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Amazon Takes Fresh Stab At $16 Billion Housekeeping Industry (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-kid-in-town dept.

PolygamousRanchKid shares a report from Bloomberg: Amazon is quietly hiring house cleaners in Seattle as direct employees. The online retailer is swapping the low cost of contract workers for the greater control of employing its own people. Doing so puts it on the hook for things like minimum wage, workers compensation and overtime pay. But it also lets Amazon determine how the workers are trained, which cleaning products they use and how they organize their schedules. Amazon's experiment signals it's concerned that saving money by using independent contractors can compromise the customer experience and make it just another online matchmaker. So it's conducting a trial to see if investing in its own housekeepers will differentiate its services by linking them more directly to the popular Amazon brand. The new housecleaning service, Amazon Home Assistants, offers home cleanings in Seattle that vary in price by the size of the home and frequency of visits. A weekly cleaning of a 1,500-square-foot home runs about $156.

6 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. It's got nothing to do with control by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    there have been several lawsuits over this. The independent contractors have more or less won the right to minimum wage. There's no point to hiring a contracting firm if they can't abuse their employees.

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    1. Re:It's got nothing to do with control by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

      No.

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  2. $16 Billion, my glow-in-the-dark-ass by rmdingler · · Score: 2
    I suspect the housekeeping market is largely for unreported cash, and by independent contractors who don't need Amazon or another corporate behemoth pimping their gigs.

    If the figures are for the domestic industry, puntended, that's $16,000,000,000 / 325,000,000 (US population) for a total of $49 per person, per year... hogwash.

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  3. You know what this means... by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Funny

    Housecleaners on demand, descending from the sky from drones like a futuristic Mary Poppins!

    Or possibly more like a Starship Trooper drop suit...

    The great thing is, if someone in your house mentions how messy your place is a housecleaner just shows up! No need to let her in thanks to Amazon Key.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  4. The Business Model - Maybe by turp182 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Schedule based on Amazon orders in a given area (with cleaning requests as well),. Send an Amazon delivery truck with 2-3 teams of cleaners and packages for that area. Cleaners clean, delivery people deliver.

    I think the key is geographic consolidation, but cleaners being able to deliver could be a reasonable part of it (I'm not sure if that would be legal, not sure why it wouldn't...).

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  5. Another Way In by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I fully expect Amazon to start 3D mapping your house and everything in it. They'll do it for your security, cameras on the cleaners to prove they aren't stealing anything. Then they'll use the videos for profiling the types of things you like. Then they'll offer a virtual furniture makeover. And finally a percentage of your house sale when you list it through Amazon and use their virtual walk-through.

    Guess what. These cleaners can deliver your and your neighbor's Amazon purchases when they visit too. They can even pick up things you're selling through Amazon.