As some retailers prepare to offer Black Friday deals more than a week before the day, Amazon is Hard At Work in their massive warehouses. The Daily Mail reports that “Workers at the Peterborough Fulfilment Centre in Cambridgeshire prepare to dispatch 85 items per second” and that they have opened up four new centers to fulfill the insatiable demand for online goods. This is in addition to 15 other fulfillment centers located throughout the United Kingdom.

Inside the Peterborough Centre, workers label and move boxes around, and permanent workers are joined by a horde of holiday workers who hope that they can stay on after the holiday season is over.

Starting permanent employees make just $10.13 per hour, and then receive a raise to $10.79 after two years. However, employees also receive stock grants, which over the last five years were equal to $1323.98 or more per year per employee. Employees also receive additional benefits such as subsidized meals, healthcare benefits, and an Amazon discount, and Amazon regularly hosts outings to help keep workers happy.

What Amazon wants above all is to ensure that its online goods are flowing in the face of increased demand. Customers have increasingly flocked to shopping on Black Friday online, both to get away from vociferous crowds, as well as the possibility of getting faster and better deals. The Guardian reports that “British shoppers are expected to spend $13.37 in the week of Black Friday, nearly 4 percent higher than last year” despite increasing inflation in the country.

In the United States, retailers are expecting a big Black Friday as the economy continues to do well.

Black Friday in decline

A major change in Black Friday has been that shopping on Black Friday itself has declined, as businesses offer deals during the week before and during Cyber Monday. Amazon itself will begin offering Black Friday deals on November 17 which will last until November 26.

Some of the deals for Friday include selling the Amazon Echo Dot Plus for $119.99 (normal price $149.99), Kindle for $49.99 (normal price $79.99), and Amazon Tap for $79.99 (normal price $129.99). It should be noted that many of these deals are only open to Amazon Prime customers.

More deals for customers

Meanwhile, other businesses have been moving even earlier and making their deals open to the public.

Headphone maker Bose began offering deals on Thursday according to BGR, and other small businesses are offering pre-Black Friday deals in the Amazon marketplace.

Even when the Black Friday deals come to an end, these mini storage centers and their thousands of workers will still be busy handling the normal holiday rush, and, once 2018 has arrived, they will have to begin drawing up plans for next holiday season to make sure the holiday rush remains smooth. Certain challenges include disposing of packaging waste and trying to keep the fulfillment centers running 24 hours a day.

Despite these challenges and the stress of the holiday season, Amazon looks to be on track to set new records and continue its path toward retail dominance thanks to the hard work of its fulfillment centers.
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