Postal workers at one of Royal Mail’s biggest distribution sites have been gearing up for Black Friday orders ahead of the huge sales frenzy.
Staff are on the front line as British shoppers are expected to spend almost £10 billion on deals this weekend.
Discounted tech, clothes and furniture are among the items being prepared for shipment across the country.
Pictures inside the Royal Mail’s postal centre in Greenford, west London, show tens of thousands of parcels being processed.
The site uses huge sorting machines that break each item down by postcode and sort them into suitable piles for posting.
Staff at the site are tasked with ensuring the smooth running of the operation so that Black Friday orders will reach the correct address on time.
British shoppers will spend a record £9.4 billion this Black Friday weekend – with almost two-thirds of purchases made online, according to research by Statistica.
Overall, Black Friday sales are forecast to rise by 18% compared to last year.
Royal Mail has advertised vacancies for seasonal mail sorters at its Greenford site, with staff being paid £13.45 an hour for day shifts and £15.75 an hour for nights.
The hiring surge comes ahead of Christmas, the postal service’s busiest time of year, with workers at the London site likely to process over a million parcels and letters each day.
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