Returned Amazon packages create a retail nightmare for workers at Staples, UPS,

When Amazon signed deals to turn brick-and-mortar retail stores into Amazon drop-off points, it was supposed to be a win-win: easier returns would mean happier customers while bringing more foot traffic into ailing retail locations. But store employees say the “Amazombies” have become a plague on their working lives, wasting staff time without increasing revenue while creating long lines, frayed tempers, and mounting piles of boxes and plastic waste. Some UPS Store and Kohl’s locations have had to allocate additional staff just to handle the workload.

Amazon “makes up about one-tenth of our profits, but it takes up about 90 percent of the working day,” said Jeremy Walker, a store associate who worked at a UPS Store near Dallas that received between 300 and 600 returns per day.

As the de facto human face of Amazon, these retail employees bear the brunt of customer frustration, even though they have no direct line of communication with the company, Walker said. But the reason he ultimately started looking for a new job was to escape the mindless consumption.

“What we’re doing with all these returns, all the plastic,” he said. “It eats at me.”

The allure of free returns has played a big part in getting consumers addicted to online shopping. UPS Stores have long accepted Amazon returns, and Whole Foods began taking them shortly after Amazon acquired it in 2017. Kohl’s was next, in 2018, with Staples following last year. These deals with the same retailers whose businesses were decimated by the rise of e-commerce made returns even easier: In 2023, Americans racked up $247 billion in online returns, according to the National Retail Federation.

Last year, some UPS stores started charging about $1 per package they handle. Staples and Kohl’s stores do it free, however, hoping it will lead to more in-store purchases, according to store employees.

But retail workers told The Washington Post that the increased stress, labor hours and cost of materials make that a bad bet, especially during peak periods like Prime Day — which last week saw millions of Amazon Prime members ordering a record number of products from the site.

At Staples, the burden of turning “Amazombies” into Staples customers is on the workers, who hand out store coupons, between 15 percent and 20 percent of which they’re expected to turn into sales, two Staples workers told The Post.

Joseph Mobley, a former manager of a Staples in Tallahassee, said the company is “counting on that to save the business.” But many shoppers have moved online permanently.

“There’s a reason why they shopped on Amazon and went online to begin with: They’re not brick-and-mortar shoppers,” he said. “And having a hot deal for Charmin toilet paper for $18.99 marked down from $21.99 isn’t going to turn them into a Staples shopper.”

UPS Store spokeswoman Casey Sorrell said the company has a “productive relationship” with Amazon but does not “discuss the details of our business arrangements.” Kohl’s spokeswoman Jen Johnson said the company values its associates “for creating a great experience” and listens to any feedback.

Amazon spokeswoman Maria Boschetti said that Amazon “customers value the convenience of returning products at partner locations, and our partners tell us that operating these programs boosts their businesses.” She added that the company works with each retailer to prepare for the volume of returns and staffing levels. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

While most “Amazombies” bring one or two items, some shuffle in bearing more than a dozen, and a few bring as many as 50, workers said. The returns have to be scanned, sometimes with an individual code for each item, labeled, bagged, and boxed for pickup. Often, customers are returning an item of clothing they ordered in multiple sizes.

When Staples stores in Florida started taking Amazon returns last August, Mobley said “it was a flood,” with some stores getting as many as 1,000 a week.

The UPS Store in Texas had to add two extra employees to deal with Amazon returns, and the Staples store in Tallahassee recently allotted eight paid hours per week for Amazon returns.

During the lunchtime rush on a recent July day at the Kohl’s in Pleasant Hill, customers returning Amazon packages took the escalator to the second floor at a steady clip. The walls of the customer service area were lined with cardboard boxes of Amazon returns that an employee said used to be stored behind the counter, but had to be moved so workers wouldn’t trip.

When one customer came in with a shopping cart full of clothes to return, the attendant at the customer service desk called for backup to deal with the growing line. One of those customers, Ashley Sidney, was returning a portable air conditioner. She said she returns Amazon items at Kohl’s all the time, and loves the speed of the refunds. “It’s usually in my account before I get to the front door,” she said.

In theory, dropping off an Amazon return at these third-party retailers is easy.

“If you have your QR code ready, and if the scanner is working like it should, and if you…