Cyber Monday: Inside Amazon Warehouse On Busiest Day Of The Year
FALL RIVER (CBS) - On a busy Cyber Monday, there's no place busier than a place with the name "Amazon," like the company's Fall River warehouse, churning out box after box. If online retailers can't fill Cyber Monday orders, they're doomed. That's why more than 1,000 employees at the Fall River Fulfillment Center are working flat out.
It's a behind the scenes shopper's dream. Massive shelving reaches up to the roof, lifts scurry down aisles and conveyor belts speed products toward their destinations. It's all powered by workers busier than elves on Christmas Eve.
"Today is Cyber Monday, our busiest day of the year for Amazon," says Nina Lindsey from Amazon. At the Fall River facility more than a million square feet of warehouse space is crammed with, well, just about anything you can think of. "We have everything here from Star Wars inventor droid kits to snow shovels, wrapping paper, fishing poles," Lindsey says.
The warehouse opened last year, so this is Cyber Monday number two. "Now that we've got one under our belt, we're going to perform really well this year. We're going to do thousands of packages today," says Amazon's Jim Mullen.
It's all based on speed. Get the orders out, fast. "An employee will go and take that item from its location, and they'll send it along its way to a packing station. And then the item will go along miles of conveyance to get shipped out," says Lindsey.
Most of the items at the Fall River warehouse will be delivered to people in the Northeast, but the warehouse has the capability of shipping to nearly 200 countries, and they're going to need that capacity.
"Last year our customers worldwide ordered more than 64 million items in a single day. That's about 740 items every second. And we expect this year to be even bigger," according to Lindsey
In addition to about 1500 permanent employees, the Fall River facility has also hired seasonal workers. But it's too late to apply, their ranks are full.
