Amazon. It’s amazing. I don’t always love it, but it’s always amazing. Take today, for instance.
I don’t exactly live at the end of the world, but we’re constantly reminded that this is an out-of-the-way corner. The DMV office is open four hours a week — if the one guy who staffs it isn’t sick or out giving driving tests. We have a hospital, but its one-and-only surgeon visits just two days a week. When we were cut off from the outside world for three days after a devastating storm, nobody we were cut off from gave a rat’s ass about us.
One of my favorite petty irritations about living here is that the post office treats us like second-class customers. You need to get something to me overnight? Give it to your local USPS and they’ll charge you full overnight rate for it. But they’ll deliver it two or three days later without apology, prior notice, or refund because apparently there’s some sub-clause in some subsection of some unpublished codicil to their regulations that says the advertised rules don’t apply in places like this.
Then along comes Amazon. Yesterday — after 5:00 p.m. yesterday — I ordered a new wifi router because I couldn’t get my old one working. Amazon told me I’d have it by Thursday. Today, Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after I ordered it, it was waiting at the post office. Not delivered there by postal workers, but by UPS.
This isn’t the first time that’s happened, either. I don’t know how they do it. Amazon’s got to have a warehouse somewhere out here in the boonies, perhaps attached to a UPS facility?, stocked with their most common items. If you know how else they manage this, let me know.
You guys in New York City or Los Angeles or wherever might be used to same-day delivery. But in this beloved but sometimes frustrating backwater delivery this quick is a miracle. A lovely free-market miracle.
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And much appreciated today. I popped the router out of its box and 15 minutes later my wireless problems were solved. The cable modem now flashes a dire red alert to warn me that OMG, there is NO DEVICE connected to me!!! You must DO SOMETHING about this IMMEDIATELY!!! But the “unconnected” device in question is relaying signal from the modem just fine.
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Amazon has been amazing in another way this month. Specifically, in terms of my Amazon links.
I’m always a little hesitant to mention items people have purchased — even though I don’t know who the purchasers are and can’t possibly betray their privacy. But this month there’ve been a couple of real whopper purchases along with a nice, strong flow of regular buying.
I have to laugh as I thank the mystery person who has (several times over the last year) made what is obviously a substantial group buy of the most unlikely textbooks. Thank you, excellent Outlaw Mole.
Also this week, somebody is obviously putting together a beautifully equipped shop or lab. Once those items ship, they’ll be an absolutely huge addition to an already great Amazon month. Not only that. But also — dear buyer of high-quality shop items — you chose one thing I’ve long had my own eye on but can’t yet justify purchasing. It’s a great piece, though. Enjoy it with my thanks.
Is there a way you could put the Amazon link up at the top like it was at the old place?
There was a series of short stories I read (probably) in the 70s and (probably) in Analog about a then-contemporary fellow who noticed that mail was being delivered much faster than the USPS infrastructure would permit, so on a lark he addressed a letter to the postmaster of the “Galactic Postal Service” and received a reply, and a job offer. Maybe this is your big break.
“Is there a way you could put the Amazon link up at the top like it was at the old place?”
Just click on the Amazon logo to your right. (Under the Lady in the Floppy Hat.)
I don’t usually care much how fast something is delivered, but I do object when deliveries are left on my back deck with no warning. I have TWO doorbells, and a big sign asking people to press the button rather than knock… since I can’t hear anyone knocking on the storm door! Most of the time, the item is dumped on the deck and they drive away, me none the wiser since the dog doesn’t bark much. So, I’ve had things sit out there all day/night, in the heat, in the rain and wind….
I’ve ranted and raved at the UPS and the USPS, to little avail. But now I have motion detector sensors out there that ring inside each time someone (or something) comes up the drive way. Unfortunately, the alarm rings when the guinea hens come to visit from down the road, or deer pass through, or a dust cloud comes in from the road… A little annoying at times, but I check outside each time it alarms… and especially if I’m expecting a package. Rural living isn’t for everyone. 🙂
Wonder how soon Amazon will start delivering stuff with drones? 🙂
Just click on the Amazon logo to your right. (Under the Lady in the Floppy Hat.)
True and thank you, Pat. For people on mobile devices, though, the “right hand” sidebar gets moved to the bottom of the page where they might never see it. So it’s a real issue. I’d hate to put up a sticky post because stickies are more intrusive on this blog design than they were at BHM. Hm. Maybe I should add an Amazon link up in the header.
Okay, the Amazon link is now both in the sidebar and in the header. Up there in the white type. Not very visible and on mobiles it’ll still be hidden behind a menu button, but at least it’s at the top.
ML,
I suggest putting the motion detector by the door/s or covering only the deck, makes it less likely to make false alarms or less of them anyway.
True, Jim… but then I would not get much of a warning at all. 🙂 So many things are a trade-off between utility and convenience. Besides… the deer come up onto the deck quite often. LOL
The cable modem now flashes a dire red alert…
When I booted today Windows completed an update, and as soon as it finished JavaScript notified me it wants to run an update. Meanwhile my Jeep is alerting me to get an oil change, and my refrigerator wants a new water filter.
Early this week our sewing machine quit stitching and started making strange noises. The lady who repairs such locally says it’s terminal. (The machine was 30-40 years old and well used.) I just discovered that what we’ve been using all these decades is now described as a “mechanical sewing machine,” in that it’s not one of the modern, computerized ones. (Like “analog” clocks are the ones that aren’t digital.)
Life was a lot simpler before all our gadgets were telling us what to do.
Wouldn’t that be great come hunting season? ????
“If you know how else they manage this, let me know.”
How Amazon manages that is part of their secret sauce, and it is so amazingly complex it likely that no one person really knows. Just as no one man knows how to make a pencil.
Amazon operates an extensive network of fulfillment centers, distribution centers, and sortation centers. There is a review article here. There are at least 80 fulfillment centers in the US alone, and about that number overseas. A typical fulfillment center is about a million square feet, filled to the brim with products, high-speed conveyor systems, and hundreds of people who move product out the door as fast as possible. There are hundreds more moving product from trucks and shipping containers into the center.
Alas, there is no fulfillment center in your corner of the great NorthWet. Your amazing delivery speed was probably due to a recently completed sortation center in your vicinity.
Sortation centers are much smaller, and Amazon has been building a lot of them recently. The one near you opened earlier this year. Sortation centers bring in many shipments from disparate fulfilment centers and sort them onto pallets for specific zip codes. The USPS picks them up, and you can get your package at the post office, or the postman takes it the last mile to your home.
Sortation centers let Amazon bypass UPS and Fedex, which is important during the peak holiday seasons. They also get Sunday delivery (!) from the USPS.
Eventually Amazon will take over more of the last mile delivery. Think drones, robot cars, and thousands of small contractors with vans and determination. I see the private vans frequently at my gulch location.
It is an amazing process; your package was handled (at least) twice by Amazon, who built this network so that they can keep their promise of next-day (soon to be same day) delivery even during peak periods. Free market at its finest.
I used to do the same thing with motion sensors. The deer created false alarms so often I put 2 sensors along the driveway. One alarm is probably deer, but one followed by another is a vehicle coming up the driveway.
Then I gave into the dark side and started carrying a smartphone. Now when a package is dropped off, my phone gets a notification within minutes, often seconds.
Zappo’s once got some shoes to Chama in less than a day. I have NO idea how they did it. They too are amazing.