Amazon - November to December 2012

Working at Amazon was very tough, and everyone keeps asking us if we are going to come back next year. Working the night shift was not as hard as we thought it would be, and the dogs were fairly good about letting us sleep in the morning. I do not think they slept much during the night since and come around 10:00pm and take them for a walk, which I think really helped with their attitude. Our shift was from 5:30pm to 4:00am. We usually left about 4:50 because there was always a line trying to get into the parking lot, with police directing traffic, and got home about 4:15am. The dogs ran outside and into the woods, while Jim & I got settled, watched some TV, and tried to unwind. Showers followed, fed the dogs breakfast, then hit the sack about 5-6am.

 

Our split shift was great as we only had to work 2 days in a row and then were able to catch up on sleep. Did not get the amount of overtime that we thought we would get. Between Hurricane Sandy hitting the northeast and the re-election of Obama, people are just not out there spending money. We were told that orders were way down compared to last year. So, I say just ask me next summer if we are going back and we will look to see what the money situation looks like.

We started work on November 5, 2012. First day was meet and greet, then a tour of the facility and safety meeting. Next three days worked five hours from 5:30pm to 10:30pm. Second week we started our schedule - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, still five hours getting us used to being on our feet for an extended period of time. Put us on the floor right away in what they call Crisplant, which is where we filled the customers' orders putting the items in boxes, taped them up and set them on the conveyor belt. Working there was quite a grueling experience, nothing we had ever done before. Did not think I would be able to stay up all night working, but with the adrelinine from everyone working and staying up, the time went by pretty fast. Had to keep busy to keep from falling asleep.

The day started with us arriving around 5:00pm in time to put our meal in the frig, go to the bathroom and get our assignment, which was taped to posts in various places there were so many people that had to check their assignments. Also had to get gloves and then clock in. From there we all met in the main area for a "pep" talk and stretches. Usually Jim & I were assigned a cart but once in a while we were assigned to be "water spiders." It was amazing to see what people ordered.

The campground we stayed at was called Indian Ridge, which indeed was on top of a ridge. On one side was a fence keeping people from toppling over a 300 foot drop to the Green River below. Going down the trail took us to a small creek where I was able to walk along it to the area next to the Green River. The dogs really enjoyed that walk, looking for deer and chasing ducks.

Indian Ridge Campground

Trail going up from the River

Road next to the trailer

Road going up the hill from the River

Valley below campground

Cloud over Valley

November 18: Finished our five hour work day Friday night. Saturday and Sunday off and then on Monday we start our first 10 hour day. Don't know if we will be there the whole time; sometimes it seems as though there is just not enough work, which means that the orders are not coming through. We shall see.  So Saturday we did some shopping and then visited some of the other RV parks that Amazon has on its list of approved parks.  We visited Green River Stables and Green River State Park. The Stables are OK but the bathroom is a single one with one toilet and one shower. There were not that many sites and fairly close together, but at least the people had a grass front. The state park was gorgeous with spacious sites but no sewer. Would consider staying there if we come back next year.  There are some other parks that we may visit just to see what they look like.

November 19: Today we start our 10-hour day. Hired a kid that is here to walk the dogs about 10-10:30 at night so they could pee and not have to sit in the trailer all night before going. I think they will be OK and I do believe they will go crazy when we come home at 4:30 am. Going to try to sleep until about 8-9; take the dogs for their morning walk and then feed them, and then go back to sleep. Going to be an adjustment as to when we eat and shower, but it's only for two months and then it's over. It will all be OK and looking forward to the money we will be making.

November 25: Finished our first week of our 10-hour shift. We leave the campground about 5:00pm so we have plenty of time to put up our cooler and put our stuff in the locker, and get out onto the floor. We are packing up the merchandise that people order - it is amazing what people order on-line that they could go to the store to buy - dog food, toothpaste, coffee, dog toys, shampoo, CD's, movies, books, to name a few. Have packed up quite a few Samsung phones and Kindles as well. Our section has about 20 sections which has 2 chutes in each section; and we walk our chart back and forth on a track stopping by each chute that is ready to go; scan the chute which tells us what is in the chute and what size box to use. We have the boxes right there on our cart, a tape machine and the cello for stuffing. 

Black Friday: Black Friday was packed - I think everyone had to work even if they had the day off.  There were so many people in the Crisplant that there was not enough work to go around.  Jim was assigned a cart the whole night but I had to help at the problem solve desk the first part of the night and the second and third parts I just walked around unjamming chutes.  Finally when I was assigned that again in the fourth part, I asked at the assignment desk for a cart and they switched me with another girl.

December 9: Work has been tough; regimented and push, push, push. Working the night shift you get into the scheme and the adrenaline starts in, and you just keep on going, even with5 hours of sleep. We get there for our 5:30 start time and start packing, then get two 15 minute breaks, and 30 minutes for lunch/dinner. We like the split shift working Monday and Tuesday with Wednesday off, then Thursday and Friday. Overtime has been cancelled so far, and if we get any, it will only be two days, if that.

People ask us if we will go back to Amazon next year, and we just do not know. Terry & Evelyn say that they are going back. The money was good - we made $4800 in two months but did not save much nor pay off any bills, just the same and a few little extra things like the Excursion needing work, a new battery, a new electric cord for the trailer, Frontline and Heartguard for the dogs. Also bought two Kindles since we had a 10% discount through Amazon; borrowed book 4 of the Harry Potter series which I am now reading.