From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Warehouse

Rob Hart

Start date: April 15, 2023

Finish date: May 1, 2023

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Discussion leader: Gertie

Why we're reading this: Discussion opens May 1st, read book anytime before then.
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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

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What Members Thought

Jan 13, 2024 🥀 Rose 🥀 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-reads, dystopian-speculative-fiction

A very realistic and topical subject, however it left me deeply unsatisfied. This is a dystopian setting where one company Cloud (replace with Amazon) is basically one of the only places left to work at. It has eaten away all other businesses and world outside of it is bleak. Apparently climate change has made the world harsher along with a lot of unemployment . If you can snag a job at Cloud, they provide you with work, no money but credits. You live where you work in a tiny apartment with shar ...more

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Oct 05, 2019 Richard Cox rated it it was amazing

One thing you should know about The Warehouse is that you are the antagonist. Assuming you make online purchases from large organizations like the one that runs this Web site, for example.

But don't feel too bad. You are not the only antagonist. I'm also one, millions of us are, because we are consumers of mass-produced goods sold by corporations that exist in order to turn a profit.

The Warehouse is an excellent novel that explores the possible direction our economy and the world itself could go One thing you should know about The Warehouse is that you are the antagonist. Assuming you make online purchases from large organizations like the one that runs this Web site, for example.

But don't feel too bad. You are not the only antagonist. I'm also one, millions of us are, because we are consumers of mass-produced goods sold by corporations that exist in order to turn a profit.

The Warehouse is an excellent novel that explores the possible direction our economy and the world itself could go if capitalism is not managed in a way that benefits more of us. The natural outcome of trying to deliver goods with smaller and smaller margins is to consolidate and cut costs in every way possible. This story takes place in the near future and features an online retailer, Cloud, that is so powerful it enjoys a dominant relationship with governments, including (and especially that of) the United States. Cloud's warehouses are staffed, surprisingly, by humans who are expected to pick merchandise at a rate that means they are basically running for the duration of their work shift. Bathroom breaks are discouraged and so is being sick. Any misstep (literal or otherwise) risks lowering your quality score (a star rating system similar to the one used to rate books here), and if your score drifts too low, you risk being fired. Also, it's impossible to have a perfect star rating because, let's be realistic, no one is perfect.

My favorite character is the billionaire founder of Cloud, Gibson Wells. His point-of-view is told through a series of blogs he writes that describe his motivation for creating the retailer and how he chooses to run the business. The interesting thing about Wells is that he seems to truly believe he is a force of good in the world, that he has saved all of us from disaster by implementing policies that on the surface sound benevolent but in reality are profoundly authoritarian. He pretends to support a democratic world view but runs his business like a monarchy. This cognitive dissonance radiates off the page and I loved it.

The challenge presented by The Warehouse is not easily solved. It's difficult to fault consumers in the developed world for buying items from a retailer that usually offers the best prices and delivers those products to your door. Humans can barely be bothered to solve problems staring them in the face, so expecting the average person to imagine the bad being done by their need to consume seems unrealistic to me. The problem is that rich and powerful stakeholders know this and use it to their advantage. With wages in developed nations mostly stagnant (especially here in the U.S.), even upper-middle class families purchase from discount retailers whenever they can. Personally, I suspect this arrangement is unsustainable and that at some point there will be a reckoning. The one question I couldn't get out of my mind as I read the novel was, Who is buying all the stuff? A tiny fraction of the wealthy? Oligarchs may want to pay their workers a pittance, but with no disposable income, eventually the market for goods will dry up.

I can't predict the future, but Rob Hart's excellent new novel explores a very real one, and it's frightening. ...more

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Sep 26, 2019 Ashley FL rated it really liked it

This is a very very bizarre book. Dystopian, I guess? It brought to mind different cultural references at different times, but to discuss them here would be spoiler-y, I think. I guess I enjoyed it? Definitely a biting commentry on our time (my watch ALREADY tells me what to do!). Poignant, unsettling, perhaps inadvertently funny. I can't really think who I'd recommend it to, but I enjoyed it. ...more

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