See inside Amazon's massive Midland warehouse as it counts down to Christmas - VIDEO & PICTURES

With endless rows of towering shelves if Father Christmas has a warehouse, then we imagine it would look like Amazon's fulfilment centre in Rugeley.

It is the ultimate Santa's grotto.

The giant site, in the shadows of the defunct power station cooling towers, is gearing up for its busiest Christmas yet.

Four thousand temporary staff have been taken on joining the 1,500 permanent workers, known as associates, to stow, pick, pack, and ship hundreds of thousands of items every day.

It sounds odd to describe a building that is 700,000 square foot as a Tardis – but that is exactly the effect it has once you take a step inside the superstructure.

It is one thing passing it on the A51, but to be inside is simply breathtaking.

You feel like you are in some top secret military bunker.

Parcels whizz on conveyor belts swooshing over your head, under your feet, and to your sides.

An army of pickers and packers are dispersed over the sprawling site like ants scuttling around their nest.

And mountains of cardboard are dotted around like the peaks of the Andes.

The impressive operation is overseen by general manager Mark Hemming, a former JLR worker who hails from Tipton.

"It really is incredible," he says with a beaming smile on his face.

"I spent the last 20 years of my career working in the automotive trade in operations and production lines and this place really is something else. I walk around and am constantly amazed by what is going on.

"Also you see so many products that make you think 'Oh, I need that!'."

Standing on a platform above one of the many conveyor belts, dozens of parcels big and small pass below ready to make their journey to someone's front door.

The building opened in 2011 on the site of the former Lea Hall Colliery.

It is now by far the town's biggest employer.

And in the past year the site has been expanded inside by a third to allow the company to stow thousands of more products – particularly those of small business owners selling via Amazon Marketplace.

Every day, scores of lorries arrive with products.

These are unpacked and stowed in a vast corridor of shelving that would shame the British Library.

The items are stored completely randomly.

You'll find cups next to footballs, Angry Bird toys next to weighing scales, and books next to Lego.

Everything is tracked by an advanced bar code system. Pickers armed with a handheld scanner have orders zapped to their devices telling them the closest items to them and where they are.

"The pickers are collecting items from different orders," says Mark, who now lives in Shropshire.

"So different packers could be working on the same order if there are multiple items. It works by pinpointing the nearest picker to the items.

"If the items need to be grouped with other products for a multiple order then they are matched later in the process."

Once collected and placed in black boxes pushed around on trolleys, the items are then sent on their way to be packed – via conveyor belt of course.

Waiting is a horde of packers.

The item's bar code tells them which box they need and a machine automatically knows just the right amount of tape needed to seal the package.

From there the items go back onto a conveyor belt (again) where scanners ping them off down different chutes into large boxes according to the geography of their destination. Then they are placed onto lorries to sorting centres to enter the postal system.

Many of Amazon's latest high-tech warehouses have robot pickers and automated shelves that move about – but not in Rugeley. Not yet, anyway.

Amazon's model has transformed the way we shop. It's simple and you can do it from the comfort of your home.

On Black Friday (the last Friday in November) last year Amazon in the UK was making 64 sales every minute, equating to more than 5.5 million items.

Last year alone the company had £85 billion in net global sales last year which represented huge growth of 20 per cent.

Internationally it now has 230,800 employees with 186 million customers each month.

The Staffordshire site is known as BHX1, taking its name from the code of Birmingham Airport. It means every Amazon worker in the world knows the closest international airport to the warehouse if they need to travel to it. BHX2 has just opened in Coalville, Leicestershire.

As we walk through one of the packing lines, music plays through the sound system and a group of 'workers' breakout into dance.

It's a flashmob. The dancers have spent the day embedded among the staff to surprise them.

"Throughout the peak season we do fun things like this for our associates," says Mark, aged 43.

"We have milkshake days, Christmas jumper days, and so on. We love making it a fun place."

On Black Friday the firm also puts on hamburgers, hot dogs, and vegetarian alternatives for its employees.

"Christmas is a great time of year for us," says Mark.

"We love it. It is all about what we can do for our customers.

"Our associates know how important Christmas is to everybody. It is important to them too and it is a great feeling that we are helping people share in that joy.

"It is a special time of year generally and it is an important time of year for us here at Amazon.

"Here is a very customer focused place to work and it is a really magical time.

"It is my job to make sure we meet the customers' needs whether it be someone at home or one of our Marketplace sellers."

And it may surprise you to learn that Amazon's Rugeley centre is also one of the county's biggest tourist destinations with bosses struggling to meet demand for tours.

"The tours have been a massive surprise," says Mark.

"When we first announced we would be doing tours we were lampooned in some quarters but people love them.

"And we love having them in to see what we are about.

"It is amazing how many people want to come in and see how everything works.

"We get a lot of customers come, especially the Amazon Marketplace sellers. And it is great to hear their feedback."

And the way Amazon is delivering its products is changing with the introduction of Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime is an annual membership programme which offers users unlimited access to a bank of movies, films, music and e-books, for a fixed monthly fee.

Services vary from unlimited music streaming to one-hour delivery on your Amazon orders for a set £79 a year.

Prime members are also granted unlimited streaming of 15,000 movies and TV episodes, and access to 800,000 Kindle books. More recently, members can now order their groceries online – and take part in an exclusive Prime Day shopping event.

And of course this year the American shopping giant signed up Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May from Top Gear. The motormouth trio have just returned to our screens, on Amazon Prime, with The Grand Tour.

And Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post.

"Amazon Prime is changing things," says Mark.

"Next day delivery is a really big thing for a lot of our customers and we have to be up to that challenge.

"Also we offer delivery within one and two hours.

"My favourite story is that we had an order for a PlayStation controller on Christmas Eve last year at 10pm.

"You can just imagine what was going on in that house," he smiles.

"They were wrapping the PlayStation and then realised that there was only one controller and their son or daughter wouldn't be able to play with anyone.

"So they logged on and got a second controller delivered within an hour.

"I have recently become a father to a young daughter and when you have kids you suddenly realise you need things at the worst possible time.

"So I am constantly buying nappies and the like at midnight with it arriving just a couple of hours later.

"We are always adapting to meet our customer's needs and we will continue to change."

Amazon launched in the US in 1994 then Amazon.co.uk hit the web in 1998.

And with just a click of a mouse, the history of shopping changed for ever.

By Rob Golledge