Amazon stopped sorting stows by type and stored any item anywhere

Fulfillment centers traditionally stored each product in a fixed slot, so pickers could learn a layout. The trouble is that demand is lumpy: a popular item fills one area while another sits empty, and a single spike can overwhelm a whole section.

Amazon's switch to 'random stow' came out of that failure mode. Instead of assigning a slot by product, a stower puts each unit in the next free bin and records the location. A beach towel can end up next to batteries and frying pans.

The point is that the system tracks every item, so proximity is what matters. When an order arrives, the picker closest to that item gets the job. The warehouse no longer needs a fixed place for a product; it needs a fast way to find it.

This is organized chaos, not disorder — the randomness is in where things are stored, not in whether the system can locate them.