
Amazon to add 75,000 more jobs amid coronavirus pandemic - hhs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com/amazon-to-add-75000-more-jobs-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-idUSKCN21V1DK
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ttul
To the elected officials advocating for closure of Amazon warehouses: would it
be better to have 300M people visit Walmart or their local grocery store where
they will interface with perhaps 50 others? Or to have 100,000 people visit
their local Amazon warehouse where there are masks, temperature checks,
intensive cleaning, etc?

Even the most basic math on this indicates the Amazon option is far better for
eradication of the pandemic than the Walmart option.

~~~
mrlala
Well, at least by me you can order groceries from walmart to have them
delivered/picked up. They have an excellent website for it, so it's very easy.

Everyone who can should be ordering groceries.. I have been ordering groceries
from walmart for the last month and it's great that I don't have to go in
there. One time I had to do a pickup at the store (alcohol purchase..), it was
very simple as well. But while I was there, I was _appalled_ to see a walmart
sized parking lot almost full of people going into the store...

~~~
mullingitover
> Well, at least by me you can order groceries from walmart to have them
> delivered/picked up.

Pickup/delivery options are a total failure across the board at all grocery
stores right now. They're all generally a week out, or you just can't get any
delivery slot at all.

IMHO the grocery stores should be prioritizing staff to filling delivery
orders, then pickup. If they have any staff left over after that they can
operate cash registers. Right now there's a perverse incentive for everyone to
pack into grocery stores because there's no other option for actually getting
food in a reasonable timeframe.

~~~
shrimp_emoji
For me, Prime Now's been dead for days.

Instacart? INSTANT order assignment and food within 2 hours. I was stunned.
Also no item limit like in Prime Now. I got 8 cheeseless pizzas. '<'

~~~
adanto6840
Opposite experience here. We placed an order on a Sunday, next available
delivery date was the following Thursday. We received hourly updates on
Thursday, that the order was "being shopped, delivery delayed +1hr" \--
Thursday came & went, on Friday we received no updates, and the order just sat
there for a week or so.

Canned response (understandably) from support which just asked us to "re-
schedule it to another day" (which was at that point a week out min), and then
after 2 weeks I got a cancelation email and they finally issued the $500
refund. We pay the "premium" yearly price to InstaCart, too. =|

We now have no faith in them, because if we schedule a delivery for a week
away and then the food doesn't arrive we're kind of stuck; PostMates has been
decent, depending on the driver you get, and has continued to be same-day.

------
rajnathani
If it isn’t clear, these 75,000 jobs are in addition to the 100,000 jobs which
Amazon announced they would hire about a month ago. The article states that
they’ve already(!) hired the previously announced 100,000 jobs.

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vizzah
A lot more expenses for Amazon on their very low margin grocery (retail)
business. People are panic-buying AMZN stock expecting this to reflect in a
higher profits, which is very questionable. If Prime subscribers can't get
their same/next day deliveries, Amazon might not get enough new subs, but
could rather start losing them.

~~~
koboll
> People are panic-buying AMZN stock expecting this to reflect in a higher
> profits, which is very questionable.

Are we sure of that? I'd expect the rationale to look something more like
"Amazon will grab a higher market share as a result of people switching to
delivery during this crisis, which will result in higher profits down the
road".

~~~
paxys
The key is if people will continue to use Amazon after things have settled or
just go back to their local stores.

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Mountain_Skies
How much of this is due to the surge in demand and how much is turnover
(normal or due to pandemic issues)?

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balls187
OT:

I'm curious what others experience has been with Amazon during the
lockdown/shelter-in-place orders.

For me, Amazon had turned into nearly a just in time service to acquire items.
With the issues with quality, I started to move away from Amazon, and with the
delivery time increase, I've all but stopped ordering from Amazon.

Now, I shop at a local Kroger subsidiary (Fred Meyer), and anything I can't
locally, I just go without, except in rare circumstances (like a z270 mobo).

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floatingatoll
Reuters is restating the "April 13" update at Amazon's press blog post here
(which is updated each day without changing the URL):

[https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazons-actions-
to...](https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazons-actions-to-help-
employees-communities-and-customers-affected-by-covid-19)

------
modsWork4appl
"elected officials call to close the warehouse"

How out of touch and uneducated are these people? Pandemics can't be stopped
outside a vaccine. We are all going to catch it or be quarentined for 18
months.

Want to flatten the curve? I could go to Walmart and interface with 50 people
to get ibuprofen, or I can interface with 1 worker?

We need to stop electing marketers and start electing people that understand
math.

~~~
nostromo
Politicians right now are in, "it doesn't matter if we do the right thing, it
matters that we look like we're taking authoritative action" mode. This
happened after 9/11 too.

Right now, 0.1% of the US has had Covid-19. For heard immunity we need that
number to be at least 500 times larger.

So, what's the plan here? Wait for a miracle that isn't coming? Stay in
quarantine for a year and risk societal ruin?

~~~
balls187
> Right now, 0.1% of the US has had Covid-19. For heard immunity we need that
> number to be at least 500 times larger.

Would deaths scale linearly with a 500x increase?

How about the impact on our medical system, would that scale linearly with a
500x increase?

~~~
nostromo
And how will our lives look if we continue this quarantine for a decade --
which at our current level of infection (which has leveled off) is the minimum
time it would take to gain heard immunity?

~~~
balls187
> And how will our lives look if we continue this quarantine for a decade

Probably look at Iraq and Afghanistan has dealt with post 9/11.

Speaking strictly in terms of the US, we'd be able to weather a 10-year
lockdown. America is rich in natural resources, and has a large agricultural
base.

Our government can handle the basics:

Drinking water

Food

Shelter

The rest would be economic shifts, such as reduction in costs of living to
account for a new economy that has shifted away from the ability to get
together.

I would speculate we're better off with the entirety of the economy being in
shambles, than we would be by having rather high mortality rates, and
overwhelming our health services.

Let me post another question:

What if you did not need to work to have your _any_ of needs met?

~~~
SpicyLemonZest
I have socialization needs which shelter-in-place orders forbid me from
meeting.

~~~
balls187
The current laws would need to be adapted to allow for some socialization.

Processes and procedures would need to be put in place to ensure safety.

Society would need to adapt to meet those needs.

~~~
SpicyLemonZest
I'm not sure that society can in fact adapt to such strict restrictions.
People in Afghanistan didn't take the decade off from socializing, even though
there was a significant risk of getting killed.

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A4ET8a8uTh0
Hmm. I dislike this development. Let me explain.

Amazon already has enormous market power and with the current pandemic, it is
probably one of the few companies that will survive this largely unscathed; it
may even be able to benefit. I am not completely sure as to why that is the
case. My recent order says it will be delivered at the beginning of May. But
then, they will pick up a lot of business from all the places that will have
gone under.

Still, how do you buy anything on Amazon, when it has a month wait time for
things you want/need?

~~~
twblalock
It's odd that you are portraying Amazon's ability to survive the coronavirus
situation as a negative thing. It's a good thing, and we should want more
companies to be as resilient and adaptable.

We are better off right now because Amazon exists and is able to deliver to
people who are sheltering in place.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
I am not. It is laudable that they are able to thrive in adverse environment.
My complaint is specifically about the amount of marketshare and corresponding
market power, which is already pretty big. At certain point, too much power
has to be controlled. There is a reason we have antitrust laws.

~~~
twblalock
Antitrust laws are targeted at specific monopolistic behaviors, not against
bigness in general.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
You are absolutely correct. That said, 'bigness' invites monopolistic
behaviors. I am actually saying: do not let it grow big enough to cause
problems in the future. It works in gardening.

~~~
twblalock
We should punish violations of the law if and when they happen, rather than
pre-emptively asking businesses if they could please be a bit less successful.

Bigness is not a problem in itself, and we should be more appreciative of it
as a form of resiliency after this pandemic. Big business has performed better
than most other American institutions. Our ability to cope with the shutdowns
has been heavily reliant on big business, especially big tech.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
Should is likely the key word in that statement. You will note how many and
public violations of the law get a slap on the wrist that in practice amounts
to a little more than the cost of doing business ( Equifax, Wells Fargo, Uber
come to mind ). Regular people watch this and each time it happens trust in
the basic institutions tasked with making the playing field equal gets drained
a little further.

As for the point about big business performing better than other American
institutions, I would like to point out that it is big business does happen to
have rather good representation in our government; definitely better than most
citizens do. Of course they do better. It would be weird if they did not.

As for the resiliency, I can't get help, but to chuckle, in 2008 tons of big
businesses were begging for a bailout. This time around BA and few other big
players are not above asking for the same. How resilient are they really?

I can give you your point about tech sector ( though an argument could be made
the main reason they seem somewhat is immune is shifting the employment cost
to the employee -- ie. gig economy ).

Big business is not the problem in itself, but pretending it does not have
inordinate amount of impact is silly. Its growth, especially if it is causing
undesirable changes, should and must be curtailed. Otherwise the best thing
you can compare it to is cancer.

~~~
d1zzy
> As for the resiliency, I can't get help, but to chuckle, in 2008 tons of big
> businesses were begging for a bailout. This time around BA and few other big
> players are not above asking for the same. How resilient are they really?

So to me that sounds like even more reason to like Amazon, if they survive
this without any government bailout money. Because, like you pointed out,
other business do not so let's all praise Amazon for being able to do so,
right?

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
I think you misunderstand my argument. I have zero issues giving Amazon
credit, where credit is due. It is as big as it is, because it got a whole lot
of things right from customer perspective. Compared to even to say BestBuy
today, it is still probably best experience I had online.

That, however, does not mean that they cannot get so big that I would not want
their power limited.

So to answer your question: sure.

