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    StenchofaburnerHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 4:10pm

    "It's an industry standard"; "every warehouse job is like this"; "why do they complain", etc etc. Where the hell does this mindless allegiance to the status quo come from? Yes, it is like every warehouse job (I worked in several) but it doesn't mean it has to be like this till the end of times. Why can't things be improved and where does this blind acceptance that "yes, it sucks" come from? Is it because some people have done shitty jobs and now they are doing better and they see no reason why those who still have to do shitty jobs should have access to better conditions? Is it that the mere thought of improvement triggers the slight possibility of jealousy (because they had to suffer shitty conditions and those coming later should just suck it up like they did?).

    If all of humanity had always accepted that "this is the way things are" we'd still be living in caves.

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      aMaG1CaLmAnG1NaStenchofaburner
      8/02/13 4:34pm

      The conditions will be improved greatly......when they get rid of the people and use robots. Fewer errors, no breaks and greater efficiency! All the complainers can then sit and whine at home about how Amazon shouldn't have fired them and they just want their job back.

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      StenchofaburneraMaG1CaLmAnG1Na
      8/02/13 4:39pm

      Your comment is the epitome of mindless, insulting, burning stupidity. If there had been no "complainers" in the history of capitalist labor we'd still be de facto indentured servants. I suppose people like you would be just as happy in a feudal society. Just be aware that you are not in slave like conditions because some "complainers" thought it was worth fighting for basic rights.

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    filmgirlHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 3:56pm

    After reading all these horrible work stories about Wal-Mart and Amazon. I went to Target the other night and I went out of my way to be nice to every employee I asked a question of. They were all very friendly. I know how hard it is to deal with the public. I wanted to make their night a little easier.

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      inProductionfilmgirl
      8/02/13 4:08pm

      I think the world would be a better place if every person worked at least one year in retail, and one year in food service.

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      nahdotepfilmgirl
      8/02/13 4:10pm

      This is generally why I'm nicer to the people in the service industry, even if there are issues. Their work is crap and shit happens, they don't need me making it harder for them.

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    HashTagYoloisbackHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 3:57pm

    Thank you, HamNo. Please post more articles like this. My guess is that you're making quite a few socially liberal, white-collar, middle-class types uncomfortable. As Apple, Target and Amazon prove, it's not always about how your favorite consumer goods company loudly supports gay marriage. It's also about how they treat their workers. And I think worker rights are something that will continue to make many white-collar liberals uncomfortable.

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      HerpaderpderpderpHashTagYoloisback
      8/02/13 4:14pm

      I love the "liberals" thing you have going. Because, you know, the other side is constantly fighting for workers rights and promoting unio- I can't even finish.

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      budtron84HashTagYoloisback
      8/02/13 4:24pm

      I'd love to know why americans are so 'liberal this, conservative that' it's really weird. No matter what, its always on side to blame, never both.

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    DolemiteHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 3:48pm

    I can only think as I read the complaints about a hot/cold warehouse, short breaks, feet hurt after being on them all day long and lying management, poor training: sounds like just about every job I've ever worked, from Hardees, to department stores and anything in-between. Let's just face it, working for mega-corporations as anything but upper management is going to blow.

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      AnustartDolemite
      8/02/13 3:52pm

      Yes. I worked several retail jobs while in college and that's the reality of it. I can only imagine how bleak life must be when that's your career and your only way of supporting your family.

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      Mark SchroederDolemite
      8/02/13 4:01pm

      *DING* this is just stories of any warehouse job I've ever had. If I made a burner account I could go on forever about crap like this. It's kind of dumb to point out Amazon for this though because it's an industry standard. Also to the people who complain about their feet hurting after a long days work. This is nothing new. This is work and being on your feet all day is a staple of that. Get better shoes and some Dr Scholls.

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    ObliteratiHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 3:50pm

    Really haven't improved all that much from the Gilded Age, have we?

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      rapandcountryObliterati
      8/02/13 4:10pm

      By a few metrics (union membership being a big one) we're quite a bit worse.

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      Moler2001rapandcountry
      8/02/13 6:03pm

      By just about any meaningful indicator, we've improved by leaps and bounds. I know its fun to make historical references you don't understand, hoping that other like-minded ignoramuses will like a post and agree with you, but that just spreads the stupidity.

      Conditions at places like WalMart and Amazon suck. We get it. I agree they should be changed. Its called unionization. Since we're on the topic of the Gilded Age, we should take a few (accurate) lessons. The most important being that the most powerful ally the work force has in these situations is their labor. Corporate management is acting perfectly justifiably in running their employees into the ground, because their only job is to provide profit to shareholders. Laborers should fight back by striking and unionizing, and scrap and claw for every inch they can get.

      In the Gilded Age, you'd be shot for something like that. Nowadays, you can probably write a book. So lets not pretend there is some sort of false equivalency.

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    midwesternmomHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 4:07pm

    This is killing me with guilt. I am boycotting Walmart, thanks to your articles. I cannot shop at Target bc they fund anti-gay groups. So I did my school supply shopping (for two kids plus a teacher supply raffle basket for the PTO) through Amazon. It was not easy, but I got it all here and sorted and now I feel bad for the people who had to run all over the place to get my stuff. Plus no sales tax, so I am screwing the local government out of its tax supply.

    Where can a person stuck in a mid-size town shopping hell ethically shop? I even tried getting stuff at the dollar store, but they have so little of the required items.

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      stacyinbeanmidwesternmom
      8/02/13 4:49pm

      This won't exactly ease your guilt but I know a lot of states are working on setting up ways to have their sales tax applied to shipments coming to their states. Here in Massachusetts we'll be paying sales tax for our Amazon orders starting 9/1 this year.

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      Mama Penguinomidwesternmom
      8/05/13 10:25am

      Mom, I usually just order the prepared box of supplies directly through our school's PTO. I have no idea where it comes from but the school ends up making a little extra cash that way. Anywhere you get your items you're going to run into shitty practices. Might as well make sure your school earns a little from it.

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    BrtStlndHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 4:27pm

    I appreciate the light finally reaching the dark corners of massive retail work. Walmart gets most of the scorn but Amazon is just Walmart minus the parking lots and cashiers. There's hardly a single retail business in the country that won't lose sales to Amazon, no 'Main St.' shop is immune.

    1) Hire people that desperately need full time work

    2) Keep those people at part time

    3) Whip those people to produce with an insane amount of efficiency

    4) Lay all of them off

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      AmazingGinnyBrtStlnd
      7/31/15 6:51pm

      I work for Amazon, the majority of the jobs are ful time. And there are time we are asked to pull over time. It is mandatory during the holidays.

      The pay is much better than the starting pay for retail. I make, after a year and a half, more than I made after six years working for FedEx Office and Print Services.

      The benefits are good, and we have a bonus structure. It is an odd month that I do not make a bonus.

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    BurnerrrrrrrrrredHamilton Nolan
    8/02/13 3:58pm

    As an Amzon customer, I feel better having read these accounts than I did after reading McClelland's. This doesn't sound like easy work, but it does sound fair. If these accounts are representative of working in the Amazon warehouses, and by their consistency, it sounds like they are, this sounds almost reasonable...

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      GrigoritheOctoHamilton Nolan
      8/02/13 5:32pm

      Other commenters found the Ark really quickly. It took me a while longer to find George Lucas's dignity, hidden next to a plastic see-through alien skull.

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        G3istbotGrigoritheOcto
        8/05/13 2:47am

        and some where deep within these cavernous walls, hidden among the rubble of cardboard boxes and various goods is the long lost birth certificate of the 44th president. It's been said that several republican parties had gone into these decrypt ruins searching for the long lost artifact only to get lost in the never ending maze. Others, quieter than most, will tell horror stories of the men who did make it back, only to have encountered strange robotic creatures. They say such creatures scuttle about passing quickly along the walls picking up items and moving them to other areas with no sense but urgency.

        It is a very strange place indeed, and the search for the long lost certificate has been mostly put to rest, except for some insane few.

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      yandatHamilton Nolan
      8/02/13 4:05pm

      I worked at Oriental Trading Company's "fulfillment center" for a summer. They distribute cheap plastic shit you can order from a brochure or online and it was nearly identical to Amazon's fulfillment process. It was my job to fix incorrect shipments. We had this massively complicated German-made sorting equipment that attempted to transport and organize items like little black plastic spider rings and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of Chinese-made little American flags for 4th of July at a rapid speed. It was necessarily over-engineered to automatically fill orders from an inventory of tens of thousands of other assorted throw-away toys and of course it often broke down or sorted incorrectly so we'd run around manually fixing orders.

      As a privileged white kid there for a summer job, it was pretty depressing to see older people there doing backbreaking labor all day with no hope of advancement. We had retirees who couldn't afford to not work who were clearly depressed and resentful. I met some really interesting people but it also made me grateful I'm a lucky shithead with a good education.

      And yes, I can echo the sentiment that breaks are a joke at a place like this. You could be five minutes away from a breakroom for your fifteen minute break, so why bother? But I did indeed get in the best shape of my life; you're never not moving or lifting.

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