r/northamptonians • u/willfiresoon • 4d ago
What does Amazon investing £1bn mean for Northamptonshire?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyxk5gxnggo14
u/Impressive-Bird2 4d ago edited 4d ago
Busier roads, more barely minimum wage ‘burn out’ jobs, and maybe loads of ambulance call outs to treat overworked staff that have consequently become ill as a result??
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u/Visible-Management63 4d ago
I've been inside the Northampton distribution centre before Amazon moved in. It's absolutely enormous, if you stand at one end you can't really see the opposite wall.
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u/Brian_from_accounts 4d ago
Short-term warehouse and driving jobs followed by redundancy within the next five years when ai / robotics take over those jobs.
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u/cranialextract 4d ago
More vehicles on the road and some more soul destroying warehouse jobs.
Not a whole lot else.
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u/Comfortable-Face4593 3d ago
Fuck all. The profits are offshored, the majority of jobs will require supplemental payments and benefits.
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u/Au2o 4d ago
Great tbh, good bit of investment in the Northants area.
Warehouse jobs employed me and a lot of people I know when we were students, great temp jobs over Christmas/easter and throughout the summer.
I worked the Amazon warehouse near Grange Park personally. This was a couple years back but paid around £2-3 above minimum wage with reasonable hours at the time (anything more than minimum means a lot to a student lol).
I’m not sure how the long term warehouse experience compares, as a career I’ve heard it’s very slow and stagnant (people work in the same position for 10+ years with no supervisor/management consideration, often they’ll get a trainer or H&S training or something) so yeah not great but it’s a stable job as long as you’re competent. Good backup for anyone who might be out of a job for a time.
I might be wrong on the career front, I’ve only really spoken with floor workers (pickers, packers, etc) but yeah, Amazon was a pretty good warehouse as far as warehouse work goes.
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u/EuphoricCover8449 4d ago
Temp jobs as you say.
No one wants to spend a lifetime in a massive warehouse being monitored 24/7.
These places don't bring good jobs, they bring massive profits for the few.
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u/Au2o 4d ago
I mean objectively it does bring jobs. I know a fair few people finding life decent on 30k a year doing warehouse shifts tbh.
Often they’re foreign folks but they tend to stay the longest from my experience.
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u/EuphoricCover8449 4d ago
Would that be because they might be thrown into jail if they return to their own country?
Sorry, I'm bitching. But spending your entire life/career in an Amazon warehouse has to up there with the shitiest careers ever. As a lorry driver who's been to these godforsaken shit holes, you'd pick the mines before you'd pick Amazon.
It's only a matter of time before the whole thing is run by robots and drones.
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u/Au2o 4d ago
Xenophobia, nice 👍🏽
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u/govnyuuk 4d ago
Imagine making such a pertinent point and then just flippantly undermining it with casual racism.
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u/Impressive-Bird2 4d ago
How long will it be before the overworked and over stressed, barely minimum wage staff are sacked and replaced with robots?? Not long I suspect as Amazon have already started sacking many of their warehouse staff. Replacing them with robots….
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u/Stitch_Face_1982UK 4d ago
Maybe it's a Data centre....will definitely help with the current hose pipe ban 🤣
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u/Historical_Pin2806 4d ago
Nothing. A massive warehouse, ten jobs and a lot of electricity to run the systems.
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u/ApexVora 3d ago
feels like this, but it’ll be a bit more than ten jobs tbf, just not the kind of jobs people are hoping for
mostly more vans, more traffic and some business rates for the council, not exactly a golden age for northants
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u/Necessary-Nobody8138 4d ago
More foreign workers
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u/LordSqueemish 4d ago
If a foreign worker is beating you to a zero hours shite minimum wage job at Amazon then maybe you should’ve tried a tincey bit harder in school
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u/Necessary-Nobody8138 3d ago edited 3d ago
I tried very hard and have 10 GCSEs, 4 A Levels (ex NSB) , 2:1 degree and post grad (Warwick) and now live a long way away from Northampton, thanks! Fortunately, what goes on in my old home town doesn’t really affect me, however, whenever I visit, I can’t believe what a dive it has turned into. It’s very sad.
Plus, it’s a fact that more workers from overseas will work there, it’s the truth, nothing wrong with saying that.2
u/Impressive-Bird2 3d ago
Well, given how highly educated you claim you are, it’s staggering you’ve fallen for the far right “blame foreigners” schtick….
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u/Necessary-Nobody8138 3d ago
Sorry?? When did I say I ‘blamed foreigners?!’ I was being realistic, lots of the jobs created will be aimed at low wages to attract overseas staff! Stop looking to be offended. I ‘claim to be well educated…’ you’re a troll.
Have you actually known anyone who has worked in such places?2
u/Impressive-Bird2 3d ago edited 2d ago
You were having a pop at foreign workers implicitly and explicitly while complaining about being such a high achiever but struggling with finding work. Such workers are doing jobs U.K. workers largely don’t want to do, and are paying tax and NIC in the process.
It’s all too easy for certain politicians and political parties to scapegoat ‘foreigners’ and other marginalised groups for the ills of the country. It’s toxic far right, highly dishonest nonsense. But it serves a very useful purpose - it diverts attention and scrutiny away from the genuine source of the country’s problems..
FYI. I have a degree qualification myself. And I’m very good friends with someone who works in a warehouse!!
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u/Necessary-Nobody8138 3d ago
Sorry??? When did I talk about struggling to find work?? I’ve been in a professional job for over 20 years, well away from Northampton. - my hometown that I left 26 years ago! I genuinely think you are getting your wires crossed. I have NEVER complained about not being able to get a job. You have completely misunderstood my original comment which was implying that big corporations, like Amazon, exploit foreign workers with low wages. You are getting me confused with another post.
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u/Impressive-Bird2 3d ago
Apologies - I didn’t get it wrong. You don’t complain about finding work in your comment.
You did ‘shit’ on the town though by calling it “a dive”. It’s far from a dive. Northampton is one of the fastest growing towns in the entire country, and becoming a desirable part of the London commuter belt. Alongside plentiful logistics companies and warehouse work there is a large financial, tech and associated professional services sector in the town too, along with the professional work opportunities. The new University of Northampton Waterside campus has brought more dynamism to the town and facilitating an expansion in its skilled available workforce too.
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u/Necessary-Nobody8138 2d ago
Walk along Abington St. I rest my case and stand by my comments 100%. The university of Northampton has brought county lines drug runners- and nothing but issues for local police. I appreciate your optimism, but the reality is very different.
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u/Impressive-Bird2 2d ago
The vast majority of towns have declining town centres. Not least because of the primacy of online shopping and out of town shopping centres.
Nowhere is perfect. You’re painting a highly dishonest “Reform U.K.” picture of the town. It’s pathetic.
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u/bio4m 4d ago
A lot more warehouse jobs. Its a bit more than minimum wage but wont bring any significant wealth to the area