In the age of online shopping and express shipping, it's easy to take for granted the work behind an order arriving on our front porch. We simply click a button on our phone, and then, like magic, we find the item we'd selected sitting at our doorstep just days later.

While we believe in the magic of Christmas, we know all too well that it's not always the elves in Santa's workshop nor his fleet of reindeer getting gifts delivered to us on time. Rather, it's hardworking individuals in warehouses and distribution centers all over the country pulling gifts from their shelves and packaging them to be shipped, plus logistics workers and delivery drivers navigating all conditions to transport packages to their final destinations.

Like a well-oiled machine, each worker moves swiftly and purposefully about their own task, whether it’s scanning, driving, lifting, packaging, or loading at one of the operation’s dozens of stations between its receiving docks at the back of the warehouse
and shipping conveyors on the opposite end.

“When I first got here, I didn’t think it’d be that quick,” says Martin Degrate, an order selector at DC55. “...how quickly they get [products] off receiving trucks; how quickly they get them into the spot for the repleners to replen. It’s surprising how quick
the process is actually.”

This fast-moving process all starts with those in the receiving department. As product arrives into the warehouse from suppliers and manufacturers all over the world, it’s met by distribution administrative workers like Ivet Morgan.

“I take in any truck driver that comes through the door, pull weight checks, and make sure dimensions are good so [products] make it to the proper box,” says Ivet of her role in the
receiving office.

Far across the warehouse, beyond the towering stacks of inventory, replenishers ensure that sufficient stock of product is accessible to the team of selectors.

Breanna Covey has worked as a selector for the past 4 years. She describes the role as the “middle person of the whole warehouse,” smackdab in between product arriving into the facility and being shipped out. From a handheld scanner, Breanna knows exactly what footwear or apparel to grab and where to find each item.

“We pick [the products] off shelves,” she says. “Then we put them in specific shipping boxes on our cart, and from there they go to finishing,” It’s in the finishing phase where orders are finally packaged, sealed, labeled, and sent out into the world. In a typical day on the warehouse floor, Breanna walks over 15 miles.

What makes the chaos and physical toll worth it, though, is the knowledge that she’s doing it for others; the knowledge that she’s playing a part in someone’s Christmas present, and contributing towards making someone else’s Christmas merry.