Jeff Bezos tells shareholders to buckle up: Amazon to blow this quarter's profits and more on coronavirus costs

Amazon today reported $75.5bn in revenue for the first quarter of 2020, higher than expected though eroded by exceptional expenses. And it told investors to get used to its free spending ways during the coronavirus pandemic. "Providing for customers and protecting employees as this crisis continues for more months is going to …

[PhilipN]

Yawn

Without exception every company will use bad news of the moment to cover up endemic problems.

Or to make harsh decisions which in better times management would not have the guts to implement.

So what else is new?

Oh yes..... "protecting employees"... of course....

[Jamie Jones]

EPS?

"EPS"?

Ok, I know now, because I googled it, but there have often been comments in here from people accusing El. Reg. of dumbing down by explaining core techie concepts and expanding well known TLAs, and the official replies have more or less said that they explain such things for an audience that might not be so tech-savvy.

Fair enough, but how about doing the same for us techies who are not business-savvy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: EPS?

EPS (?Earning Per Share)

TLS (?Three Letter Abbreviation)

Most abbreviations should be done like this the first time it's in an article

Abbreviation (What the abbreviation stands for)

[TonyJ]

Re: EPS?

Other way around - "Domain Controller (DC)" on first use in a document.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Amazon, according to Bezos, will be spending its cash on protective gear, facility scrubbing, business process changes to allow for greater social distancing, higher wages for hourly workers, and internally developed COVID-19 testing capabilities for employees."

Yeah, right. While organizing a charity for workers who aren't paid at all, but not fired either. Of course Bezos isn't putting a penny into that charity and company put some seed money, i.e. tax deduction into it and Bezos expects other people to pay his workers, through his charity.

"Higher wage" for hourly worker doesn't cost anything when there're 0 hours. Bezos is a greedy slaver who'd rather kill workers at work than provide anything to them. He's only worried that state comes and closes his warehouses, i.e. money. No more, no less.

[Alan_Peery]

Higher hourly wages do certainly cost the employer more money for each hour worked, so to claim it's irrelevant if those employees are on zero hour contracts is pretty absurd.

It money well earned to those employees, particularly the delivery drivers who are more exposed, and it's good to see it happening.

[beast666]

Antichrist

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg et al are not your friends.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Antichrist

Not sure I'd lump Gates in that group these days. He and his organization are doing quite a bit for the health of the world's population. Perhaps that doesn't justify how he got the money, but in the end he figured out something meaningful to do with it. For the control group look to Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, etc.

[GodBlessIBM]

Re: Antichrist

Al is OK. Not the rest, though.

[DugEBug]

Re: Antichrist

Other than the overly large head, et is pretty cool too.

[LucreLout]

Re: Antichrist

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg et al are not your friends.

No, but they are my pension fund. Well, except Zuckerberg; a man's gotta draw a line somewhere.

[Pete 2]

Robots don't get Covid-19

> business process changes to allow for greater social distancing

Unless Amazon can magically increase the size of their warehouses and shipping facilities, increasing the distance between employees while keeping the acreage the same can only be solved by having fewer people in the same space.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

They can carry on as before as long as the employees wear full HazMat suits (at their cost naturally)

[DaveDaveDave]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

Aren't the pickers controlled by an algorithm that tells them where to go next? Seems pretty obvious you could work along those lines to minimise contacts without taking a big hit to efficiency.

[Claptrap314]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

There would be a marked effect on efficiency. The entire network (of aisles) slows a lot if, for instance, you move to unidirectional aisles. It slows even more if you limit access to one at a time, or to push-popping.

The costs are real.

[Updraft102]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

The local Wal-Mart has tried to implement one-way aisles throughout the store. I tried to respect it, but it's fairly impossible if you're the only one. Even people wearing masks, something which is not required in my area, who would appear to be the more COVID-conscious, were completely ignoring the markings.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Amazon warehouses, but I just thought it was an interesting point.

[LucreLout]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

There would be a marked effect on efficiency.

Perhaps. My team, like many, has fundamentally changed how we work lately, and we've done it without a drop in productivity.

The costs are real.

As are the costs of not implementing it - training for new employees, bad pr for the dead ones they're replacing, and time to learn the job properly and get fast at it.

[Alan_Peery]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

1) They can run more hours per day.

2) They can hold less stock in the warehouse to give more space for people.

3) They can rearrange so that the work stations are future apart. This may mean longer runs of internal conveyors, some spend for extra packing stations, and similar details.

All of those can be done without adding more space to the facility.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Robots don't get Covid-19

The facilities are huge, they could have an order of magnitude more employees inside them and still have much more than the 6 ft minimum between them. They don't come into contact due to the size of the facility, but because there are certain areas with a high density of employees. They can make changes to those areas (move packing stations further apart, for example) without needing a larger facility.

[Anonymous Coward]

The drop in profits

will only hasten the Bezos grand plan to eliminate all sentient beings from their warehouses. Robots don't get sick (unless hacked). They don't need no stinking healthcare, vacations and god forbid, pensions... Well that's what I'm guessing that the Grand Vizier Besos is thinking.

Shop local or anywhere but Amazon. you know it will make sense in the long run.

[GrahamRJ]

Re: The drop in profits

This is nothing that hasn't already been said since the invention of the Spinning Jenny in 1764. If you want to protest against industrial automation, I'm afraid you're 250 years late to that particular party.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The drop in profits

And what's wrong with more automation? Do you want to make it illegal because it will cost jobs? Good thing you weren't around when Henry Ford was building assembly lines and making far more cars per worker. He should have kept doing it the old way and employed 10x as many people!

[Red Sceptic]

Any fule kno that Amazon don’t make profits for a reason, as Scott Galloway has pointed out in his inimitable way:

https://youtu.be/dgzizQBXcLU

[codejunky]

So

Amazon isnt the evil bastard then. Good. Well done them.

[johnnyblaze]

Horrible

I don't believe a word Bezos says. 'Protecting employees' actually means 'Protecting the company' and stuff the employees. Amazon are just trying to save face because their employees (aka slaves) are pushing back and trying to tell the truth, despite Amazon firing them or limiting their ability to discuss things internally. Amazon are a horrible, horrible company. I try not to use them at all costs now.