We are just over the halfway point in our jobs at Amazon.  Which means Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner!  After several weeks of picking Halloween costumes and decorations, the merchandise has switched to all things turkey related.  Tablecloths, roasting pans, turkey injectors and basting brushes seem to be the popular seasonal items now.  I like it when the holidays follow the calendar.

Of course, we are still picking the usual items.  IPhone 6 accessories have been very popular, more so than any other brand of cell phone combined.  The ‘Call of Duty’ video game was released this week, and we picked hundreds of those.  Disney ‘Frozen’ toys are very popular, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Monster dolls continue to be very popular as well.

Overtime has already started for the Inbound shifts (receiving and stowing).  For workcampers, it is mandatory to do 50 hours, and voluntary if you want the 60 hours.  Outbound (picking and packing) is not expected to see any overtime until after Thanksgiving.  This is how the schedule went last year as well.  A few new folks in picking were a little concerned about not getting any overtime, but once they understood we cannot pick what is not on the shelves, they seemed to understand.  And most people wait until December to start their shopping.  That’s when we will be doing the 60 hours (my mind is willing, but my body is still cringing!!).  By Tuesday night (which is our ‘Friday’), we are pretty tired and usually fall asleep watching television around 8pm!  Yes, this RV life can be very glamorous!

The 12th and final group of workcampers will be starting November 11th.  They have also started hiring the seasonal temporary employees as well.  They offer both full-time and weekends only shifts.  We will see a lot of the temp workers in the picking department.  At the end of each shift, we do have to pass through metal detectors.  It usually takes a couple of minutes to get through, but the lines will start to get a lot longer now.  Amazon does provide anyone that wants a clear plastic fanny pack or purse, which does make it easier to go through the lines.

For anyone with pets

Makena’s dog food was starting to get precariously low, so we started looking online for retailers that sell her Innova brand of dog food.  The closest store was 44 miles away (one way).  Amazon is pretty pricey for dog and cat food (although they sell a lot of it), so we decided to try out Chewy.com.  We have no affiliation with the website, so if you click on the link, we don’t get any money or anything.  But we are posting this because of our very positive experience with them.  Not only did they have very competitive prices, but free shipping on orders over $49.00.

We placed an order on Wednesday, and about 2 minutes after we submitted it, we received a call from a pleasant customer service rep confirming our shipping address, since our billing address is SD and our shipping address is KY.   About 3 hours later we received an e-mail stating our order was processed and ready for shipping, and they provided the UPS tracking number.  This morning (Friday), I was out walking Makena and saw the UPS man delivering our package to the campground office.  Everything was well packed.  Our package totaled 38 pounds, so we were very pleased we did not have to pay for shipping.  And Makena has a few toys for Christmas (oops, I guess I am one of those that buys Christmas presents before December!!).  The super fast shipping makes it great for any RV’er.

Quote for the day:  “In the world of internet customer service, it’s important to remember your customer is only one mouse click away.” – Doug Warner