Amazon - Choose your one delivery day each week

[Chuckanut]

Has anybody signed up for this service?

I stumbled upon it by accident the other day. Apparently, a Prime member can tell Amazon what day of the week to deliver the goods. They bundle the orders together and deliver it all on one day.

Supposedly, this eliminates waste and reduces the carbon footprint. It also means those plagued by Porch Pirates only have to stay home one day a week to get their deliveries.

OTOH, it seems to eliminate that #1 reason to be a Prime member.

Amazon Day

Add items throughout the week for free delivery on the day you choose

• Available across the US, exclusive to Prime
• Select a day of the week that works best for you
• Orders you choose will arrive on your Amazon Day each week
• Delivery is free, with no minimum order threshold

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ay-week-your-amazon-packages-come/3019224002/

 

[DFDubb]

The part of me that is environmentally conscious would like to do it, but like you said, it kind of defeats the purpose of paying for prime. Weird that it would only be available to prime members.

 

[Koogie]

I'd be interested if it came with some sort of discount... let's not forget, enviro concerns aside, it is also saving Amazon a buttload of money.

 

[bizlady]

I really like it both for conservation and convenience. I can schedule when I know I will be there. But I agree the $1 credit you get if you put it off a week would be nice!

 

[Walt34]

It makes sense for those working. If I was still working I'd pick Saturday when I'd likely have been home. Being retired and home most of the time anyway now, I won't bother. And we never had any problem with porch pirates anyway.

 

[easysurfer]

The devil's advocate in me says now the porch pirates have a chance for a bigger haul of loot .

 

[Red Badger]

I suppose this is the same Amazon that just cut the hours of their $15/hour work force? Or, is it the same Amazon that is shuttering the Pop-Up stores? Perhaps it is the same Amazon that is getting clobbered for the downturn in customer love at Whole Foods?

As a Prime subscriber, my "day of the week" will be whatever day happens to be two days after my order is placed. Besides, I'll buy into their desire to reduce carbon footprint when they pick up my (perfectly serviceable) empty Amazon boxes in conjunction with subsequent deliveries.

 

[W2R]

It makes sense for those working. If I was still working I'd pick Saturday when I'd likely have been home. Being retired and home most of the time anyway now, I won't bother. And we never had any problem with porch pirates anyway.

+1
I don't think I will bother either, now that I am retired. I am always around anyway. I do agree that it would be helpful for those who are still working.

Just think, if they didn't get it delivered by the end of the day on my Amazon Day, then I'd have to wait a week for the next chance of delivery? No thanks. It's not for me.

 

[CardsFan]

I am an occasional Amazon buyer, so no Prime for me, but I see this as simply a "look at me, I'm green" ploy. Unless a significant number of people in an area sign on, I don't see the miles being driven reducing much. There is an Amazon truck in our subdivision every day. If half of the people sign on to this, unless they all pick the same day, that truck will still be there every day.

As the article points out, Amazon has the potential for significant savings (packaging), but I think their packaging is already over the top, size-wise. If you order something small, it will come in a box 10x to big, with a bunch of bubble wrap.

Rant over.

 

[Aerides]

Yeah I don't see much savings. The Fulfillment Centers aren't going to pack differently, because the cost of having different processes for different delivery methods will slow efficiency there. Unless they are really going to shuffle all your purchases to the local FC, then bundle/box all together, and then do a single parcel delivery... ok sure maybe.

But they still have to either have everything in stock at your nearest FC. They don't. They do a ridiculous amount of internal re-routing (planes and trucks) to keep inventory shifting around the country already. That won't change.

The biggest savings for amazon is if they can continue to reduce UPS/Fedex and rely on their own carriers, by getting a little more time to get things together. Maybe... because if I'm Prime and I know my deliveries are always on Thursday I'll bet you I wait till Tuesday to order everything anyway lol.

 

[RunningBum]

I won't take advantage of it personally, but it seems like a good idea to me, for someone to be able to schedule deliveries on a day when they'll be home and it won't sit on your porch in the weather and waiting to be grabbed by someone else. You don't have to do this, but you can. I don't get the criticisms here. If you want it in 2 days, keep that shipping. If you don't like Amazon, don't buy from them. I bet my son would like this.

I haven't found the actually mechanics for this. My son almost always has one or two weekdays off, but it's not consistently the same day. I wonder if he can switch his day around at will? How do you choose, at order time, or is it some setting in your profile?

 

[CardsFan]

I won't take advantage of it personally, but it seems like a good idea to me, for someone to be able to schedule deliveries on a day when they'll be home and it won't sit on your porch in the weather and waiting to be grabbed by someone else. You don't have to do this, but you can. I don't get the criticisms here. If you want it in 2 days, keep that shipping. If you don't like Amazon, don't buy from them. I bet my son would like this.

I haven't found the actually mechanics for this. My son almost always has one or two weekdays off, but it's not consistently the same day. I wonder if he can switch his day around at will? How do you choose, at order time, or is it some setting in your profile?

Sorry if I sounded critical, maybe skeptical is a better word. They are doing what any large company would do to try to cut costs, and it does provide a marginal benefit to those that want things delivered on a particular day.

I just have a problem with touting it as part of their "Sustainability Initiative" and "its vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon". That's just fluff to get free advertising, resulting in the article.

 

[ziggy29]

Well, yeah. Part of marketing is spin, and part of a marketing team's job sometimes involves introducing cost cutting measures that can be spun as a value-added customer service. Nothing new here, really.

Nothing wrong with it, since it is optional and may be of actual benefit to some. But this is probably cost cutting first and foremost, and when it aligns with customer needs it's probably serendipitous.

 

[CardsFan]

Well, yeah. Part of marketing is spin, and part of a marketing team's job sometimes involves introducing cost cutting measures that can be spun as a value-added customer service. Nothing new here, really.

Nothing wrong with it, since it is optional and may be of actual benefit to some. But this is probably cost cutting first and foremost, and when it aligns with customer needs it's probably serendipitous.

Exactly. A good move, from a business perspective, and they get to sound Green as a bonus.

 

[RunningBum]

I don't know how to quantify it, but certainly frequent starts and stops consume more gas in delivery vehicles. Even if a truck is going to my neighborhood if it only has to stop once a week instead of three times, that's an energy savings. Maybe it's marginal.

If you can keep your packages from getting stolen by having them delivered while you are at home, that's much more than a marginal benefit.

 

[CaptTom]

I buy a lot of stuff at Amazon because (1) the price is right and (2) I generally get it sooner that way, than if I put it on my shopping list for the next time I'm in or near whatever local store sells it.

I like the idea of getting everything in one shipment, but I've actually gone the other way lately; I'll enter each purchase on a separate order, even if it's just minutes apart.

I do this because they sometimes split up multiple items on the same order into different shipments anyway. That would be OK. The problem is, after I've already entered the payment and filed the invoice, they'll split the invoice and the credit card charge to match the split shipment. Makes verifying and reconciling my credit card statement a nightmare!

And yeah, if they cared about the environment they wouldn't over-package everything.

 

[Chuckanut]

If Amazon can eliminate even one trip a week into a neighborhood, I can see this working out for them as a cost control measure, and even having some 'green' benefits. It will be interesting to see the delivery frequency data that comes out of this, assuming Amazon shares it. I think it is worth a try.

I remember reading about UPS minimizing left turns. Even if the route is a bit longer in distance, the overall delivery time is less. Who would have guessed?

 

[CardsFan]

If Amazon can eliminate even one trip a week into a neighborhood, I can see this working out for them as a cost control measure, and even having some 'green' benefits. It will be interesting to see the delivery frequency data that comes out of this, assuming Amazon shares it. I think it is worth a try.

I remember reading about UPS minimizing left turns. Even if the route is a bit longer in distance, the overall delivery time is less. Who would have guessed?

From the article "Amazon doesn’t release mileage numbers for its deliveries", so doubtful they will publish any numbers, unless, of course, they are favorable. Just like any Megacorp.

 

[RunningBum]

Just used it for the first time. Going away for a couple days this week, but wanted to order something now because there is an online coupon for it that I don't know how long will last. Normal prime would have it come while I'm gone, and I'd rather not wait for next week for non-prime delivery and I don't use Pantry so that bonus does nothing for me. But this let me select the day I return. No big deal since my porch is protected and I'd be shocked if something was stolen from a porch in my neighborhood, but I'd still rather not have it sit out longer than needed. A small win for me. Not sure how it saves Amazon anything, but it doesn't matter to me. Probably the only thing I'll order all week so I don't see how it helps (or hurts) the environment.

 

[24601NoMore]

Why on earth would I pay $119 a year for Prime, only to get things slower than I could get them at my local store?

As it is, Prime is not what it used to be - ie: 2 days from order to delivery on most everything. No, now it's 2 days from SHIPMENT which is a big change from what it was when it first started..that change alone and the slower deliveries I'm already seeing is enough to make me think about canceling and just ordering from WalMart and others..

I ain't paying for Prime to get things once a week. No thank you.

 

[Jerry1]

Why on earth would I pay $119 a year for Prime, only to get things slower than I could get them at my local store?

As it is, Prime is not what it used to be - ie: 2 days from order to delivery on most everything. No, now it's 2 days from SHIPMENT which is a big change from what it was when it first started..that change alone and the slower deliveries I'm already seeing is enough to make me think about canceling and just ordering from WalMart and others..

I ain't paying for Prime to get things once a week. No thank you.

So that’s what’s going on. I never investigated it but I often wondered how they justified calling some of my deliveries two days. I’ve thought of getting rid of Prime also, but DW put all of our pictures on their cloud server which is a Prime benefit. It’s a good value compared to other options, especially since you get other benefits, but it pretty much locks us into Prime, which I don’t like.

 

[Red Badger]

I still get mine 2 days from order submission (unless I place order late at night). Occasionally, the benevolent Mr. Bezos throws is free 1 day shipping on small stuff.

But if things changed, I'd probably drop Prime...

 

[RunningBum]

I haven't seen that (2 days from shipping, rather than ordering). What I have noticed is that weekend orders often are considered to be same as ordering during the day Monday, and come Wednesday. Not everything comes in 2 days, but most do, for me, and I'm not in or near a big city. If people don't see value in Prime, they shouldn't pay for it. I see value. Wish it was cheaper though.

 

[24601NoMore]

Yep - they made this change some time ago, and it really makes Prime much less compelling than it used to be.

I still get quite a few shipments in 2 days..but I also get a lot more in 3, 4 or more days than I used to. And we're paying $119/year for this?

On the photo storage - Google offers FREE "unlimited" storage of photos up to 16 megapixels and video up to 1080p. Of course, I'm sure once they get enough critical mass that it will also become a paid service.

I wish Amazon would quit offering us all these "free" benefits (video, photo storage, etc) and just lower the price back to something more reasonable for ACTUAL 2-day shipping. Now that would be worth it..

 

[24601NoMore]

If you're consistently getting items within 2 days of order, that's goodness but also a bit lucky..

Here's what Prime now promises:

A common response from Amazon's customer-service Twitter account to customer complaints reiterates Prime's guarantee: Two-day shipping ensures only that customers will get it within two days from the time it's handed over to the carrier, not within two days from the time of ordering, which is often incorrectly assumed.

"Prime Two-Day Shipping refers to the amount of time it takes for your item to arrive once it's been processed and shipped," the guarantee says. "Some items have longer processing times than others."

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-two-day-shipping-guarantee-confusion-2018-5

For us, Prime has now dropped to around 80% of orders coming in 2 days, 20% or so take longer.