Economics of home delivery

[Hay Dude]

A customer may order ten items at one time but the items are often shipped in ten different packages and quite possibly from ten different warehouses. That’s just the system.

Exactly. Not very " green "

 

[Frankenkubota]

I think your original question had to do with the economics of home delivery. When one delivery truck comes out our way, it is likely stopping at dozens of houses along the way, keeping that many people from each making individual trips...and sometimes having to make second trips because the store did not have an item they needed. That part sounds pretty efficient.

I wish we still had many small retailers around, like the 2 country stores down the road where you could find just about anything...but the shopping malls and increased mobility put them out of business well before the internet was born. We still frequent local businesses but see value in internet shopping. All of our boxes get recycled...we break them down and take them to a container at the "dump"...a county employee told me recently that cardboard was the only thing getting recycled that made money for the county.

Thx for noting the original question was about efficiency, not convenience. Im just curious, I really couldn't care less. I am convinced, there is a correlation between convenience and inefficiency. But I also still believe the sun goes around the earth cause i see it every day.

Just saw on the news a potential problem on the way. Xmas shopping delivery requirements competing for resources with vaccine deliverey.

I vote for vaccines!

 

[deezler]

Surprised to see that no one has mentioned Amazon's new option for combining all your deliveries onto one truck, for Wednesday home delivery. Doesn't always work out, but can lessen the number of trucks bombing down my gravel driveway at least somewhat.

My family of tree huggers use cloth diapers, and so did most of my tree hugger friends. You can't expect us conscientious and educated folks to go take disposable diapers away from everyone else though.

 

[PILOON]

On the side of irony---------

There is presently major efforts to ban plastics, bags, bottles etc

All this home delivery trend is using tons of bubble wrap, peanuts and plastic bags.

I'm wondering what the net result might be.

 

[jjp8182]

At least some places have switched to using water-soluble/biodegradable packing peanuts which (if I'm recalling correctly) are made from cornstarch.

I always have fun dissolving those when they come in ...

 

[wngsprd]

Seems like most of what we receive are packed with various forms of crumpled paper or accordion paper rather than peanuts. Occasionally will get something packed with plastic with big bubbles that is colored green...is this biodegradable?

 

[newbury]

We're buying lots more stuff online this year. Actually, anything I want I have to look it up online and post a picture by email to my wife so she can find it in the store if we go out and get it. She doesn't want me going into the stores because I'm more at risk.

I've been in a 2 person household since January, 16 miles from the nearest store, 40+ miles from the nearest big box store, small city .
When Covid kicked off about March through now I've been the sole shopper. Either SWMBO figures I'm more expendable or more likely to fight it off.
But there were a couple of months there that the biweekly shopping to Walmart for groceries meant a complete scrub down, change and wash of clothing upon return. All incoming and deliveries had to be wiped down with Clorox. It was like coming into a clean room.

She used to do most of the grocery shopping, usually going about twice a week, eating lunch while out ($10 right there). I've pared that down to about twice a month with NO meals out for me (a $40/month savings).

I use Amazon a lot. I find their prices competitive and if not, I order from eBay or another on-line retailer.

Just stupid for me to drive 50+ miles round trip to get to town. I figure a round trip on the truck costs at least $10 and over two hours of time.

About the same for me but it's a 90 mile roundtrip, on a heavily patrolled parkway with top speed of 50.

I think your original question had to do with the economics of home delivery. When one delivery truck comes out our way, it is likely stopping at dozens of houses along the way, keeping that many people from each making individual trips...and sometimes having to make second trips because the store did not have an item they needed. That part sounds pretty efficient.
<snip>

Reminds me of the real old way, where vendors with carts pulled by horses would make their way through the countryside, selling essentials.

I grew up ordering a lot of stuff mail-order. By the time I was about 8 we would put in orders for fishing supplies in early March so we would get out gear for opening of trout season in Vermont.

Now I can pop online and see where the UPS truck is in relation to my house so I can usually track them within 5 minutes of arrival and decide to meet them out in front of the house. Or if it's something heavy or bulky that goes to the workshops (which are 100 yards away), like pallet forks or chain, I can walk down the drive, flag the truck down and they deliver directly to the workshop.

Online I can usually beat the price of in-store except for things sold at Walmart, where we let our orders build up to $35 free shipping.

 

[JethroB]

I still vividly remember getting a royal butt chewing from my dad for making a trip to town (10 miles) for one item. I find myself grouping several items together before placing an order with Amazon. Why be wasteful, even if its not my money?

 

[buck12]

I still vividly remember getting a royal butt chewing from my dad for making a trip to town (10 miles) for one item. I find myself grouping several items together before placing an order with Amazon. Why be wasteful, even if its not my money?

Does Amazon ship those items as one shipment in one box? My experience has been even when I order items at the same time the items often arrive on the same truck but in separate boxes.

 

[deezler]

Does Amazon ship those items as one shipment in one box? My experience has been even when I order items at the same time the items often arrive on the same truck but in separate boxes.

Yeah they often come from different places, so to get them to you as fast as possible, they come separately. But like I said several posts up, on Amazon you can now select to get all your stuff delivered on Wednesdays in a single delivery. Works well for non-crucial supplies/goods.