Amazon's UK's robotics apprenticeship program - thoughts?

[cdev]

When I first saw this I thought to myself "oh no, not another unpaid work program" but looking a bit deeper it appears that they actually do pay successful applicants while they undergo robotics and ML training. And of the 1000 positions, 200 will be drawn from their current employee pool.

What do people think of it and them?

They certainly are a powerful company.

I read recently that more than half of the money spent online in the US now flows through Amazon.

[rstofer]

When I first saw this I thought to myself "oh no, not another unpaid work program" but looking a bit deeper it appears that they actually do pay successful applicants while they undergo robotics and ML training. And of the 1000 positions, 200 will be drawn from their current employee pool.

What do people think of it and them?

They certainly are a powerful company.

I read recently that more than half of the money spent online in the US now flows through Amazon.

" and them ..."

I place several orders a week with them.  I buy literally everything I need from Amazon except for groceries and that's probably coming.  I like them a lot!

As to their program to educate people in trades that might actually be useful, sure, that's a great idea.

Remember, they are only successful because they provide something customer's want.  I want my stuff and I want it today, tomorrow at the latest.  And they do it!  Time after time, I get my order the same day, more often the next day and seldom beyond the day after and that only happens when Amazon isn't the direct seller.  They provide what people want - instant gratification.  Hopefully at a 'reasonable' price.  Amazon isn't usually a price leader but they inventory a lot of product and ship it instantly.  I'm not sensitive to absolute low price when I probably have to pay shipping and wait a long time.

I remember when they first started out and the commercials where they wanted to rent the Pentagon to store their books.  At first all they did was books.  That didn't last long...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Amazon

[james_s]

I used to buy quite a bit from them, but in the past year or two the service has deteriorated noticeably. Customer service has been outsourced to India, you can't even email customer service anymore, you have to chat or call them. I'm also finding increasingly often that I can find a better price somewhere else, though I still use the Amazon reviews. On top of that I've known several people who worked warehouse and delivery jobs for them and it's a modern sweat shop. The engineers are paid well but overworked and typically burn out after a few years. The warehouse jobs offer shit pay and terrible working conditions, the delivery jobs are not much better. They maintain an image as a high tech company but in the end they're another Walmart and like Walmart they have put so many other good companies out of business. I try not to support that, I want choices, not a monopoly with one giant entity that has taken over everything and calls all the shots.

[SiliconWizard]

Their delivery service is mediocre at best. You never quite know what's going to happen to your packages unless you're home 24/7. They may leave them to just anyone who happens to be nearby without always stating who it is. That's something that rarely happens if ever with specialized shipping companies, but all those in-house delivery services more or less suck.

As the online sales market grows, I think there should definitely be something done about delivery, and I don't think the idea of those delivery robots rolling all over the cities will solve any of the problems except cost. Wonder whether those robotics apprenticeships are targeted at those delivery robots, but I think those are a pretty bad idea overall.

And I don't like the monopoly aspect either.

[james_s]

The in-house delivery services suck because they're all contractors. Ordinary untrained people get paid a pittance to use their own vehicle to drive around and drop off packages operating against strict speed quotas. Now it's not as if driving a delivery van is a highly skilled job, but I'm willing to pay a little more to get somebody who is an employee of the delivery company and takes a little pride in their work over somebody who has little motivation not to half ass it or walk off the job for some other crappy job.

[rstofer]

Amazon has delivery lockers located somewhere.  I haven't used this feature but it does provide security for the delivery.  Just stop by the locker on the way home from work.

You also have the option of picking a single day of the week when ALL of your packages will be delivered.  I suppose many would choose the weekend.  I want my gratification more instant than waiting until Saturday but it's a great feature for those who work.

Amazon doesn't necessarily wipe out small business.  A high percentage of the stuff you buy on Amazon isn't sold or shipped by Amazon.  There are many small retailers using Amazon as a storefront.

They aren't a monopoly, people can still buy from WalMart but the strip-mall businesses are going to be in trouble.  They can't buy their product as cheap as Amazon, they don't have economy of scale and they can't possibly carry the same range of goods even within a specific focus.

Amazon succeeds because they provide a service people want.  If people don't want to buy from Amazon, there are many other sources.  Amazon is not a price leader.  They provide convenience and charge for it.

As to pay?  How much is a packer worth?  The robots bring the product to the packer, all they do is stuff things in a box and tape it up.  The machines even place the shipping labels.  How much is it worth to have somebody take something out of a bin and put it in a box?  Well, it will pay about $15/hr.  If people want to make money, they spend more time in school and get a better job.  And nobody is forcing anybody to work for Amazon.  They are free to work anywhere they want.  Apparently,  575,000 people have decided to work for Amazon.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/business/amazon-minimum-wage.html

Anybody paying attention to working conditions in manufacturing businesses?  It's not like you can just take a break any time you want as the cars come down the assembly line.  Aerospace is similar.  If your job is driving rivets, you aren't being paid to talk.

Sometimes raising the minimum wage is counterproductive:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelsaltsman/2017/11/20/new-york-citys-empty-storefronts-and-the-15-minimum-wage/#255f5c73101f

So what does NYC want to do?  Add a tax on unoccupied storefronts.  That ought to be interesting!

[james_s]

Yeah yeah, the usual conservative idealism that ignores the complex nature of the real world, and yeah people ideally can get better jobs, but the working conditions are much worse than they need to be and out in Seattle $15/hr is peanuts, you'd be wealthier making about $3/hr in the middle of the country. Amazon has put a lot of businesses out of business around here, just as Walmart has in the smaller towns. Walmart goes in and everyone else goes under. Amazon had the clout to undercut everyone long enough to drive the little guys under and now their prices aren't the cheapest anymore and their service is not nearly as good as it was either.

[MT]

Amazon doesn't necessarily wipe out small business.

is ofcourse and .

The 600million usd details About the CIA's Deal With Amazon:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-09/heres-criticism-jeff-bezos-and-amazon-actually-deserve
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/
https://www.businessinsider.com/cia-600-million-deal-for-amazons-cloud-2013-3?r=US&IR=T&IR=T

Remember, they are only successful because they provide something customer's want.

Rather its because Amazon knock everybody else out because of monopoly and then creates even stronger monopoly.