Just as a Thanksgiving feast preludes an afternoon nap, Cyber Monday ushers in a barrage of delivery vans bearing a distinct curved logo.
The cycle of holiday deal-hunting is clearly visible across metro Atlanta’s streets as Amazon vans become as ubiquitous as autumn leaves. But what’s less evident is the back-end distribution and sorting centers that comprise the backbone of e-commerce.
Amazon’s fulfillment center near Stone Mountain is one piece of that network, and it was abuzz with activity Monday morning. Tony Vozzolo, the location’s site lead, expected at least 700,000 packages to move through his facility Monday, which he described as a feat of modern logistics that combines human brainpower with robot muscle.
“How do I get the right package into the right bin, then into the right (storage) pod at the right time, then re-plan millions of other moves all within milliseconds?” he asked rhetorically. “That’s what is going on right now.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Since it opened in October 2020, the 640,000-square-foot Stone Mountain facility acts as a thoroughfare for hundreds of thousands of packages every day. Vozzolo said it typically ranks as one Amazon’s 10 busiest sorting warehouses, acting as the primary hub for the Atlanta area and broader Southeast.
Throughout the four-story warehouse, merchandise weaves through roughly 20 miles of conveyor belts. Under the guidance of more than 3,000 full-time employees and an army of robots, products are moved through a complex network of bins and storage pods until they end up wrapped in corrugated packaging to be shipped to a last-mile distribution center.
Efficiency is the name of the game, from reducing the amount of walking done by employees to minimizing the amount of empty space within packages shipped to customers.
“We don’t like shipping air,” Vozzolo said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The job of keeping order among the apparent chaos is left to bar codes and QR codes, which mark every package, bin, storage pod and robot. Named Hercules, blue autonomous machines ferry yellow racks of products across concrete floors filled with seemingly endless expanses of storage shelves.
“When I first started (with Amazon), we didn’t have robots,” said Vozzolo, a 14-year veteran with Amazon. “So what this would have looked like is the exact same thing, except imagine a human walking 12-plus miles a day through an army of pods … versus now, a robot brings it to them.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Anything, anytime, anywhere
With nearly $575 billion in revenue last year, Seattle-based Amazon is the second-largest publicly traded company by revenue in the U.S. behind only Walmart.
While the Seattle-based corporate giant offers its own roster of products, about 60% of its sales volume comes from third-party businesses that sell across its network, Vozzolo said.
Dean-Paul Hart, president of Tucker-based Compac Industries, has been selling his company’s products on Amazon since the early 2000s. His business involves manufacturing and distributing hundreds of products under multiple brands, including baby products, grill tools and home goods.
“We couldn’t get distribution everywhere,” he said. “But with Amazon, we can list anything at anytime for anywhere.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
While Amazon charges a commission to use its e-commerce platform, Hart said it allows companies like his to scale, introduce new product lines and collect large amounts of consumer feedback.
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw record-breaking online shopping sales, has made deal-focused holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday essential for retailers. Consumers were projected to spend a record $13.2 billion Monday, a 6% increase from 2023, according to data from software firm Adobe.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Amazon said it has hired about 12,000 seasonal workers in Georgia, including about 8,000 in Atlanta, ahead of the busy holiday shipping season. Vivek Pandya, lead analyst for Adobe Digital Insights, said consumers were likely to exceed $40 billion in spending between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday to capitalize on deals.
“Discounts have exceeded expectations beginning on Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday has essentially become ‘last call’ for shoppers looking to get the best deals this season,” he said.
Hart said the power of an appealing discount can be seen in one of his skincare products, which was listed at a 40% discount on Amazon in the buildup to Cyber Monday. He said it had sold 3,000 units in November compared to its usual volume of about 100 units per month.
“It’s a big deal — Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” Hart said.
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