Big box stores sometimes hire contractors to put together all kinds of things in their stores. The guy who sells the contract to the big box store hires out the actual assembly to whomever they can get for ten bucks an hour. The assembler is a subcontractor, meaning he is not an employee, so no taxes are paid on his behalf, and he's probably not "bonded and insured", either. He's probably young, someone who needed a job and would be doing something else if he didn't "know a guy".

I know all this because my son did it for a time. He was the kid who "knew a guy", but he didn't assemble bikes. He assembled furniture and other stuff for Target.

Karen