Workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, voted by a margin of more than 2 to 1 not to join a union. It’s a heavy blow for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, for the wider labor movement, and for the many politicians and activists who wanted the union’s push to succeed. But the workers have spoken — and all of the groups on the other side should be listening to the message. Instead, many rejected the result and attacked the process, almost as though an election is to be respected only if you win. When Republicans did that after the presidential election, they were rightly condemned. The idea that the overwhelming majority of workers in Bessemer were intimidated or bamboozled into voting against their interests — as unionization proponents have suggested — is not only implausible; it’s insulting, as though workers couldn’t possibly be so foolish to have voted against it, so they must have been coerced or tricked. Nonsense.
Tag: amazon
Amazon logistics
This video covers some, but not all, of the marvel that is Amazon package delivery. Recent innovations include having people on foot / bikes in dense cities to avoid vans getting stuck in traffic, and other things.
2021-03-09: I noticed a few recent improvements.
- There are now tons of last km delivery people with karts and bicycles
- They will actually bring the package to your door and ring, solving both the lobby storage and theft issues
- They’ll take a picture of the delivery if you’re not around.
- They have an up to the minute tracker on their site.
Can you imagine USPS doing any of these?
2021-11-24: Amazon is now running circles around everyone.
Knopfler says Amazon’s prices were “phenomenal,” $4000 to ship a container from China compared with the $12000 demanded by other freight forwarders. Amazon also simplifies the process since it oversees the shipment from China to its US warehouses. Other services have lots of intermediaries where cargo swaps hands, presenting opportunities for miscommunication and delays. “It’s a 1-stop-shop from Asia to Amazon. It reduces the gray areas where the shipping process might fail.”
2022-07-27: The first Rivian Amazon vans are shipping. The amount of customization is impressive. Logistics is all about little 2% savings here and there.
2022-12-14: Progress in warehouse automation.
The company’s workforce more than doubled during that period, to exceed 1.6m as of early this year. The vast majority of those employees were added in Amazon’s sprawling logistics operation, which delivers packages to e-commerce customers. Amazon has been struggling to manage the size and morale of that group of employees, some of whom have grown restless over the demands of their highly repetitive jobs. The company in October beat back an attempt to unionize a facility in New York state by a nascent labor group.
One of Amazon’s solutions to these issues is robots that could make the roles that many of these workers now occupy obsolete
Werner Vogels
The 8 services were really just the fundamental pieces to get, put, and manage incoming traffic. Most importantly, there are so many different tenets that come with S3, but durability, of course, trumps everything. The 11 9s (99.999999999%) that we promise our customers by replicating over 3 availability zones was unique. Most of our customers, if they have on-premises systems—if they’re lucky—can store 2 objects in the same data center, which gives them 4 9s. If they’re really good, they may have 2 data centers and actually know how to replicate over 2 data centers, and that gives them 5 9s. But 11 9’s, in terms of durability, is just unparalleled. And it trumps everything.
learnings from scaling AWS
Drone Design Evolution
We’ve seen a sharp evolution in designs from Amazon. The most primitive was this testing drone we saw from them back in 2013:
To me, this is the most exciting design because it is both a sharp departure from what came before, yet still integrates elements of each previous iteration, showing that the designers/engineers are learning. The total number of rotors has again been changed, this time to 6, and the rear propeller has been nixed. The dual fixed wings have been replaced by a single wraparound wing that takes a hexagonal configuration. The drone takes off vertically, like a helicopter, but then pitches forward at an angle for straight-line flight, using the lift provided by the unusual wing design.
very impressive learning rate.
Oracle Copied S3 APIs
Amazon market share
Running the numbers, Amazon has 35% of US ecommerce. But, it competes with physical retailers as well – it competes with Macy’s, Walmart and Barnes & Noble. On that basis, Amazon’s real market share of its real target market is closer to 6% (it’s 2/3 the size of Walmart)
Beachheads and Obstacles
Amazon, on the other hand, seems to have learned the right lessons from its mobile failures; what is notable about the company’s approach to Alexa is that it leverages and learns from the mobile era. Alexa benefits from Amazon’s investments in data centers and networking, interacts with both iOS and Android to the greatest extent possible, and is in line with Amazon’s overall business — making buying things that much more convenient. Alexa is an operating system for the home, and perhaps beyond.
Amazon goes electric
Amazon orders 100K Rivian Electric Vans
Rivian will design, build and service a new electric van exclusively for Amazon. These will be dedicated electric delivery van for Amazon. Amazon plans to purchase 100K of these unnamed Rivian electric vans and the electric-car startup plans for the first to hit the road by 2021. Amazon plans to have 10K of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100K vehicles on the road by 2030 – saving 4M tons of CO2 per year by 2030.
Shopify
This is how Shopify can both in the long run be the biggest competitor to Amazon even as it is a company that Amazon can’t compete with: Amazon is pursuing customers and bringing suppliers and merchants onto its platform on its own terms; Shopify is giving merchants an opportunity to differentiate themselves while bearing no risk if they fail.
Amazon Surveillance State
Amazon wants you to be part of its dish network. Yes, it’s a play on words (and not a good one!). This network springs from Amazon’s Ring doorbell — the doorbell with a camera inside and a cozy relationship with law enforcement! What are your neighbors and strangers up to? Give the dirt to law enforcement and trust their better judgment!
Good times await those who find themselves looking dark or suspicious (but also suspicious because they’re dark) in front of a Ring doorbell. Have you ever wanted to be an internet celebrity, with or without your permission? Ring has you covered.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 