John Oliver examines online shopping warehouses on Last Week Tonight

Online shopping has greatly changed how we buy stuff, from essentials to junk. But what is the human impact? John Oliver looks into it on Last Week Tonight.

We’ve got to get serious about online shopping. It’s been a long enough time coming, but Last Week Tonight and host John Oliver want you to take a good, long look at who pays for that sweet, sweet, two day shipping.

The rise of online shopping has dramatically changed how we buy things. Why go to all the trouble of getting dressed, starting the car, and trekking to the store when you can just buy it online? Now, you can just click a button.

It’s no surprise, then, to see brick and mortar stores going away. You’d think the same would happen for the retail employees, though it looks as if the warehouse industry is absorbing all of the laid-off workers. That’s got to be great, right? Especially since Amazon fulfillment centers are well known to be joyful workplaces that give workers plenty of benefits and generous time-off policies. Weird how the Amazon warehouse tour video has comments disabled, by the way.

Of course, the truth is that working in these massive warehouses is somewhat less than fun. First of all, the warehouse and storage industry has a higher injury rate than coal mining. Yeah, that’s the job where your lungs slowly but surely fill up with silica dust while you’re being blatantly exploited for your labor. This is all pretty relevant because Prime Day is coming up, which is routinely one of the biggest sales days for the behemoth company.

It’s not entirely Amazon’s fault. Many retail giants are guilty of this, especially since they subcontract to other companies for the warehousing nitty gritty. For instance, some employees have complained of poorly ventilated warehouses, while others report inhumane temperatures.

An XPO Logistics employee actually died of a heart attack at work, while complaining of physical distress and asking supervisors for an extra break (which they denied). Workers at the site claimed that they were told to keep working while the woman’s body lay on the warehouse floor.

We really do have to focus on Amazon, though. It has greatly increased the pressure to speed up shipping across the industry. Think of all the stupid, generally worthless things you bought via Amazon. Turns out that all that two- and one-day shipping means people are feverishly working to get you that novelty horse mask.

Conditions in its warehouses can be exhausting, even physically draining. Workers can routinely walk over 15 miles a day to get you that Halloween costume by the end of the week. They have to move pretty quickly, too. Workers are held to a countdown clock on handheld device, one that can ask them to cover the distance of a football field in a matter of seconds.

“By many accounts, Amazon operates at a relentless pace,” said Oliver. And it’s not like their rewards system really makes up for the sheer exhaustion that wrecks their employees. In one employee’s account, the prize for pushing themselves to the limit was… a $10.00 gift card to In-n-Out Burger.

We’re not done just yet. Pregnant associates have claimed that they are given next to no accommodations for their condition, like extra bathroom breaks. Even other workers don’t feel like they can use the restroom like normal human beings. There are plenty of other people waiting to take their jobs, which makes their position very tenuous indeed. Supervisors are ready to fire them at what seems like a moment’s notice.

Then, there’s the robots. Automated machines can go pretty wrong, like when one in a New Jersey warehouse pierced a can of bear repellent and then proceeded to super-mace the entire building via the air vents. Almost the same exact thing happened in Texas, too.

What about labor unions? Perhaps organizing would help alleviate some of the labor violations currently going on in these places. Well, wouldn’t you know it, Amazon is hard against unions. Last fall, an internal anti-union video was leaked to the public. “We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers, our shareholders, or, most importantly, our associates,” it said in cheerful tones.

Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, is worth $118 billion, more than anyone else in the world. And he thinks the best way to spend up all that extra money is via his personal space company, Blue Origin. He’s just like Lex Luthor, but disappointingly silly. At least Lex was engaging while he went about being a super villain.

What does it mean to push your workers faster and faster on razor-thin margins? Shouldn’t Bezos divert some of that money to improve working conditions for his employees?

If nothing else, Amazon should cut it out with those cutesy videos and just talk some real talk about how it doesn’t really care about its workers and will ultimately replace them with robots. Oliver produced a facsimile video as an example. Happy Prime Day!