Talks to Watch

Working at Amazon Fulfillment Center - SOUTH PARK

6.1M views · Sep 6, 2021 · 3:30 · 0 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2021–2022

A South Park clip in which Butters' dad takes a job at an Amazon fulfillment center to make ends meet. It satirizes warehouse work conditions.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN uses it as a joking reference when threads discuss Amazon warehouse working conditions and surveillance.

What Hacker News said 4

Joketype0Oct 2021
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Amazon should trademark the term Wage Cage. At least now it's not been implemented yet, but I would imagine it is very unfulfilling to work at Amazon fulfillment center this video

in “Amazon has patented a system that would put workers in a cage, on top of a robot” · view on HN
Joketype0Jun 2022

“South Park had a realistic vision on how it is to work at Amazon Fulfillment Center”

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> many commercials lately about how great it is to work for Amazon. South Park had a realistic vision on how it is to work at Amazon Fulfillment Center this video

in “Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire” · view on HN
JokephilsnowJun 2022
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I dunno, it seemed fairly rosy. They could have twisted the knife quite a bit more: there were a couple 3-second interactions where people are buying things [0][1], if they had been denominated in "hours of service" rather than USD, with the Company knowing what their hours balance was, and having the balance tick down and go negative... that would have been dark. [0] this video [1] this video

in “Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire” · view on HN
JokeoliveshellOct 2022

“(This song may be familiar to South Park viewers.)”

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For the curious: besides the Pullman towns, there were many other “company towns” [1] in the United States, owned by various companies [2]. Some of the most exploitive ones were owned by mining firms, as immortalized in the famous protest song “Sixteen Tons”, with its refrain “I owe my soul to the company store”. [3] (This song may be familiar to South Park viewers.) [4] [1] link [2] link [3] link [4] this video

in “The Rise of ‘Luxury Surveillance’” · view on HN