The Delivery Age

[Exaltist Ethan]

We live in an interesting time right now. More and more people are leaving malls and ordering the stuff they need from Amazon. It seems like Amazon can give you almost everything you could desire. I’d like to discuss this with fellow RF members and talk about how I feel like we are currently in the delivery age.

By delivery age, I mean that everything you buy can be delivered to you without the need to go outside. I do order a lot of things from Amazon, but today I got my first delivery from Shipt and Meijer’s, getting $198 worth of groceries delivered to me in about an hour and a half.

My mom typically takes me grocery shopping, but due to her fibromyalgia finds it very difficult to stand or walk for extended periods of time. Meijer’s not only allows you to order everything online, but they also take Foodshare (food stamps) on food and delivery is free. It was so easy to get my food once I ordered it. The only reason why I do this, though, is because I don’t own a car.

And that’s not all – even my medications are delivered to me. I go through a pharmacy called Hayat and they hand-deliver my medications to me, without me even needing to order them myself, and my three-month injection is done at my house with a trained nurse administrating it. And my therapy visits can be over the phone or virtually too, in addition to being in person. Even my psychiatrist is virtual.

So, it just begs the question – why do I go outside at all? Well, when the weather is nice, either above freezing in the winter or below 100F in the summer, I take long walks and visit various establishments. I pick up drinks at Walgreens, Starbucks, Festival Foods, and other places and go to various restaurants to enjoy the atmosphere and food of the place. I live between two downtown areas and can walk either east or west and end up in an area with many places to visit, eat food and buy things if I desire.

Sometimes I’m at home for a week or two if the weather is bad. But I enjoy talking walks not because I need to, but because I want to, and all my essentials are covered by deliveries. So now I bring it back to the reader.

TL;DR - What do you think of the delivery age? Do you agree with me that we are in it right now? What are your experiences of getting all the stuff you need delivered to you? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Let us know what you think below.

 

[JustGeorge]

I agree with you, this is a delivery age.

I have largely got away from Amazon, though. While delivery increased through the pandemic, I found they lowered their quality, both in product in service. Sure, if I want to order pants for the kids, they'll have it out to me in a week or two, but if I want to buy a book(and I like buying books very much), I can get lost. I will be waiting 3 weeks to 3 months for said book, if it arrives at all. I now do my book shopping on thrift sites.

I find with clothing, I've gone up three or four sizes as well, and its not because I got any fatter. It seems most of the clothing I'm interested in has been taken over by low quality Chinese companies, and even if I do manage to figure out the right size, its generally very cheap looking. Not worth it. I've moved on.

I won't have groceries delivered, for quite a few reasons. I'm a fussy chef, and I want fussy things, often from places that don't offer delivery. So, I'm still out to the store.

As a person with unconventional tastes for a Midwesterner, I'm grateful for delivery. Otherwise I'd be stuck with mystery novels and blue jeans. No thank you.

 

[sun rise]

For introverts and those who have physical or psychological issues delivery services are a godsend.

We use them a lot more due to COVID than we did before. But we still like going to the farmer's market to buy stuff as well as Trader Joes and the local health food store so we're in the middle

But rather than go get take-out food driving/parking, we use a delivery service.

 

[Altfish]

We live in an interesting time right now. More and more people are leaving malls and ordering the stuff they need from Amazon. It seems like Amazon can give you almost everything you could desire. I’d like to discuss this with fellow RF members and talk about how I feel like we are currently in the delivery age.

By delivery age, I mean that everything you buy can be delivered to you without the need to go outside. I do order a lot of things from Amazon, but today I got my first delivery from Shipt and Meijer’s, getting $198 worth of groceries delivered to me in about an hour and a half.

My mom typically takes me grocery shopping, but due to her fibromyalgia finds it very difficult to stand or walk for extended periods of time. Meijer’s not only allows you to order everything online, but they also take Foodshare (food stamps) on food and delivery is free. It was so easy to get my food once I ordered it. The only reason why I do this, though, is because I don’t own a car.

And that’s not all – even my medications are delivered to me. I go through a pharmacy called Hayat and they hand-deliver my medications to me, without me even needing to order them myself, and my three-month injection is done at my house with a trained nurse administrating it. And my therapy visits can be over the phone or virtually too, in addition to being in person. Even my psychiatrist is virtual.

So, it just begs the question – why do I go outside at all? Well, when the weather is nice, either above freezing in the winter or below 100F in the summer, I take long walks and visit various establishments. I pick up drinks at Walgreens, Starbucks, Festival Foods, and other places and go to various restaurants to enjoy the atmosphere and food of the place. I live between two downtown areas and can walk either east or west and end up in an area with many places to visit, eat food and buy things if I desire.

Sometimes I’m at home for a week or two if the weather is bad. But I enjoy talking walks not because I need to, but because I want to, and all my essentials are covered by deliveries. So now I bring it back to the reader.

TL;DR - What do you think of the delivery age? Do you agree with me that we are in it right now? What are your experiences of getting all the stuff you need delivered to you? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Let us know what you think below.

Malls or Shopping Centres as we call them in the UK are, in my opinion, dying.
Amazon and other on-line shopping services will see them off.
BUT what will survive are independent and local shops selling local and exclusive products. My local town (UK) is doing great, it is a suburb of Manchester and has loads of coffee shops, bars and local retailers. That is the future

 

[JustGeorge]

For introverts and those who have physical or psychological issues delivery services are a godsend.

We use them a lot more due to COVID than we did before. But we still like going to the farmer's market to buy stuff as well as Trader Joes and the local health food store so we're in the middle

But rather than go get take-out food driving/parking, we use a delivery service.

We have had a local farm that started doing pick up during the pandemic. You order from their catalogue on Wednesday, and they have it bagged up and ready to go by Friday. Drive up, they put it on a table, you grab it.

Its been a real blessing for those of us who like farm fresh.

 

[ChristineM]

We get quite a lot of stuff from amazon*, only because shops are very limited here, the nearest department store is 80km away and thats quite small compared to those in Toulouse or Limoges, both 170km away in opposite directions that have decent shopping centres and department stores.

* I use amazon in 4 countries, France, England, Germany and Spain. There are different products available from each. Often when they hold the same products the price can be twice (or more) different between countries. And delivery charges and delivery times can be crazy from Amazon France when the same stuff from Germany can be delivered free within a couple of days.

 

[SomeRandom]

We live in an interesting time right now. More and more people are leaving malls and ordering the stuff they need from Amazon. It seems like Amazon can give you almost everything you could desire. I’d like to discuss this with fellow RF members and talk about how I feel like we are currently in the delivery age.

By delivery age, I mean that everything you buy can be delivered to you without the need to go outside. I do order a lot of things from Amazon, but today I got my first delivery from Shipt and Meijer’s, getting $198 worth of groceries delivered to me in about an hour and a half.

My mom typically takes me grocery shopping, but due to her fibromyalgia finds it very difficult to stand or walk for extended periods of time. Meijer’s not only allows you to order everything online, but they also take Foodshare (food stamps) on food and delivery is free. It was so easy to get my food once I ordered it. The only reason why I do this, though, is because I don’t own a car.

And that’s not all – even my medications are delivered to me. I go through a pharmacy called Hayat and they hand-deliver my medications to me, without me even needing to order them myself, and my three-month injection is done at my house with a trained nurse administrating it. And my therapy visits can be over the phone or virtually too, in addition to being in person. Even my psychiatrist is virtual.

So, it just begs the question – why do I go outside at all? Well, when the weather is nice, either above freezing in the winter or below 100F in the summer, I take long walks and visit various establishments. I pick up drinks at Walgreens, Starbucks, Festival Foods, and other places and go to various restaurants to enjoy the atmosphere and food of the place. I live between two downtown areas and can walk either east or west and end up in an area with many places to visit, eat food and buy things if I desire.

Sometimes I’m at home for a week or two if the weather is bad. But I enjoy talking walks not because I need to, but because I want to, and all my essentials are covered by deliveries. So now I bring it back to the reader.

TL;DR - What do you think of the delivery age? Do you agree with me that we are in it right now? What are your experiences of getting all the stuff you need delivered to you? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Let us know what you think below.

I mean.
Whilst I can certainly agree this was facilitated largely due to recent events (COVID) I kind of have to wonder if this was inevitable?
I mean people like convenience. Home delivery is convenient
Increases in technology and services facilitated this
So, is it all that surprising.
I’ll admit to relying more on door dash and home deliveries as of late lol

 

[Trailblazer]

So, it just begs the question – why do I go outside at all? Well, when the weather is nice, either above freezing in the winter or below 100F in the summer, I take long walks and visit various establishments. I pick up drinks at Walgreens, Starbucks, Festival Foods, and other places and go to various restaurants to enjoy the atmosphere and food of the place. I live between two downtown areas and can walk either east or west and end up in an area with many places to visit, eat food and buy things if I desire.

Sometimes I’m at home for a week or two if the weather is bad. But I enjoy talking walks not because I need to, but because I want to, and all my essentials are covered by deliveries. So now I bring it back to the reader

The one medication I take, thyroid, comes in the mail every 90 days, and I do not go shopping for anything but food for myself and food and supplies for the animals. I only go out once a week for groceries and to get my mail at the PO box. Every few weeks I go to Costco for bird food, cat litter, cat food, and gas. The only other time I have to go out is to the bank to deposit checks and money orders.

I was going out for walks but when the weather got colder I stopped going out and I do my exercise indoors.

 

[Alien826]

I agree about Amazon. They've pretty much got over the objections there used to be, that is delivery time (now only a day or so mostly) and returning stuff (no questions, no charge and UPS packing it up for you). I have Amazon Prime, so no delivery charges mostly, and I also get music and a TV channel thrown in so the cost is reasonable. Clothes I still like to try on. I know some people order several versions and sizes of clothes and return those they don't like or that don't fit, but that still seems wrong to me.

We always enjoyed eating out once a week, and when covid came along we had food delivered, partly to have it prepared for us and partly to keep restaurants open. We prefer actually attending the restaurant though (food is freshly cooked and brought to the table, and it's an outing) and now only order in if we really don't feel like going out.

 

[danieldemol]

I find it frustrating that junk food i can pick up sometimes gets ubered to our door at a much higher price.

I also dislike that you can't physically see a product before you buy it.

But other than that my experience has been mostly good with it.

In my opinion.

 

[John53]

I prefer to go to a store and see what I'm buying but I'm in a bit of an isolated area so we're ordering more online. My desire to see what I'm buying is being overtaken by my desire not to drive for a couple of hours and have to put up with people and the hassle of finding a park.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

It's convenient, however it's also very sad. There's something special about going out to malls and there being hundreds of people there. There's something special about going to a cinema, sitting in those oddly comfy seats, having theater-specially-made popcorn, and watching movies on the big screen and hearing the audience reaction as compared to watching the latest on a streaming service.

The same thing happened with music stores. They became obsolete when digital music became a thing. Those were places where you could meet and vibe with people.

 

[fantome profane]

I like the term, and I agree we are in the delivery age. But I think this is just the beginning of the delivery age. Wait till we start getting everything delivered by drones.

 

[Quintessence]

Well, this so-called age is one I'm ignoring, I guess. Definitely little good about it.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

TL;DR - What do you think of the delivery age? Do you agree with me that we are in it right now? What are your experiences of getting all the stuff you need delivered to you? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Let us know what you think below.

The house I grew up in had a relic of a bygone age: a milkbox. You used to be able to buy anything up to and including a house from the Sears catalogue.

I don't think we're so much in a "delivery age" now as we are coming out of a delivery lull that lasted a few decades.

 

[Heyo]

We live in an interesting time right now. More and more people are leaving malls and ordering the stuff they need from Amazon. It seems like Amazon can give you almost everything you could desire. I’d like to discuss this with fellow RF members and talk about how I feel like we are currently in the delivery age.

By delivery age, I mean that everything you buy can be delivered to you without the need to go outside. I do order a lot of things from Amazon, but today I got my first delivery from Shipt and Meijer’s, getting $198 worth of groceries delivered to me in about an hour and a half.

My mom typically takes me grocery shopping, but due to her fibromyalgia finds it very difficult to stand or walk for extended periods of time. Meijer’s not only allows you to order everything online, but they also take Foodshare (food stamps) on food and delivery is free. It was so easy to get my food once I ordered it. The only reason why I do this, though, is because I don’t own a car.

And that’s not all – even my medications are delivered to me. I go through a pharmacy called Hayat and they hand-deliver my medications to me, without me even needing to order them myself, and my three-month injection is done at my house with a trained nurse administrating it. And my therapy visits can be over the phone or virtually too, in addition to being in person. Even my psychiatrist is virtual.

So, it just begs the question – why do I go outside at all? Well, when the weather is nice, either above freezing in the winter or below 100F in the summer, I take long walks and visit various establishments. I pick up drinks at Walgreens, Starbucks, Festival Foods, and other places and go to various restaurants to enjoy the atmosphere and food of the place. I live between two downtown areas and can walk either east or west and end up in an area with many places to visit, eat food and buy things if I desire.

Sometimes I’m at home for a week or two if the weather is bad. But I enjoy talking walks not because I need to, but because I want to, and all my essentials are covered by deliveries. So now I bring it back to the reader.

TL;DR - What do you think of the delivery age? Do you agree with me that we are in it right now? What are your experiences of getting all the stuff you need delivered to you? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Let us know what you think below.

It may be useful to have one car go around full with stuff and deliver instead of 50 cars going to the store(s) with one person in it and going back with a bag of groceries but I'm not there, yet. Most of the time, I go shopping on my way home from work, so no extra tour. I have never bought anything from Amazon and the last time I ordered something via ebay is month ago.
But I see it elsewhere and I agree with @9-10ths_Penguin that delivery is coming back.