Shifting personnel to grocery duty during work time to handle a surge or whatever is fine. Asking them to volunteer their free time is bullshit. I might do it if Bezos volunteered to come clean my house.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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For those who haven't been paying attention, it appears Amazon is trying to "disrupt" the grocery market. Anecdotally they have been selling shit for crazy low prices and they'll make like 30 separate trips to your house all on the same day with lined/insulated packing for the perishable items and frozen water bottles (no extra charge to the customer) in each bag to keep the food cool in transit.
It seems like there is no way they can be making money on this process, which tells me they are speedrunning Walmarts strategy of operating at a loss to force other grocers out of the market.
Amazon bought Whole Foods a few years ago.
Jesus that sounds awful.
I've had a decent experience with Kroger. They don't have any stores in my market, just a big warehouse. A Kroger employee on a Kroger refrigerated van delivers it all at once and always on time.
Kroger owns a bunch of other brands. Do you have one of them in your market, and it's just a branding difference?
No, there are no Kroger brands in my market (Florida) at all. Not anymore, they left decades ago.
They're using us as a test market for the delivery-only format.
There's three big warehouses (or maybe not, I think some closed), that's it.
Imperfect Foods used to deliver weekly, perishables included, and they ended up being bought out by Misfit Market. Now, it’s overpriced crunchy product, like shopping Whole Foods from home instead of saving on ugly carrots, grapefruit sized cabbage, and overstock.
They’re not out of business yet. There is a market for perishables and produce delivery. and people are used to Amazon so they may win on this, sadly.
So they are taking a page from YouTube where they out price the market until they are the market, and then will drastically raise prices because there’s no longer any competition?
Yeah but I feel like that only worked because YouTube was still fairly new and a niche market compared to groceries, which everbody needs. I don't see how even Amazon can try to kill the competition in a market that huge, regardless of price or convenience.
I don't see how even Amazon can try to kill the competition in a market that huge, regardless of price or convenience.
So I assume you wrote this after picking up groceries from your locally owned grocery store? Because you still have one - it didn't collapse due to a Walmart coming to town?
Most of us have a solid example of what driving a grocery store out of business looks like, though.
As often reminded, that's probably a zoning issue.
Here on a different continent I live in an area BESIEGED by supermarkets, but I buy most of my groceries at the baker (breadmaker) and fruit-and-vegetables shop down the street. They're more expensive but more convenient and higher quality.
With the advantage of there not being a butcher as close-by, meaning I've been eating way more veggies since moving (and eggs, given those are sold in both stores).
Now the issue is they're opening a new pedestrian path that leads straight from my home to the pastry shop on the neighboring block!
Multiple deliveries a day ?! Why would anyone use that?
It's bad enough not knowing when they'll arrive and having to be ready, but at least after they've been you can get something done. Wow, Amazon are really bad at this.
they'll make like 30 separate trips to your house all on the same day
OMG they should try this here LOL
They would all have to explain such crazy shit all day long to police, neighbours etc.
Assumed this was volunteering to do like charitable grocery deliveries to people in need or something, but nope, it was just volunteerimg to do regular work to pad the pockets of the c-suite.
The manager noted such an effort would help “connect” warehouse and corporate teams.
Are they trying to build support among the white-collars for unionization of the blue? I can't think of a better way to boost union support among the white-collars. I hope they get the full experience of having to piss into bottles because break times are too short.
If this is how we achieve class consciousness, so be it.
Corporate suits should work more regularly the minimum wage jobs. And not for just 1 day where they never touch all the bullshit workers have to deal with. So they will maybe see the disconnect between corporate suits and "low paying jobs" they look at as just the numbers.
This should be an arrestable offense. Fuck these pieces of shit.
Maybe I read this differently than you. I don’t see this as volunteering personal time, but asking people during their work time to help iwith a different job. Not that the article says either way, but volunteering personal time seems unlikely
Also, even the article mentioned this, but Amazon has always done this. For example, engineers can volunteer to help out wrapping presents at Christmastime.
An engineer can barely do these jobs properly and they aren't used to manual labor, so they work fewer hours than normal. And yes, it replaces their normal work.
And, these white collar workers are many times more expensive than normal warehouse workers. This only makes any financial sense because they are desperate for extremely short time workers during rush times.
This article isn't really news. Just rage bait.
That makes sense. Thanks for helping clarify
If they're asked to do so during regular work time, they're probably still expected to do their normal tasks too (as unpaid overtime)
In the cases where I've been asked to do things like this it was instead of my regular work, not on top of it. US labor laws are tricky, but in general they need to assign you an amount of work that can be done in a reasonable amount of time. (contact a lawyer for details)
Unfortunately in the white collar world.
it was instead of my regular work,
'regular work' typically isn't covered by someone else.
It piles up until you get to it.
That has not been my experience. There is always more work to do than I have time. However it doesn't pile up because lower priority work just doesn't get done.
labor laws are tricky, but in general they need to assign you an amount of work that can be done in a reasonable amount of time
I very much doubt it. It may help your argument when you're applying for unemployment but I very much doubt it's illegal for them to assign whatever work they feel like reasonable or not. Unfortunately.
I was literally told once “yes we can have meetings all day because you have all night to finish your code.” The same was expected when they had ‘team building’ outings.
That does happen. The law doesn't back them up, but many companies have that culture and good luck proving you were let go because of that vs something that is legal.
There are plenty of jobs that are more reasonable. They tend to be boring jobs though, so many are willing to pay the price to work a more exciting job.
I think maybe you don’t understand the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees here in the US. The law absolutely backs employers up on this unfortunately. Especially if, like me, you live in an at-will state.
Exempt employees are expected to get their work done, but the work does need to be reasonable. If they give you 40 hours of meetings you can have a good case they are asking too much to expect anything more. While hours are not given by law, there is still an expectation of reasonableness.
Which is to say they cannot fire you for not getting your work done. However at-will means they can let you go - but that is not firing you for cause and there is a big difference in how the law treats that.
I wish I still had your optimism and naivety. Last time this happened to me I was let go for “not fitting in with the culture” (the aforementioned culture of working all day), which is a completely legal reason in my state. I was denied unemployment despite being able to prove that I had been told to work all night. 10 years earlier I was let go for the same reason after refusing to participate in prayer during a meeting.
There is no protection for employees in the manner you are speaking of, at least not here.
Asking about the culture and work environment is what you are supposed to be doing when they ask "are there any questions". I've never had a problem finding a job where I'm expected to work about 40 hours and go home. Once in a while they ask for extra work in an emergency, but that is rare and they have all made it up to me somehow.
The protection isn't great I'll agree, but it isn't hard to find places that don't treat you like that. Don't work for the rest no matter how interesting the job is.
I am glad it hasn’t been hard for you. Pretty much everybody I know has moved to other states because of how bad the jobs are here. I would if I could afford it.
What happened with just going to to grocery store?
This isn't really the demographic they're catering to but Food Deserts are a sad reality for many in the US. Being able to order staple food and have them delivered (even if it's not same day) is often less painful than driving 30-50 miles to the closest grocery store.
My optimistic side is imagining a truck filled with a small town's worth of nutrient-rich groceries, making one trip to replace dozens of individual trip to a less-than-convenient grocery store.
My pessimistic side is imagining a truck with one or two people's worth of shitty "American" groceries, making the same trip they would have made to a grocery store down the street.
I feel like the reality heavily leans to latter, but I only have anecdotal data to back that up.
Hard to say. I'm not sure of the delivery radius that's allowed here and whether rural food deserts would even be eligible or not. I was just mentioning that ordering (non-perishable) groceries online and having them shipped does have a legit and unfortunate use case.
Back when I lived 45 ~~miles~~ minutes from the closest grocery store, I'd order my non-perishables online and they'd usually come via UPS or FedEx.
I did that during the height of COVID, when my household was only going to the store once a month. Imperfect Foods was how I got fresh produce in between those trips.
The article indicates this was for their Prime Day event.
Are people really waiting for an annual event to buy their groceries? Or are the Fresh delivery personnel reassigned to other verticals for the event's duration?
Former is shocking and borderline dystopian. Latter is just poor planning and resourcing.
My guess is that Amazon fresh makes its prices even more absurdly low to get more people buying.
I can rationalise holding off on buying a new phone or furniture until a sale. But for groceries?
One either needs groceries or they do not.
Perhaps, there are some categories of groceries that one may not buy unless there is a good occasion but might buy them if there is a good deal on it?
Or maybe, one may buy the pricier variety like “organic” groceries during such sales?
It’s not about waiting, it’s about enticing people to use Amazon fresh rather than the other grocery options they typically use.
I had not thought of this serving as an entry or a trial for new customers. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
This is a really great way to make rage bait ahead of prime day and get into the news. It’s like free advertising.