WHITESTOWN, Ind. (WTHR) — Every day, it seems like we buy something on our computers or on our cell phones, but when you stop think about it, where is "online" where our orders come from?
Only WTHR got invited to see what the other side of the massive internet store Amazon with a tour of their facility in Whitestown, Indiana, which is one of 17 properties in the state.
Amazon first came to Indiana in 2008 and has seven fulfillment center warehouses in Indianapolis, Plainfield, Whitestown and Jeffersonville. Other properties include five Whole Foods Market locations, along with a Prime Now Hub and the Amazon Wind Farm Indiana located in Benton County.
Combined, Amazon employs more than 8,000 people in the state.
As the holiday shopping and shipping rush is on, Amazon is adding to its workforce. Inside the Whitestown warehouse, you’ll find more than 2,000 people filling orders around the clock, except for about a two-hour window when things wind down for maintenance.
The Whitestown facility is massive — both in structure and production:
- 1 million square feet, or 28 football fields
- 15 million items inside
- 10 miles of conveyor belts
- 40,000 totes ready to cart orders
- 100,000 orders a day
The building is laid out in two main areas: merchandise and packaging.
The merchandise section looks like a library with row after row of shelves, which are divided up into thousands of sections and subsections. Everything is labeled and barcoded so that when you check out, locator information is sent to an employee who finds the item, retrieves it, loads it into a tote and sends it on its way all in a matter of seconds.
The way the merchandise is arranged may surprise you.
“There's no categorization; we basically find space and stow it there. Our associates receive instructions to pick those items, and we get them to outbound processing, package those up and ship those out within one day or less,” said Amazon spokesperson Andre Woodson.
That means items aren’t sorted or stored on shelves by brand or category or even alphabetical — items are simply put on any empty shelf and then coded to keep track of their location.
While it may not look like it, Amazon says it is a highly efficient process, allowing workers to process orders in a matter of seconds.
Orders flow out of the Whitestown building to all 50 states and beyond.
As you might imagine, packaging is down to a science. Computers auto-determine box sizes, the amount of bubble wrap and even the amount of tape that's needed for a package.
Workers can submit feedback to make changes, and their voice is valuable as they fill 100,000 orders a day.
David Trapp is just one of them. In his eighth year on the job, chances are he just may have filled your order.
As you might imagine, he's made some unique discoveries on the shelves.
“Every day,” he laughed. “I carry around pen and paper with me. Yesterday, I came across vegan charcoal dental floss, and I had no idea something like that existed or a rotating marshmallow fork for campfires so I write these things down because at times I forget when I go home and tell my wife I saw the craziest thing today,” he explained.
He likes the variety of his job as no two orders are ever the same.
“I'm a movie buff, and I'm constantly running across movies I didn't know existed,” Trapp said.
Trapp is constantly on the move, but he doesn’t plan to move on from his job.
“I am much healthier now than when I started I can tell you that,” he laughed. “This has been something I have stayed with longer than any other job, and this is something I could see myself retiring with,” Trapp said.
As the online retailer continues to grow, more people like Trapp are needed.
Pay begins at $15 hour. Click here for open positions.