Black Friday is approaching

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With the promotions around Black Friday and the like, the Christmas business really gets going.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel, stock.adobe)

Black Friday starts on Friday, Cyber Monday three days later and the Black Week offers have been vying for customers' favor for some time anyway! The days of action for bargain hunters herald the start of the high season at the postal logistics center in Allhaming (Upper Austria). And a record is expected this year. Read here what has been done to cope with the flood of parcels.

"It depends on you, how it arrives", can be read on a poster hanging in the postal logistics center in Allhaming, which is intended to underline the importance of the location. These days in particular, it is even more important that every cog in the machine meshes and everything runs as smoothly as possible. "The most important thing is that the goods flow continuously," says Mariusz Wierzbicki.

30,500 parcels per hour are the best in Austria
When it comes to sorting letters and parcels at the site not far from the Westautobahn highway, which has been expanded at a cost of 80 million euros in recent years, the 51-year-old is where it all comes together. Since then, 30,500 parcels per hour can be sorted in Allhaming - an Austrian record.

What's in store for employees and machines around Black Friday on November 29 and Cyber Monday on December 2, when bargain hunters will be in top form and Christmas sales will pick up speed? "We are expecting massive increases," says Wierzbicki.

When you sort 30,000 parcels an hour, what happens to them afterwards is just as important - that's the challenge.

Mariusz Wierzbicki, Leiter des Post-Logistikzentrums in Allhaming

Last year, 324,000 parcels were sorted and distributed on individual days
Specifically: Swiss Post expects 400,000 parcels to be sorted and distributed in Allhaming on peak days. The record from the previous year was 324,000 parcels. How will the enormous increase in parcels be managed this year? Measures have been implemented step by step. An additional shift was introduced, temporary workers were brought on board and the workforce in parcel and letter sorting grew to almost 500 employees during the peak season.

Experts are expecting a huge rush on Black Friday offers, which have also found their way into bricks-and-mortar retail: "Customers are particularly keen to take advantage of shopping days, especially in times when their wallets are not quite so loose," says retail spokesman Rainer Will. A study by the Institute for Retail, Sales and Marketing at Johannes Kepler University in Linz says that 44% of consumers between the ages of 16 and 74 wait for Black Friday to buy a particular product at a lower price.

Logistics center manager about facilities: "This is a Ferrari"
Wierzbicki believes the team is well prepared, and the technology is top-notch anyway: "We have a high-performance sorter here - it's a Ferrari that you have to know how to drive." The conveying and sorting systems in Allhaming are running almost around the clock these days: they only stop between 6 and 8 a.m. so that the technicians can carry out maintenance work and any repairs.