophisticated, there will probably just be a few humans working in a huge fulfillment center. Welcome to the future!

[andeww]

Amazon just took over a large warehouse next to my office, i am guessing it is considered a fulfillment center. It is actually terrible to deal with.
We have dozens of cars lined up each day blocking our driveway with zero organization. These are the "prime" drivers, that are basically regular people using their own cars to deliver packages. They park in front of our office and smoke cigarettes and re-organize the packages on the asphalt leaving packing tape, boxes and trash all over. Since they are all contractors there seems to be no regulation or consequences for being an asshole.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

Eventually, as robots become more sophisticated, there will probably just be a few humans working in a huge fulfillment center

Already here, no need for robots, just google "lights-out warehouse".

[54ny77]

i've had prime deliveries from everyone from fed ex to some dude (or woman) rolling up in a random car.

your explanation makes sense to me now.

Originally Posted by andeww

Amazon just took over a large warehouse next to my office, i am guessing it is considered a fulfillment center. It is actually terrible to deal with.
We have dozens of cars lined up each day blocking our driveway with zero organization. These are the "prime" drivers, that are basically regular people using their own cars to deliver packages. They park in front of our office and smoke cigarettes and re-organize the packages on the asphalt leaving packing tape, boxes and trash all over. Since they are all contractors there seems to be no regulation or consequences for being an asshole.