Posted on 12/12/2015 9:12:24 AM PST by PROCON
I understand Amazon owns the company that makes the robotic equipment. Perhaps that’s where their problem is.
You are wise to keep up your tech skills. Windsor, CT needs you whether you know it or not! ;)
While I think terrorism has to be on peoples’ minds, I think other issues (like the economy) play a large role. Here in NJ we have plenty of malls, but no economic recovery; the few times I’ve been to them over the past couple of years there are people walking around but few carrying any packages. A lot of them are foreigners, and they look around as though they are in a museum.
Also, malls are one of the few places in this very segregated state where one would encounter young ferals.
Anything we’ve ordered has arrived very quickly here in NJ; I noticed this over the past few weeks, and have experienced it over the past few years (outside of the holiday season). I assumed it was part of the general economic malaise here; few people have money to blow on toys anymore.
Nah, they are sending the packages to India so the local drivers can deliver them to deserving families there. Drivers are a lot cheaper in India than the U.S. All part of cost cutting. Trust me on this.
>>I understand Amazon owns the company that makes the robotic equipment. Perhaps that’s where their problem is.
That company probably uses off-the-shelf components from the big automation companies. Most large companies build their own equipment to meet their exact requirements, but they do it with tried-and-tested components.
My wife was at the Stanford Shopping Center (the huge upscale mall in Palo Alto, CA) one night this week an commented how empty it was. This is ground-zero of the high-tech explosion where there aren’t enough workers for all the available jobs.
>>Windsor, CT needs you whether you know it or not! ;)
What’s in Windsor? I know that NPTU Windsor shut down long ago.
I don’t have any info on what ‘zon uses. But they have holes in their logistics stream ...don’t know if it is self-inflicted or not.
A guy on my street works for them ....most days last week, he was sent home early or had no work at all.
Last year, I saw UPS vans pulling trailers that they would drop off in a neighborhood, and packages being delivered by a guy riding an ATV.
Our USPS carrier just delivers mail to our rural box. Packages come later in the day from part-timers in their own cars. We’re told there’s no room for the packages in the usual delivery vehicles.
KIVA Systems
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/amazon-com-buys-kiva-systems-for-775-million/?_r=0
I live in an apartment building and it ASTONISHING how many boxes delivered to the mailroom.
I’m an on-line shopper myself and wish it had been around when I was working.
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I noticed the same thing last weekend at a mall here in NJ; I normally couldn’t park so close to the doors any time of the year, and yet was probably 25 yards from the entrance. When I commented on this to my wife, she thought it was because it was early in the Christmas shopping season.
Years ago I would be in various pubs & restaurants and was shocked at how managers were in absolute denial that their businesses were facing a long-term decline in business as northern NJ circled the drain economically. Each would have various excuses, that became increasingly lame as the months and years passed; their clientele had either run out of money or simply moved to greener pastures, and their business models were no longer working. Even the businesses that catered to our huge illegal alien population suffered as those that were here for work instead of freebies moved on; the corners where “day laborers” had congregated in the past have been vacant for years now. In good times they had been a gold mine for bars and restaurants that served their favorite food/drinks (as many were single young men); once they left, there were few people left that drank Coronas or ate fast-food-type Latino fare.
Restaurants are packed here, even during weekdays. I had dinner with a friend on Thursday night and by 6:45 PM, there wasn’t a single table available. Amazon et al are really hammering brick & mortar retail this year.
I haven’t had USPS mail for 3 days due to a storm tearing the roof off and flooding the transfer post office in Spokane twice...once in November and again more recently. I’m waiting for several packages. Sigh.
Certainly sounds like it.
I was in a restaurant in Newark NJ’s “Ironbound” section last year, and couldn’t believe how empty it was (especially considering there were World Cup games going on). These restaurants had been a huge attraction in the past; I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. I asked a waiter what was going on, and he said they really only got a little busy on Friday nights.
A lot of former seasonal UPS guys are now driving for Uber.
Yep. There was a piece in the Reading (Pa) Eagle a while back on the local tech school's industrial automation classes. IIRC grads have a better than 95% placement rate. And it's getting ever more technical.
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