When you’re looking at an item page on Amazon, you may see a note that says, “Want it by tomorrow? Order it within 45 minutes,” and realize that yes, you do need that printer cartridge the next day. What’s confusing for some shoppers, though, is that sometimes same-day or next-day delivery is available on the item page, then disappears when they go to check out. [More]
logistics
Deserted Malls Find New Use As Retail Call Centers
By 4.25.17
In order to keep bringing in the cash amid store closings, some malls have gotten a bit creative with their thousands of square feet of space, from leasing to doctor’s offices and supermarkets to using empty space as party venues. Some retailers are filling these empty mall spaces, but with call centers, not merchandise. [More]
Amazon Signs 50-Year Lease On Air Cargo Hub In Kentucky
By 2.1.17
Sure, Amazon keeps saying that it isn’t interested in carrying freight for other companies even as it leases planes and invests in one of the companies it leases from. Now the company has signed a lease on a space similar in size to the air hubs of FedEx and UPS. [More]
Uber Acquires Trucking Company, Wants To Sell Freight Services
By 9.28.16 — Updated: 5.26.17
Consumers know Uber as a replacement for short-range taxis, but the company has other transportation goals. The company recently acquired Otto, a startup that’s developing self-driving trucks. While autonomous vehicles zooming freight across the country are its long-term goal, Uber plans get into the long-haul trucking business long before self-driving trucks are the norm. [More]
Report: Amazon Wants To Help International Factories Sell Directly To You
By 2.9.16
A few years ago, Amazon made a prediction that came true: shoppers were about to use Amazon more for commerce across oceans and borders, ordering easily from all over the world. Yet experts at Amazon must have been wondering how they could help international merchants along, and make more money while they were at it. One possible solution: becoming a freight and warehouse operation for manufacturers abroad. [More]
Uber Reportedly Wants To Deliver Same-Day E-Commerce Orders
By 9.4.15
Uber wants to become more than a ride-hailing service: the company wants to use its army of drivers, who are definitely not employees, to deliver food, stuff, and people. While its experiments so far with food delivery and luxury merchandise delivery haven’t been very impressive, the company plans to keep trying. Next up: same-day delivery from large and small retailers in New York City and in San Francisco. [More]
UPS Drives Forklift Into Valuable Sculpture, Shrugs
By 12.19.14
Current ad campaigns for UPS brag about the carrier’s abilities at logistics: getting a thing from one place to another is their specialty. Unless you’re one family in Michigan who used UPS Freight to ship a valuable sculpture across the country, which the carrier drove a forklift into. The company wouldn’t pay out an insurance claim on the artwork because the customer failed to fill in the statue’s declared value on the bill of lading that went with the shipment. [More]
Dish Network Sends Prepaid Return Boxes To Wrong Address Three Times, Bills For Unreturned Equipment
By 11.17.07
Reader Ryan called the Dish Network three weeks before moving to disconnect his service. Dish graciously offered to send prepaid return boxes for his equipment, but instead of sending them to Ryan’s new address, Dish sent them to his old address. Three times. Oddly, Dish managed to properly address a bill to Ryan’s new address. Ryan writes:
