> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.”
As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get shipped straight to my apartment which removes the need for me to navigate poorly stocked/organized stores and then carry it back to my apartment by walking, taking the subway, or the bus.
A lot of the time, it's actually difficult to find certain goods in stores here (or to know which store to go to). Recently I've purchased: calipers, a high torque servo motor, and playing cards online. I honestly don't know where I could find calipers and motors in stores here. I've tried buying playing cards in stores, but I could not find a reasonably sized package in stores that are also in stock. I've found 6 packs of playing cards in stores, but the regular 1 or 2-packs are always out of stock. I seriously tried for two months to buy the cards in store before giving up and buying it on Amazon.
> A lot of the time, it's actually difficult to find certain goods in stores here (or to know which store to go to).
Exactly this. I want to support small local businesses and I’m happy to pay a slight premium for that (as well as being able to look at/touch the physical object that I can then immediately take home with me), but I really can’t be bothered to spend an hour or two trying to track it down. I wish brick-and-mortar shops would get together and build a platform where I can search their inventories and find the places close to me that carry the item that I already know I want. Bonus points if I can compare prices too, but I can see why they might not want that.
I live in Canada but have family in the US. I was visiting once and was ordering some things on Amazon. Amazon offered me coupons if I delayed shipment of items. I wish Amazon would expand this offering to other countries. I'd be happy to have packages combined into a weekly or biweekly shipment. If I need something right away I could indicate that, but for the most part I don't need things same day.
In the US, the incentive (that is offered to me) for delaying an Amazon shipment is a $1 digital credit (details quoted below). I have no use for Amazon's digital credits since I consume all of my media via YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, and the ebooks offered by local public library.
> Choose FREE Amazon Day Delivery on this order and we’ll automatically apply a $1 digital reward (applicable to select eBooks, digital music, videos, and apps) to your account once your order ships. You can use this reward by logging on to Amazon.com, or browsing your smart phone, tablet, e-reader, TV or streaming device. Find an eBook, Prime Video, Digital Music, or app from Amazon Appstore that you want to purchase and we’ll automatically apply the reward at checkout. Offer redemption requires customers to be in the U.S.
It isn't all that great in practice. At first, they were offering a dollar off music purchases (which I wasn't making). Once i moved to an area that no longer had 2 hour delivery (prime now) they started offering coupons for prime now orders... I HAD been using that on occasion, but couldn't any longer.
It's almost like it was a gimmick that they didn't really care about...
The coupons I've seen are $1 per delayed order, and that money can only be spent on digital goods like e-books. It's not enough of an incentive for me to do it because I don't particularly want to acquire DRM-encumbered digital goods.
Those incentives are not really worth it. I'm not going to delay the delivery for days to save a dollar. If it is one extra day I might consider. I'm sure Amazon is doing experiments to determine time/value curve.
> A lot of the time, it's actually difficult to find certain goods in stores here
I suspect the internet has made this worse. People used to go visit several stores to find less common items, so they sold eventually. Now they give up and go online.
As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get shipped straight to my apartment which removes the need for me to navigate poorly stocked/organized stores and then carry it back to my apartment by walking, taking the subway, or the bus.
A lot of the time, it's actually difficult to find certain goods in stores here (or to know which store to go to). Recently I've purchased: calipers, a high torque servo motor, and playing cards online. I honestly don't know where I could find calipers and motors in stores here. I've tried buying playing cards in stores, but I could not find a reasonably sized package in stores that are also in stock. I've found 6 packs of playing cards in stores, but the regular 1 or 2-packs are always out of stock. I seriously tried for two months to buy the cards in store before giving up and buying it on Amazon.