Amazon Responds To Complaints About Poor Working Conditions In Warehouses

Matthew Panzarino, writing for The Next Web:

We reached out to Amazon to see if it had any thoughts regarding these claims and it replied to us with this statement:

At Amazon, the safety and well-being of our employees is our number one priority. We have several procedures in place to ensure the safety of our associates during the summer heat, including increased breaks, shortened shifts, constant reminders and help about hydration, and extra ice machines. Our fulfillment team was dealing with record hot temperatures this past summer. We have air conditioning in some FC’s – Phoenix, AZ for example — but we haven’t historically had air conditioning in our east coast fulfillment centers. We’re in the process of adding air conditioning to additional FC’s so that we’re prepared in case what we saw this past summer becomes the new normal.

Inside an Amazon Warehouse

Spencer Soper, reporting for The Morning Call on the working conditions in Amazon’s Allentown, PA warehouse:

During summer heat waves, Amazon arranged to have paramedics parked in ambulances outside, ready to treat any workers who dehydrated or suffered other forms of heat stress. Those who couldn’t quickly cool off and return to work were sent home or taken out in stretchers and wheelchairs and transported to area hospitals. And new applicants were ready to begin work at any time. An emergency room doctor in June called federal regulators to report an “unsafe environment” after he treated several Amazon warehouse workers for heat-related problems. The doctor’s report was echoed by warehouse workers who also complained to regulators, including a security guard who reported seeing pregnant employees suffering in the heat. via John Gruber.

HP's One-Year Plan

Al Lewis, writing for the Wall Street Journal:

Let's say you were given a year to kill Hewlett-Packard. Here's how you do it. Scathing criticism of HP's management over the past few years.

Stop Coddling The Super-Rich

Warren Buffet, writing an op-ed piece in the New York Times says that we need to raise taxes on all income over $1 million per year:

I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

Adobe Admits Defeat: Shuts Down App Stores

Sarah Perez, writing for ReadWriteWeb:

Adobe is shutting down two of its app stores dedicated to mobile and desktop application distribution, Adobe InMarket and the Adobe AIR Marketplace. The decision, the company says, was based on developer feedback. Adobe says it will now focus its efforts on helping developers publish their apps on multiple platforms, including official app stores like Apple's iTunes, Google's Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Intel's AppUp, Samsung Apps and Toshiba App Place. I had never heard of these two App stores until today.

Apple Reports Third Quarter Results

Today Apple reported their third quarter financial results. M.G Siegler at Techcrunch has a nice writeup of the key points from the conference call with reporters. Macworld has a lot of pretty charts and graphs too.

The Price Of "Free"

Richard Muscat, writing at Serious Simplicity:

My contention is that “Free” as described and used in many contemporary web-based businesses is a non-business model that is not only broken, but actively harmful to entrepreneurship. Free rarely works, and all the times that it doesn’t, it undermines entrepreneurial creativity, destroys market value, delivers an inferior user experience and pumps hot air into financial bubbles. I think this piece hits it out of the park. Why should you price your product as a pay-for-service or good? This article lays out all of the reasons and why free should never be your decision.

Apple's Retail VP To Be New J.C. Penny CEO

Joshua Schnell writing for Macgasm:

J.C. Penney has a new CEO today, and they’ve poached him from Apple Inc.. Ron Johnson, the man responsible for Apple’s retail experience, will now be occupying the CEO position at J.C. Penney. Think about that for a second, J.C. Penney could become cool again. Okay, probably not. But, It seems like Ron Johnson is putting his money where his mouth is today, according to the J.C. Penney press release he has committed to making a personal investment of $50 million in the Company “through the purchase, at fair market value, of 7 1/3-year warrants on 7.257 million shares of J.C. Penney Company stock.” Putting his money where his mouth is. If he can do for JC Penny what he did for Apple, this is a huge gain for J.C. Penny.