[pervycreeper]

He doesn't specify exactly how cubbies are selected at the "inbound" stage, beyond saying it's random. I assume it's left up to the associate's own whims and judgements? I imagine the "no identical items in adjacent cubbies" rule improves the potential for picking the same item in parallel while preventing too much concentration, improving availability from different locations. I wonder what other constraints they are given for this stage.

[Lunarsm]

It is indeed quite random. Each stower has a rate, and in order for us to make that rate, we can stow in almost any bin. Some other constraints include using the smallest bin possible for each item and not stowing heavy items up high (the scanner restricts stowing "heavy" items up top).

[jonah]

He also implied that the entire stock of an item isn't in the same place. This makes sense - the computer will tell the picker to get an item from the location that's closest to the rest of the items they're picking at that time.

So, you'd think there would be some logic to how the items were distributed and not just the whim of the associate. (Or maybe that's good enough.)