I think it's something shoppers should consider.

As warehouse jobs go, it's probably a little bit above average.Īn employee gathers books for shipping at a warehouse in Fernley, Nev., in December 2008. Employees get a decent wage, about $11 or $12 an hour, there are opportunities for advancement, there's some tuition reimbursement that Amazon has recently instituted. the fulfillment center into two categories: There are 10 months of the year where things are relatively tame, this is January to October. has been criticized for working employees extremely hard for extraordinarily long days, for very short 15 minute breaks that are curtailed on each end by the fact that the employees have to go through security scanners.

On the working conditions in the Amazon warehouses So he's had this long-term view of that's the way to conduct his business, and profits are very low down on the list of his priorities. They want customers to make Amazon their destination for all of their shopping. But as an Amazon shareholder or analyst will tell you, profit, frustratingly, is not something that Bezos or Amazon are after. It's one of the things that merchants, or manufacturers don't really appreciate about Amazon. But it does create enormous downward price pressure. a commission every time a third party sells something on their site, so in a way it's a much more profitable sale because Amazon is taking the commission and they don't have the expense of storing and shipping the item. On the way Amazon prioritizes customer loyalty over profit Your purchase helps support NPR programming. His book draws on interviews he conducted with Bezos over the years as well as interviews with more than 300 current and former Amazon executives and employees.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Everything Store Subtitle Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Author Brad Stone Stone, a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, has covered Amazon and technology in the Silicon Valley for 15 years. S., with a fortune estimated at $25 billion. Bezos owns a rocket company, called Blue Origin and in August he invested in old media, purchasing The Washington Post for $250 million.īezos himself is the 12th richest person in the U. In the process of becoming 'an everything store,' Amazon acquired many other dot-coms including Zappos and, and expanded into selling web services as well.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the Kindle Fire HD in two sizes during a press conference in Santa Monica, Calif., in September 2012.Īmazon started off selling books, but Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, always had the intention of turning it into an online market that sold everything.

The Everything Store by Brad Stone