That video of the Amazon facility would be extra special if this were true (from the article): "When we told people were going to do this, someone said 'Whenever I click the order button on Amazon, I always imagine a chorus of happy, singing Oompa-Loompas riding around on Segways and shipping my stuff.'
More seriously, the idea of using traveling RV nomads as workers definitely qualifies as a hack. Who would have known that they'd make reliable employees given that based on the article you'd think they're effectively being paid an amount that would make them volunteers compared to their previous jobs? As an aside have you seen the systems made by http://www.kivasystems.com/? They have a number of videos on youtube.