Wow, I think Amazon set a record

[walaby]

Originally Posted by babock

LOL..what post office? Almost ALL my Amazon deliveries are done by Amazon themselves or their contractor.

The distribution center that is near you has to have that particular item that you ordered obviously for it to be sent from there.

They ship using UPS mostly, secondarily USPS (especially on Sunday deliveries) and sometimes even FEDEX.


How packages get from Amazon to home


https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-f...ur-front-door/
Amazon trailer trucks, carrying more than 2,000 boxes at a time, bring orders from fulfillment centers to sortation centers, where packages are distributed by location and the required delivery speed. From here, they could be loaded onto a variety of transportation modes, from Amazon trucks and planes to carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service.

Of course the distro center needs to have it to be sent from there. But, considering I have ordered lots of stuff from Amazon and get it no faster with a distro center up the road than before, leads me to believe that really doesn't matter.


Mike

[babock]

Originally Posted by walaby

They ship using UPS mostly, secondarily USPS (especially on Sunday deliveries) and sometimes even FEDEX.


How packages get from Amazon to home


https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-f...ur-front-door/
Amazon trailer trucks, carrying more than 2,000 boxes at a time, bring orders from fulfillment centers to sortation centers, where packages are distributed by location and the required delivery speed. From here, they could be loaded onto a variety of transportation modes, from Amazon trucks and planes to carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service.

Of course the distro center needs to have it to be sent from there. But, considering I have ordered lots of stuff from Amazon and get it no faster with a distro center up the road than before, leads me to believe that really doesn't matter.


Mike

I am quite aware how they ship. Depends on where you live. Here in the Los Angeles area, over half of my shipments are done by Amazon themselves. If you live in a smaller city, all is different.

BTW, the info you have is old. FedEx no longer ships for Amazon.

As of August of this year 46% of shipments were done by Amazon itself according to this article...that was 4 months ago!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriac.../#c208f1b68f45

Since you live in Middle Georgia, it's going to take longer for you vs a big city.

[walaby]

I will say when I order car parts from Summit Racing, I can orde and it will be here next day, even when ordered on Sunday night after store closed. Summit is about 60 miles away.


Mike

[just4u_cara]

Originally Posted by 5picker

I think it is just a sign of the times.

Our shopping online (not just Amazon) has gone up every year for the last 5 or 6 years.

As much as I hate it for the Mom & Pop stores, we consumers no longer have to pay more money for something than we have to and have a much broader selection to go with that. Gone are the days of settling for "it will work" or "it's close enough to what I wanted" when you went somewhere to buy something.

And for me, my money is more important inside MY pocket than someone else's.

We live an hour from the city, I'd rather do the browsing (and shopping) from the comfort of my couch, than deal with the crowds and attitudes of shoppers & shopkeepers. And when there aren't a lot of $$ to go around, I need to get the best deal I can.

As much as I thought this when I was 14, money, in fact, does NOT grow on trees and get magically replaced in the bank account.

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by mikel68

Attachment 220466

LOL, I despise Fedex. For when it absolutely, positively, has to be lost overnight!

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by upflying

Sounds like Amazon has a lot of employment opportunities in order fulfillment and delivery occupations.
We are seeing the future of shopping. Unfortunately mom and pop storefronts will be victims.

I know that this is often said but pause a moment and look back.

When I was a young kid in the 40's we still had a milk man drive his horse drawn wagon down the alley where I lived delivering milk. He'd go pick up the crate of bottles from our back porch, read the order for the next week, go to his wagon and when he had the crate filled with the new order would signal his horse to move on. He's run to the back porch with the fresh milk and meet up with his horse and wagon at the next door neighbors gate.

Progress made horses, wagons, and milkmen obsolete.

How about all the Typewriter factories and sales people, not to mention repair people.

The list could go on forever because Progress always renders some industries and occupations obsolete.

Amazon is merely another part of the never ending evolution of business. The economy of scale Amazon presents gives us unlimited selection from our home and more often than not at lower cost.

Not ALL "Mom and Pop" stores will go out of business. This was the fear locally when Home Depot and Lowes opened up. Funny thing though. 15 years later (maybe more) the local lumber yard and hardware store is growing. They adapted and provided something that the Big Box stores couldn't. Personal Service.

An example, when I bought new flooring for my house I got a bid from HD. Also got one from the "Local" flooring store. With all the screwing around at HD, getting scheduled for measurement, two hours of someone walking through my house taking measurements and diddling with hos computer supported by a neck strap, waiting for a week to get a fixed price I decided to go "Local".

The local guy came in with a pad of paper and tape measure. 30 minutes later he walked out with measurements. BTW, he came and measured later in the afternoon when I called. I selected my flooring and a week later it was delivered. Installation was perfect and I ENDED UP WITH BETTER PRODUCT for exactly $200 more than the HD final quote.

It's my belief that the Mom and Pop's that evolve as the market does will survive. Just like all the small tire shops that survived Sears, Discount, Costco, and all the other huge chain outlets.

FWIW, Amazon is creating lots of job opportunities for individual businesses. How much do we buy from the "Amazon Marketplace". Those businesses have world-wide exposure without the huge retail space costs and huge advertising budgets.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

I know that this is often said but pause a moment and look back.

When I was a young kid in the 40's we still had a milk man drive his horse drawn wagon down the alley where I lived delivering milk. He'd go pick up the crate of bottles from our back porch, read the order for the next week, go to his wagon and when he had the crate filled with the new order would signal his horse to move on. He's run to the back porch with the fresh milk and meet up with his horse and wagon at the next door neighbors gate.

Progress made horses, wagons, and milkmen obsolete.

How about all the Typewriter factories and sales people, not to mention repair people.

The list could go on forever because Progress always renders some industries and occupations obsolete.

Amazon is merely another part of the never ending evolution of business. The economy of scale Amazon presents gives us unlimited selection from our home and more often than not at lower cost.

Not ALL "Mom and Pop" stores will go out of business. This was the fear locally when Home Depot and Lowes opened up. Funny thing though. 15 years later (maybe more) the local lumber yard and hardware store is growing. They adapted and provided something that the Big Box stores couldn't. Personal Service.

An example, when I bought new flooring for my house I got a bid from HD. Also got one from the "Local" flooring store. With all the screwing around at HD, getting scheduled for measurement, two hours of someone walking through my house taking measurements and diddling with hos computer supported by a neck strap, waiting for a week to get a fixed price I decided to go "Local".

The local guy came in with a pad of paper and tape measure. 30 minutes later he walked out with measurements. BTW, he came and measured later in the afternoon when I called. I selected my flooring and a week later it was delivered. Installation was perfect and I ENDED UP WITH BETTER PRODUCT for exactly $200 more than the HD final quote.

It's my belief that the Mom and Pop's that evolve as the market does will survive. Just like all the small tire shops that survived Sears, Discount, Costco, and all the other huge chain outlets.

FWIW, Amazon is creating lots of job opportunities for individual businesses. How much do we buy from the "Amazon Marketplace". Those businesses have world-wide exposure without the huge retail space costs and huge advertising budgets.

Mike, I agree 100% with everything you said but this paragraph.

We live in small town rural America.
When the Lowe's & Walmarts moved in ALL our local hardware, paint, 84 Lumber and department stores closed. They simply could not compete with the MEGA buying power of the big boys. All the personalized service in the world could not keep them open.

Consequently, we have blocks after blocks that have become a ghost town.
Restaurants have closed because no one is in town, About the only thing that has survived in town are banks. The mega stores are now on the outskirts of town and thrive there but everything else is gone, even grocery stores.

Again, not disagreeing that evolution isn't part of today's landscape, it certainly is and I've stated my point on that a few posts back.

Saying Mom & Pops will survive if they evolve isn't holding true in our area.

[HONDAMAN174]

On the other side of things, Buy and Large (Amazon) has helped me get my money back from them for items I ordered wrong. It used to cost 7-8 bucks to return things to pay for shipping cause they were not at fault. Now I can drop it off at a UPS store or Kohl’s and I have it credited to my account usually within an hour. Once, I was alerted before I made it back to the car. So instead of throwing in a pile or away and wasting the cash, they have made a way for me to touch and feel it by ordering it first.

[D W]

Originally Posted by JWood422

My South Carolina state flag spare tire cover I ordered from Amazon was delivered from China. Makes no sense.
Attachment 220458

Most of what Amazon sells comes from China. China can manufacture, mass produce and ship it to the US for pennies on the dollar compared to what it would cost to manufacture it and market here in the US. Why? Business Taxes, Labor Costs, Payroll Taxes and Employee Benefits.

50 years ago everything was Made in Japan. Now it's China.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by walaby

I have a distribution center 15 minutes up the road and it still takes me days to get my stuff. It's definitely within drone distance.



Im not conviinced being close to a distro center does anything for you. At least thus far. It still has to get to the post office, and then out for delivery.


Mike

Amazon's own delivery vans are doing more and more deliveries here. At least they'll deliver packages to my door, because our post office person won't.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Amazon's own delivery vans are doing more and more deliveries here. At least they'll deliver packages to my door, because our post office person won't.

We live in a rural area and are on a vehicle mail delivery route. The Amazon packages that are delivered by USPS are also delivered by our same rural mail route delivery person.

We live back off the main road and our mailbox is a pretty far hike from the house to the main road where it is located. Our mail carrier will drive all the way back our lane and deliver the Amazon package but WILL NOT give us our other mail when doing so. Says they are required by law to leave it in the mailbox.

So we get front door delivery of Amazon stuff that is delivered by USPS but not our regular USPS mail. The power of Amazon!

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by 5picker

We live in a rural area and are on a vehicle mail delivery route. The Amazon packages that are delivered by USPS are also delivered by our same rural mail route delivery person.

We live back off the main road and our mailbox is a pretty far hike from the house to the main road where it is located. Our mail carrier will drive all the way back our lane and deliver the Amazon package but WILL NOT give us our other mail when doing so. Says they are required by law to leave it in the mailbox.

So we get front door delivery of Amazon stuff that is delivered by USPS but not our regular USPS mail. The power of Amazon!

Our rural post office delivery person will NOT deliver any packages to our house, Amazon or not. They refuse to drive up our driveway or walk up it.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by 5picker

We live in a rural area and are on a vehicle mail delivery route. The Amazon packages that are delivered by USPS are also delivered by our same rural mail route delivery person.

We live back off the main road and our mailbox is a pretty far hike from the house to the main road where it is located. Our mail carrier will drive all the way back our lane and deliver the Amazon package but WILL NOT give us our other mail when doing so. Says they are required by law to leave it in the mailbox.

So we get front door delivery of Amazon stuff that is delivered by USPS but not our regular USPS mail. The power of Amazon!

Originally Posted by bikendan

Our rural post office delivery person will NOT deliver any packages to our house, Amazon or not. They refuse to drive up our driveway or walk up it.

Interesting. A few days ago my mailman got out of his truck and left a package and all my mail (rubber-banded to the package) on my front door step.

I live in the 'burbs.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

Interesting. A few days ago my mailman got out of his truck and left a package and all my mail (rubber-banded to the package) on my front door step.

I live in the 'burbs.

In rural areas, mail delivery and trash pickup often will not occur at your house. You have to drive to a major road to get to a group of mailboxes or to drop off your trash containers.
I'm only about a city block from the main street but neither will come down the gravel road.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by bikendan

In rural areas, mail delivery and trash pickup often will not occur at your house. You have to drive to a major road to get to a group of mailboxes or to drop off your trash containers.
I'm only about a city block from the main street but neither will come down the gravel road.

My post office claims I'm on a "rural route." Guess some are more rural than others.

[ard58]

Originally Posted by Oldboy

Same day... Yes. Ordered yesterday at 7pm. On door step 8am this morning. I'm an Amazon junkie. They are going to put a serious dent in retail.

My family is same. Why not! We live in a very small town. 20 minutes to town with grocery store, 1 hour to city with everything. Time lost, plus gas. Order from home, and wait for delivery. Even ordering from grocery store for curb side pickup. Saves time and money. Making America Greater. I've heard that somewhere before.

[formerFR]

I see both sides of these discussions, as a business owner, as a family that likes 'tech', a family that lives in a rural area, but also lives within 15miles of basically anything you could every want...

- not all small businesses that provides 'personal service'(that definition itself is even up for discussion) will make it 'just because' they move toward that end... sometimes it's just the large buying power against those that do not have it, or those that don't have the 'experience' and selection that most of us have become to 'expect' ... it's not all about price, but that's certainly a big part of it.

- we like our 'amazon' buying experience, and really appreciate the 'ease' of returns, whether it's our fault, a faulty product, or something else. It's easy, it's free, and with the advent of the UPS store and others taking products directly from your hand and packaging them and returning them without question, it's really a simple and easy process. This is one thing that really sets it apart from others, even the brick-and-mortar stores.
The only 'drawback' is the initial shipping: when using UPS or FEDEX, we have no issues, they both bring it right up to your door, don't require any signature, and make it very easy. On the other hand, the USPS(postal service) that we get 'everyday' mail from, can sometimes make it much more difficult. My local mail person told me to put a 'box' out at the street so that she would not have to drive all the way up my driveway to drop off a package. I could understand, as my drive is long and can be muddy, so I put a 'box' down at the head of the driveway the other day, when amazon let me know that the USPS was delivering a package. Later in the day, I heard a vehicle near my home, by the time I got out and saw them leaving, I realized that they had left a large package... Hunh?? I thought the reason for leaving a 'box' at the head of the driveway was to minimize their efforts to come all the way up. I then received a text notice that my package had been 'delivered, in the mail box'... Hunh???
So, I walked down the drive and picked up the 'box', which was empty, of course, and checked the mail box.... where, yes, ANOTHER package had been shoved in, along with my mail. What??
So, I then when back and checked my amazon account - two packages had been delivered for the same day. Their notes showed 'delivered, left at door', and 'delivered, left in mail box'... so, now, I realized that the delivery person had left my mail in the mail box, shoved in a smaller 'package', and then turned into my driveway, drove all the way up, thru the mud, and left a 'package' on the steps. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!

- as a note to the above: we recently moved from a mountain home in the Blue Ridge mountains of far western North Carolina - beautifuL! But, because the 'road' into our neighborhood was 'privately owned' by the homeowner association, the mail delivery would not come up and into driveways in the neighborhood, but you had to install a roadside postal box next to the entry road at the bottom of the mountain. I could understand that, and had no problem with that, EXCEPT that UPS and FEDEX had no problem coming up the road, into and up our driveway, and right to our house for ANY type of package delivery, anytime.
So, if I ordered ANYTHING from amazon, or anywhere else, I had to 'hope' that it was not sent thru USPS, otherwise I would struggle to find out 'where' it would be delivered, as using my 'home' address would make it 'undeliverable', so you would have to use the POST OFFICE's physical address, to our attention, for it to be 'left' there, for our pickup. That was always such a mess, as Amazon and others don't offer you 'who' you want to deliver your package, they just send it whatever way makes best sense for THEM. You have little to no control over it, as you used to.

- as for 'W*mt Grocery pickup', as well as several other grocery chains, it works pretty well for us. You won't always use this service, but if you are busy with work, need groceries on the way home, and can 'remember' to order early enough in the day to reserve your 'pickup time' that works for you, it can be an easy way to bypass the amount of time, and sometimes aggravation, of shopping there physically, especially that time of day when 'everyone else' is doing the same. Don't pay any attention to some of the advertisements, though, as you certainly can NOT just order and run to the store and have it ready for you - it takes HOURS for them to process orders and reserve pickup spots.

[emm-dee]

Originally Posted by formerFR

I see both sides of these discussions, as a business owner, as a family that likes 'tech', a family that lives in a rural area, but also lives within 15miles of basically anything you could every want...

- not all small businesses that provides 'personal service'(that definition itself is even up for discussion) will make it 'just because' they move toward that end... sometimes it's just the large buying power against those that do not have it, or those that don't have the 'experience' and selection that most of us have become to 'expect' ... it's not all about price, but that's certainly a big part of it.

- we like our 'amazon' buying experience, and really appreciate the 'ease' of returns, whether it's our fault, a faulty product, or something else. It's easy, it's free, and with the advent of the UPS store and others taking products directly from your hand and packaging them and returning them without question, it's really a simple and easy process. This is one thing that really sets it apart from others, even the brick-and-mortar stores.
The only 'drawback' is the initial shipping: when using UPS or FEDEX, we have no issues, they both bring it right up to your door, don't require any signature, and make it very easy. On the other hand, the USPS(postal service) that we get 'everyday' mail from, can sometimes make it much more difficult. My local mail person told me to put a 'box' out at the street so that she would not have to drive all the way up my driveway to drop off a package. I could understand, as my drive is long and can be muddy, so I put a 'box' down at the head of the driveway the other day, when amazon let me know that the USPS was delivering a package. Later in the day, I heard a vehicle near my home, by the time I got out and saw them leaving, I realized that they had left a large package... Hunh?? I thought the reason for leaving a 'box' at the head of the driveway was to minimize their efforts to come all the way up. I then received a text notice that my package had been 'delivered, in the mail box'... Hunh???
So, I walked down the drive and picked up the 'box', which was empty, of course, and checked the mail box.... where, yes, ANOTHER package had been shoved in, along with my mail. What??
So, I then when back and checked my amazon account - two packages had been delivered for the same day. Their notes showed 'delivered, left at door', and 'delivered, left in mail box'... so, now, I realized that the delivery person had left my mail in the mail box, shoved in a smaller 'package', and then turned into my driveway, drove all the way up, thru the mud, and left a 'package' on the steps. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!

- as a note to the above: we recently moved from a mountain home in the Blue Ridge mountains of far western North Carolina - beautifuL! But, because the 'road' into our neighborhood was 'privately owned' by the homeowner association, the mail delivery would not come up and into driveways in the neighborhood, but you had to install a roadside postal box next to the entry road at the bottom of the mountain. I could understand that, and had no problem with that, EXCEPT that UPS and FEDEX had no problem coming up the road, into and up our driveway, and right to our house for ANY type of package delivery, anytime.
So, if I ordered ANYTHING from amazon, or anywhere else, I had to 'hope' that it was not sent thru USPS, otherwise I would struggle to find out 'where' it would be delivered, as using my 'home' address would make it 'undeliverable', so you would have to use the POST OFFICE's physical address, to our attention, for it to be 'left' there, for our pickup. That was always such a mess, as Amazon and others don't offer you 'who' you want to deliver your package, they just send it whatever way makes best sense for THEM. You have little to no control over it, as you used to.

- as for 'W*mt Grocery pickup', as well as several other grocery chains, it works pretty well for us. You won't always use this service, but if you are busy with work, need groceries on the way home, and can 'remember' to order early enough in the day to reserve your 'pickup time' that works for you, it can be an easy way to bypass the amount of time, and sometimes aggravation, of shopping there physically, especially that time of day when 'everyone else' is doing the same. Don't pay any attention to some of the advertisements, though, as you certainly can NOT just order and run to the store and have it ready for you - it takes HOURS for them to process orders and reserve pickup spots.

Agree with most of that except for the Post Office stuff. We never have a problem with our local PO. A lot of the Amazon stuff get sent via UPS and then transferred to the PO for final delivery.

Amazon recently started using their own delivery service. All I’ll say about their logistics personnel is they are so incompetent that if they were ducks they would drown.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by formerFR

The only 'drawback' is the initial shipping: when using UPS or FEDEX, we have no issues, they both bring it right up to your door, don't require any signature, and make it very easy. On the other hand, the USPS(postal service) that we get 'everyday' mail from, can sometimes make it much more difficult. My local mail person told me to put a 'box' out at the street so that she would not have to drive all the way up my driveway to drop off a package. I could understand, as my drive is long and can be muddy, so I put a 'box' down at the head of the driveway the other day, when amazon let me know that the USPS was delivering a package. Later in the day, I heard a vehicle near my home, by the time I got out and saw them leaving, I realized that they had left a large package... Hunh?? I thought the reason for leaving a 'box' at the head of the driveway was to minimize their efforts to come all the way up. I then received a text notice that my package had been 'delivered, in the mail box'... Hunh???
So, I walked down the drive and picked up the 'box', which was empty, of course, and checked the mail box.... where, yes, ANOTHER package had been shoved in, along with my mail. What??
So, I then when back and checked my amazon account - two packages had been delivered for the same day. Their notes showed 'delivered, left at door', and 'delivered, left in mail box'... so, now, I realized that the delivery person had left my mail in the mail box, shoved in a smaller 'package', and then turned into my driveway, drove all the way up, thru the mud, and left a 'package' on the steps. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!

- as a note to the above: we recently moved from a mountain home in the Blue Ridge mountains of far western North Carolina - beautifuL! But, because the 'road' into our neighborhood was 'privately owned' by the homeowner association, the mail delivery would not come up and into driveways in the neighborhood, but you had to install a roadside postal box next to the entry road at the bottom of the mountain. I could understand that, and had no problem with that, EXCEPT that UPS and FEDEX had no problem coming up the road, into and up our driveway, and right to our house for ANY type of package delivery, anytime.
So, if I ordered ANYTHING from amazon, or anywhere else, I had to 'hope' that it was not sent thru USPS, otherwise I would struggle to find out 'where' it would be delivered, as using my 'home' address would make it 'undeliverable', so you would have to use the POST OFFICE's physical address, to our attention, for it to be 'left' there, for our pickup. That was always such a mess, as Amazon and others don't offer you 'who' you want to deliver your package, they just send it whatever way makes best sense for THEM. You have little to no control over it, as you used to.

We also have similar issues with our regular USPS delivery person. She doesn't want drive up our driveway because she thinks it's too steep. But UPS, FedEx and Amazon drivers have problems driving and delivering to our door. Even other USPS drivers haven't had any problem with delivery to our door. It's just our regular delivery person. We had to get one of our neighbors to allow her to deliver to their door and they call us to let us know they have it. And they only are 50 yards downhill from us.