WATCH and explore the Amazon on Staffordshire warehouse tour

Well, now you can see for yourself as the doors to Amazon's 700,000 sq ft Staffordshire depot are being thrown open to the public.

From later this month people will have the chance to go on tours around the facility.

The general public will be allowed into the Rugeley site from March 24.

But it opened its doors for the first time at the weekend with inaugural tours for friends and family of Amazon associates – as well as the Express & Star.

Five tours were run on Saturday, with people given a glimpse of the entire process, from when items arrive at the depot to when they are packaged and sent out to customers.

Visitors were shown along the picking aisles, where goods are kept before being packaged, ranging from from CDs to best-selling books.

And they got to speak to staff about the huge process that begins every time someone clicks 'buy' on the website.

Amazon, which employs more than 117,000 people worldwide, already carries out the tours at fulfilment centres in the US and is looking to expand with its European launch.

"Amazon sold more than 5.5 million items on Black Friday this year at a rate of 64 items per second," said Christopher North, managing director.

"We are now proud to invite our customers to see first-hand how our world-class employees and advanced technology in our fulfilment centres come together to make this magic happen."

Cedric Ross, senior manager of fulfilment at Amazon in the US, flew to the UK to lead the inaugural tours of the facility.

Mr Ross said he believed the tours are an important part of Amazon's business practice.

"I think it is important for out associates, and the general public, to be able to share in what we do here," Mr Ross said.

"Many people drive past places like this in their cars but may not necessarily know what is going on inside.

"With these tours, we can actually show people what happens inside our buildings, from start to finish."

The depot in Rugeley first opened in 2011 and was given a revamp last year to expand the working space inside.

"In just the past few months we have created hundreds of new permanent jobs in our fulfilment centres in the UK and now have more than 7,000 permanent employees," said John Tagawa, director of UK operations at Amazon.

"We are extremely proud of the efforts of everyone who works in our fulfilment centres and opening our workplaces up to these tours is the perfect way to recognise all of their achievements."

Groups and individuals alike can sign up at www.amazonfctours.co.uk for tours at the Rugeley site beginning this week.

Tours are open for anyone over the age of six years. Each tour lasts about one hour and the maximum number of participants is 30 people.

Daniel Waller, who works as an engineer at the depot, brought his seven-year-old son Warren along for the tour.

"I have worked at the centre for just over a year now," Mr Waller said. "Warren has always wanted to see where daddy works so it was great for me to be able to bring him along.

"He lives, sleeps, eats and breathes Minecraft, so I think he got a real buzz out of seeing all the Minecraft stuff on the shelves."

Employees at the fulfilment centre, or associates, as they are known, are also encouraged to share solutions for problems they encounter at work.

Amazon's network in the UK consists of eight fulfilment centres with a total area of more than 5 million square feet. Richard Manning, from Brocton, was invited along for the tour by his son, who works at the centre. "It really is very interesting," said Mr Manning.

"You get to see the inner workings of the place, to see where all the thousands of packages come from.

"The depot was such a fantastic addition to Rugeley and created so many jobs for the area, it is great to see it from the inside."

Jayne Gutteridge, whose husband Kevin works at the site, said: "I now have a much better understanding of how fulfilment centre works.

"I really enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to other people."