Holy shit you guys!
Last night my shift was the busiest I've seen since Christmas peak season 2018. Correct, you heard that right, last night was bonker balls bananas at Amazon sort center SMF5 in Vacaville. Worse than the last 16 months of shifts.
Not only were we short-staffed, but we also had a volume of 71k packages. The day before that (Friday) we had 65k packages. To give you a frame of reference 50k packages for one shift is a lot and on a sub-par shift would take the max amount of time (5 hours / 10k per hour). Our entire warehouse was only rated to sort 100k packages a DAY before we added the auto-sorter (now 500k).
The process assistant in zone 2 informed me that we had a rollover of 5k packages from the day before. I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT HAPPEN. Operations freaks out if we don't get every single package out on the same day. We often make jokes during Christmas time that "little Timmy needs his present".
I REPEAT:
AMAZON IS GETTING MORE BUSINESS RIGHT NOW THAN WINTER PEAK, THE ABSOLUTELY BUSIEST TIME OF THE YEAR (Nov/Dec/Christmas). They are making out like absolute bandits during this crisis. It's absolutely fucking insane. Small businesses are being destroyed in a controlled demolition.
I'm being called a hero. I'm being called a first-responder. The mayor of my city wants to personally thank us publically when this is all over. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!??!!11111
I work, I get paycheck, end of story.
I am not under threat.
I am not afraid the the fucking flu.
I probably already had COVID-19 mid Feb.
I want an antibody test.
I am not taking a vaccine for the sniffles.
Talk to me after you create something I'm actually afraid of, you bio-terrorist pansies.
congratulations-we-are-now-christian-scientists
Read this if you need a refresher on my Amazon SMF5 experience.
THE ESCALATION CONTINUES!
Behold! A picture from inside the belly of the beast!
They've stopped using the temperature gun and set up super creepy infrared cameras.
Isn't that swell?
I tried to pass through with sunglasses on and I was instructed to remove them. Why the fuck do you need my sunglasses off to read the temperature of my forehead you creepy assholes? I'm sure it does mess with it a bit, but it just makes me feel like this is a precursor to facial recognition and maybe even iris scanners one day. I am not amused.
On a side note...
I got permission to take this picture because pictures inside the facility are technically not allowed. I even had an awesome lie lined up. I was going to say my roommates were worried that Amazon wasn't taking COVID security seriously so I wanted a picture of the setup to put their minds at ease.
It was a good lie; I was proud of myself. I'm normally not a good liar (I don't try very hard). I get the feeling good lies will be necessary going forward. Unfortunately (fortunately) I was instantly given permission to take the picture so five words into the scripted lie I realized I was already being ignored and just stopped talking, lol. Operations guys are too busy and stressed out for any extra work.
Conclusion
If I was ever going to invest in stocks again, one would certainly be Amazon. I still think they are secretly working on a crypto project, and it's very obvious that not even a full economic lockdown can slow them down. Quite the contrary, they are more profitable than ever. Moreso than they have ever been.
During this lockdown, citizens are being trained to use Amazon who normally wouldn't. This kind of training will not go away once the lockdown ends. Amazon is going to straight up double their volume over this "crisis".
Make no mistake, as a left-wing radical I support socialism/communism and think it could work just fine. The problem with any of these systems is that you have to put someone in charge, and that's when it all goes to shit. That's why we love crypto; to build systems that govern themselves with code.
Amazon being chosen to be the Mega-Corp of American logistics and all other competing businesses put out to pasture would be just fine if they could hire everyone who needed a job and pay them $40 an hour. It simply won't happen due to the rampant greed of the elite. Too bad, so sad.
The establishment is telling us what's happening, we just have to read between the lines.
- Companies like Amazon are allowed to thrive.
- Energy companies are being propped up.
- Small businesses are fucked.
- The housing market is under threat.