14 DAY TRIAL // Looks like Amazon won't be employing any more people for finding and moving packages and crates in its warehouses, having chosen to call upon robots instead.
Amazon seems to have decided that it just isn't automatized or effective enough when it comes to storage and supply management.
When it boils down to the warehouses where its merchandise is stored before shipping to clients, its efficiency leaves much to be desired, or so it feels.
In order to improve its performance in this area, the company has decided to start using robots.
Oddly though, instead of actually placing orders with a maker of such robots, it figured it may as well just buy the whole thing and be done with it.
More precisely, Amazon has reached a deal with Kiva Systems, a maker of suitable “find-and-bring-this-or-that-package-right-now” robots.
The latter will receive a payment of $775 million, which is more or less the same as 585.74 million Euro, give or take.
Kiva was established in 2003 and has since made many sorts of robots used in production lines and storage facilities.
Among its customers are Staples, Gap, Walgreens and Crate & Barrel, all of which will essentially become Amazon's customers after the whole transaction is complete.
It isn't clear how soon the merger will finish, but Kiva's shareholders have already approved, so it shouldn't take long.
After that, Amazon will be capable of better responding to orders while also reducing costs of operations, though not everyone will be happy.
While robots are all well and good for business, they will replace actual people, which means that some workers will lose their jobs, or at least that there will be fewer posts available.
Considering the unemployment rate in the US and how the economy is still strained, we can imagine that there will be some disgruntled people after all this.