

The Secret Lives of Amazon's Elves - cwan
http://gizmodo.com/5433487/the-secret-lives-of-amazons-elves

======
dc2k08
I am always fascinated by footage of assembly lines, factory floors and the
process that brings us our products, from raw materials to shop floor or
letterbox and all the tiny details in between. It's a shame most places have
to operate under a 'no video' policy. I hope someone archives some recordings
for future viewing at least.

~~~
cwan
That video of the Amazon facility would be extra special if this were true
(from the article): "When we told people were going to do this, someone said
'Whenever I click the order button on Amazon, I always imagine a chorus of
happy, singing Oompa-Loompas riding around on Segways and shipping my stuff.'

More seriously, the idea of using traveling RV nomads as workers definitely
qualifies as a hack. Who would have known that they'd make reliable employees
given that based on the article you'd think they're effectively being paid an
amount that would make them volunteers compared to their previous jobs? As an
aside have you seen the systems made by <http://www.kivasystems.com/>? They
have a number of videos on youtube.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I believe that $10 an hour is decent pay for relatively unskilled itinerant
labor. My wife says she made about that much working in an actual bookstore.
And it's apparently more than the average full-time position at Wal-Mart will
pay unless you're a department manager:

[http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Wal-
Mart_Stores...](http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Wal-
Mart_Stores,_Inc/Hourly_Rate)

It's not easy work -- you're on your feet all day -- but no harder than the
rest of retail. Plus you don't have to actually deal with the general public
during the holiday season, which is worth a lot right there.

