Same Day

Consistent next day delivery, with a same day option, for everything from Amazon would be amazing. I can certainly relate to the stories of eerily fast shipping times. Sometimes it just blows me away how fast something ordered online can make it to my door (both from Amazon and elsewhere). Although I haven’t seen anything quite like this story from Farhad Manjoo at Slate:

One Friday afternoon last month, I ordered three smoke alarms, and I debated paying extra for shipping so that I could install them over the weekend. The $9 per item that Amazon charges for Saturday delivery seemed too steep, though, so I went with standard two-day service. The next morning, the delivery guy arrived with my smoke detectors. I’d gotten next-day Saturday service for free.

Of course, as I write this, it has been three days since my wife ordered two in stock items from Amazon. Not only do we not have the items in hand, they haven’t even shipped. Though, to be fair, that this even seems like a long wait says something about how things have changed in the last 30 years.

Speaking of waiting, I’m not sure what this says about my childhood, but some of my most vivid memories relate to waiting for things. Specifically, I’m thinking of the offers where you would collect some sort of proof of purchase, send those somewhere in the mail, and then wait for something to be shipped back to you. The details usually said to expect a wait of at least 4-6 weeks, and I distinctly remember the disappointment of reading an offer only to find out that it was even longer than that.

I also remember being very aware of Sears as a child (perhaps in part because their listing was next to ours in the phonebook, and there was a period of time where we got semi-frequent calls from people trying to place orders). This was in the days of the Sears catalog when our local store was little more than a shipping destination for ordered merchandise. I have fond memories of spending hours pouring over a new Christmas catalog from Sears looking at every possible toy I could add to my wish list.

I’m pretty sure that if you had told my 6 year old self that someday he would have instant access to a searchable catalog of products with images and reviews it would have seemed impressive, but not impossible. I think if you had added that from that catalog he would be able to instantly place an order, without a phone call, and have the item arrive at his door the next day it would have seemed absurd. He might actually have been more likely to believe that we’d have teleportation figured out so that the item could materialize right next to him instantaneously.

(In the spirit of the Slate article and general full disclosure: ClQ17 participates in Amazon Associates.)