A mountain of cargo has put the pickers under great psychological and physical pressure.

In warehouses at Amazon's shopping site, a mountain of goods has put the pickers under enormous psychological and physical pressure. Previously, a manager warned the pickers to wear a little Vaseline before wearing socks to avoid blisters on their feet.

People in the New York Times Square, November 28, in the toy fight city lined up to pay the bill. This year, many businesses opt to start discounting on Thanksgiving Day, opening the shopping season ahead of schedule.

Shopping tired, rest for a while ... (Design lines)

Come on, honey, I'm coming. (Design lines)

In Texas Austin, he laughs more than Ann Castino (left) and his niece (right) grab 32 inches of TV in the mall.

When China's "double 11" shopping feast has just come to a curtain, "double 12" is still brewing, when the western countries have been Alibaba in the day to create more than 35 billion yuan sales "stunned", their own "double 11"-"black Friday" has arrived.

"Black Friday" is the most important shopping day of the year for Americans, because the U.S. personal consumption expenditure accounts for about two-thirds of GDP, is the main engine of economic growth, so this day's operating income is usually more than is considered economic indicators.

Although the US government has stalled this year and the economy has not improved, it does not affect Americans ' buying enthusiasm ...

The United States version of the "Double 11" and the Chinese version of the "double 11" actually does not matter--the Chinese version of the "Double 11" is more of a collective carnival, and the United States version of "Double 11" has a cool name-"Black Friday."

"Black Friday" is not dark, on the contrary, it is full of passion.

"Black Friday" means the first Friday after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November) on this day, almost all businesses will open early, and even many businesses "in the Dark" business, competing to introduce low-cost, or even free gifts of goods to attract customers to meet the year's Christmas sales season.

A long history of more than half a century

In fact, the "black Friday" history can be a lot more than "double 11".

Starting from the 60 's of the last century, families in the United States have developed the habit of Thanksgiving: a fun-eating turkey, after a parade or after a fierce game, either fall asleep early, or go to the big stores to have a tent overnight to meet the biggest shopping spree of the year.

However, when November 11 in China from an ordinary day into a "Singles Day" and then become a "shopping carnival", with half a century of history, "Black Friday" has been branded with the times.

In fact, in the United States, unlike the "Double 11", "Black Friday" is not just a feast for the merchants, but also a chance for traditional retailers to get their feet on the roll-traditional retailers are "black Friday" "veteran players" and Amazon and other online retailers are just new recruits.

Promotional businesses Open this Thanksgiving

In order to meet the shopping season, the major traditional retailers will be crazy big price reduction period, by the traditional "black Friday" early-there are shops not only not closed, or even open 40 hours.

In 2010, the anti-city and Sears department took the lead in changing the tradition of closing the Thanksgiving Day in order to open the door to spend the unique American holiday. Then more and more retailers joined the ranks.

This year's "Black Friday" is November 29, many companies have already played "Thanksgiving without rest, discounts," signs, including Wal-Mart and some retailers on Thanksgiving is the evening of 28th began to discount activities. Macy's and other traditional decades, this year also the first "breaking the precepts."

"Marketers are changing their mind very quickly," said marketing expert Brad Wilson. "They were used to closing the Thanksgiving Day three or four years ago, but they can't wait to open their doors as early as possible, and they're not going to be discounted on Thanksgiving two years ago and now offer tempting activities." ”

2012 Thanksgiving, the U.S. entity retailer sales of 810 million U.S. dollars, and "Black Friday" day sales of 1.12 billion U.S. dollars. According to a survey by the US survey group, about 140 million people are planning to go shopping at the "Black Friday" or the previous date.

Since big department stores such as Macy's plan to open their doors early this year mean employees will have to go to work after a Thanksgiving dinner, and a lot of people are going crazy shopping, many restaurants are not open on Thanksgiving night, but now they also decide to open the door.

The latest survey by the National Catering Association estimates that about 38 million people will dine in a restaurant in "Black Friday", breaking the record of 32 million people the year before.

Impulse buyer plans eight hours of continuous shopping

The concept of change is not just traditional businesses, but consumers.

Jennifer Gillis, 49, refused to go shopping on Thanksgiving last year, and plans to visit Macy's this year. There are also more than 33 million Americans who plan to go shopping with her on Thanksgiving, about 30% of the people who are going shopping in black Friday.

Ayme Britton, aged 35, lives in Atlanta, USA. This year, she put her nephew, grandmother and aunt Income "under the command", intends to "black five" the Day "forces combat." Not only have they chosen the shopping malls, they have drawn up a grocery list, they have cleaned up their car trunk and are ready to carry the loot.

"Goldman sisters" are composed of three sisters, their strategy and "Britten" is not the same. The trio decided to act together and "conquer" an area. The three sisters began preparations months ago, analyzing a large number of emails and promotional pages to set the most desired purchases. After the discount began, the trio will be deployed together, so that when buying clothes can be reference to each other, to avoid people because of the impulse to spend money. The Three Sisters plan to shop for 8-14 hours in a row.

Stephanie Goldman, one of the three sisters, said the method was effective. They once entered a discount shop on a black Friday night and went straight to the shelves labeled "clear", while also using credit card discounts while enjoying low prices. In the end, the trio spent 100 of dollars on clothes worth 900 of dollars.

Payment method "Bitcoin" is also ready to be sent

In addition to physical retailers and buyers, the emerging currency Bitcoin is also waiting for the "black Friday" shopping season spree--the dollar has topped the $1000 trillion mark on the world's most famous Bitcoin trading platform. The price of bitcoin has soared about 400% in two months.

Since the popularity of bitcoin has increased significantly in the past year, the number of businesses involved in "Bitcoin Friday" is much larger than last year. Last year, there were only 75 commercial tenants, and 150 of the businesses involved this year were expected to be more than 500.

These businesses sell everything from Christmas trees to clothes. Some media companies have also joined the Bitcoin trade, and even magazines have offered a discount of 5 dollars for a Bitcoin subscription.

The organizers of the "Bitcoin Friday" event said that the cost of trading in bitcoin was lower than credit cards, meaning that the transaction cost was 3% to 5% cheaper than the "black Friday" in "Bitcoin Friday".

"For the last two years they hurried out without even eating, and they wanted to go shopping." I say ' black Friday ' and they say ' black Friday ' is obsolete, and now it's ' Black Thanksgiving '. ”

――28-Year-old North Carolina State resident Kimberley Via decided not to hold Thanksgiving dinner for his family this year.

The origin of "black Friday"

According to the American custom, the Christmas shopping season usually starts after Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is the last Thursday of every November, so it's the next day, the last Friday in November, to become the first day of American big purchases. On this day, shopping malls in the United States will launch a large number of discounts and promotions to the end of the year for the last large-scale promotion.

In Western tradition, "Black Friday" was a bad day. But because the U.S. shopping malls in the red record deficit, black record earnings, and after Thanksgiving this Friday, because people crazy snapped up to make the mall profits, businesses will be black pen to record the day's profit figures. Businesses are looking to get the most out of the year by buying big Christmas purchases that start on the day, so they call it "black Friday."

International Carnival

Not far from America

Canada: Preparing for Cross-border travel to the US

Although "Black Friday" is the American shopping festival, in recent years the shopping frenzy has become more and more turbulent, so that "neighbour" Canadians are also attracted. According to media statistics, this year's "Black Friday" will be 14% of Canadians ready to grab goods across the border, and in 2011 two years ago, the idea of only 6% people. In addition, the number of Canadians intending to buy goods from the United States has jumped from 13% in 2011 to 24% this year.

Jimmy Benas, vice president of UPS market, said that despite the competitive nature of the Canadian retail market, the continued improvement in U.S. business discounts, low prices and online shopping technology has lured Canadians to continue south. It is even estimated that the "black Friday" future is likely to displace Canada's traditional shopping festivals.

It's a long way from America.

Russia: Creating your own Shopping day

Many Americans are ready to shop in "black Friday" or "online shopping Monday" to buy their favorite discounted items. And there are similar days in Russia.

According to Russian media reports, Russia's domestic network of retailers ready to be December 6 to create a Russian version of the "online shopping day", this day is also Friday, so also named "Black Friday." According to the organizers of the event, December 6, Russia will have more than 100 network retailers participate in discounted sales activities, participation in the sale of goods will reach 50,000, from food, building materials to clothing, a full range.

Pick one item every 33 seconds. Working hours up to 10.5 hours

Network retailer's pickers are hard.

If the economic situation is only a temporary effect on the "black Friday", then it is the Internet retailer, led by Amazon and ebay, that really forces traditional businesses to open for Thanksgiving.

According to Adobe's forecasts, this year's "Black Friday" and Thanksgiving network retail sales of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars and 1.1 billion of dollars, a significant increase from last year. This year's overall sales are not high, such data can show the strength of network retailers.

"Online shopping is a good choice for those with limited time or reluctance to go out," says Morgan Stanley's analysis, "the growing number of online retailers ' products, improved shopping experience and free delivery services have made it more popular to have a" black Friday "at home. ”

Indeed, online shopping has become a modern way to buy, people simply sit in front of the computer mouse, you can wait for the goods to the door. However, have you ever thought about how each network retailer completes the process of sorting and packing the goods while you are waiting in a leisurely way?

Pressure large scanner Set picking time

Not so long ago, in a program, the BBC told a story about the work of Amazon, the shopping site's Adam Litter. Adam, 23 years old, was an undercover journalist who was recruited to work for the Swansea warehouse at the Amazon UK company. Adam carried a secret camera and filmed his work.

Adam's job was to pick up the goods, and when he was working, he was holding a phone and a portable scanner, pushing carts, shuttling between shelves and picking goods for customers on orders.

In this warehouse of more than 70,000 square meters, it is not easy to find the goods quickly. Fortunately, the scanning device can automatically calculate the best route to pick all the goods needed, and also prompts the picker to be close to the "target".

However, the scanner sets a job target for the pickers-picking up 110 items per hour. Specifically, choose one every 33 seconds. If you make a mistake, the scanner beeps.

Adam said that sometimes he had to trot down to the target shelves to avoid exceeding the sorting time set by the scanner. But even so, it is difficult to complete the work quota.

Strength, the toilet is a race against the clock

In addition, in order to quickly pack the goods ordered by the customer, the pickers must work 24 hours shifts. In his seven-week job, Adam had four weeks on the day shift and three weeks on night shifts. Among them, the night shift to four days, sometimes up to 10.5 hours of work, and the period of rest only about 1 hours, even the toilet to the clock.

"We're like machines, we're robots, and while we're holding scanners, we might as well insert it into our bodies more directly," he said. "We don't have to think about it, maybe they think we don't have to think as humans." ”

After the night shift, Adam said, "I am so tired that I have never done this kind of work." He admits that, compared with the great pressure, the pickers ' income is not high, the day shift is 6.5 pounds (about 63 yuan), and the night-time salary is 8.25 pounds (about 81 yuan).

For such intensity of work, some experts say this may violate the working time rule. Lawyers Jales Bede said workers should not work for more than 8 hours within 24 hours, which could lead to excessive physical or mental stress.

Malmet, the UK's top stress expert, says the work intensity of the shopping site Amazon can easily lead to psychological or physical ailments. "There are always some unseemly jobs, but we can make them better or worse." In my opinion, the health and well-being of individuals, while demanding efficiency, are balanced. ”

The complaint warehouse is called "slave camp."

There have been cases of people suing Amazon for squeezing employees, and even employees say warehouses are "slave camps". But Amazon says work intensity is perfectly legal.

Amazon says the work quota set for the pickers is based on the actual work of all the pickers, which are about the same intensity as the manual workers in other industries, and that Amazon's safety record and employees ' health are better than those of other competitors.

In addition, the British Amazon hired more than 15,000 employees to meet the Christmas period of the internet shopping frenzy. However, recruiters admit that the pickers are really a "manual job".

However, according to media reports, in order to reduce complaints, Amazon in the United Kingdom most of the orders are not in the local sorting, but chose to do in the low tax rate of Luxembourg. This is legal tax avoidance, allowing Amazon to further reduce the price of goods sold and increase competitiveness.

"Black Friday go to the mall?" Absolutely no, there are too many people, I still at home online shopping, and do not have to wait until that day. ”

Perhaps South Hill Leine's feeling can represent more and more consumer's mentality.

"Online shopping Monday" in the Ascendant

In recent years, online shopping is in the ascendant. Over the past two years, online shopping has also been affected by the economic downturn. However, data show that online consumption will grow again during the festival this year.

Into the 2000, due to the rise of online shopping, black Friday after Monday is often known as "online shopping Monday." It means that people spend their money on the internet in Monday, after spending a big shopping spree on Thanksgiving weekend.

This argument is not unreasonable. Online shopping has the advantage that traditional shop can't compare, save time, and the network space provides more choice. In addition, online shopping more labor-saving.