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Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

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Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#81

Post by lbatx »

joering2 wrote: post #38
wpietri wrote: post #33

What I wonder: why did it take them this long? Walmart has warehouse-sized stores that are close to almost everybody. And most of America's houses are already visited 6 days a week by a delivery person. Walmart could and should have made a deal with the USPS a decade ago. It would have been great for all concerned. Instead, they let Amazon practically own the concept, eating away at their huge distribution advantage.

Deal with USPS? Would be hard to find a manager who can make this work and not obviously post it as a huge disaster on their resumee. USPS continues to bleed money, is always understaffed, continues to misplace the mail and is bugged with pretty old technology that is hard to upgrade. Add unions to it and you have a perfect government entity altho USPS is not actually a government organisation. If anything it would m…

The USPS is most certainly a government organization. It's mentioned in the Constitution. (that's the first clue). Where people get confused is that it's called a "independent agency" which simply means it doesn't fall under a Cabinet-level post. It is, however, controlled by Presidential appointees (that't the other clue it's part of the government).

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#82

Post by igetspam »

aiisjustanif wrote: post #60
seattle_spring wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That effort does not at all sound worth a $5 Amazon gift card

Or the gas wasted on each trip.

That's covered by Amazon in the shipping cost they pay to move from their warehouse to the USPS sorting facility. USPS isn't making any additional trips to not deliver packages. They drive out to the mailbox cluster every day except Sunday (a day which Amazon also said they'd deliver a package via USPS...) and go no further.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#83

Post by dmonagha »

canada_dry wrote: post #50
igetspam wrote: post #30

I hope they can do a better job than Amazon but I'm not confident. I'm currently gaming their system of one day delivery failure credits because they can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact hat USPS won't deliver to my door and the packages are too large. USPS gets a box, it won't fit, they take it back to the post office and tell me I can pick it up the next day. I contact amazon, tell them it's late because…

I didn't renew my Amazon Prime after they pulled this "one-day" BS on me more than once: https://i.redd.it/p816orvkrr021.jpg Hopefully Walmart will have better shipping logistics.

Not to point out the obvious but your example is an order placed on Cyber Monday...so the biggest online shopping day of the entire year...you might experience a slight delay that week.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#84

Post by Someone1234 »

Target is also experimenting with this locally.

When you order something online, instead of shipping it from a warehouse, it is instead shipped directly from a local Target store via UPS (you can tell from the shipping label). I've had several things delivered next day as a direct result.

The major difference is that Target aren't yet advertising that this will be the case, and therefore don't guarantee it or similar. But I anticipate we'll see Target officially announce this service when they've worked out the kinks.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#85

Post by igetspam »

adam12 wrote: post #69
igetspam wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly but it's no big loss to me. For years I've been a customer more because of my spouse and my now toddler. As she's getting older, driving to the store (she hates cars) is less of a problem. Amazon, on the other hand, has grown increasingly worse in just about every aspect (quality of service, customer service, employee/contractor treatment, civic duties, etc).

You are probably on a list now: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/retailers-are-tracking-...

Probably one of many but to be clear, I'm not actually returning anything. The packages are _being returned_ as "undeliverable." Having never actually had possession of the item, I'm incapable of actually returning it. I've asked Amazon to ship it another way but they can't seem to figure it out. Since I do eventually want the item, I'm hoping it makes it some day.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#86

Post by neilv »

jdeibele wrote: post #52
joering2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deal with USPS? Would be hard to find a manager who can make this work and not obviously post it as a huge disaster on their resumee. USPS continues to bleed money, is always understaffed, continues to misplace the mail and is bugged with pretty old technology that is hard to upgrade. Add unions to it and you have a perfect government entity altho USPS is not actually a government organisation. If anything it would m…

Wow. USPS continues to bleed money but that's due to the mandate from Congress about pre-funding pensions. That's a requirement that nobody else has - see the articles about the 3rd-largest coal company declaring bankruptcy and shedding its pension obligations. Is always understaffed? Yeah, there are lines a lot of the time. So go to USPS.com if you can and buy postage online. Go to the offices that have ATM-like mac…

The unusual pension funding requirement forced on the USPS might be an instance of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#87

Post by neilv »

atwebb wrote: post #48
joering2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deal with USPS? Would be hard to find a manager who can make this work and not obviously post it as a huge disaster on their resumee. USPS continues to bleed money, is always understaffed, continues to misplace the mail and is bugged with pretty old technology that is hard to upgrade. Add unions to it and you have a perfect government entity altho USPS is not actually a government organisation. If anything it would m…

I have had way less issues with USPS than UPS, especially considering the volume of mail coming via USPS. I think it is underpriced for the value it delivers, especially media mail.

I generally really like using the USPS, though not as much as when I could ship a Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box for $4.95. USPS is very effective for some purposes, and I have the impression that, overall, they take integrity of delivery seriously. I also like that the workers are getting pensions, and the ones I see seem committed to the work.

USPS's reputation has also saved a few eBay sales, when the buyer said they didn't receive the item. I ask the buyer to please double-check that it didn't get mixed in with the junk mail or something, and say that, if it's not there, I'll refund them in full immediately and ask the USPS Postal Investigator to figure out what happened. Every double-check thus far has found the package.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#88

Post by netcan »

Delivering physical goods is a surprisingly persistent problem. Circa 2003, my thinking was that by the time amazon inevitably folds and the next generation of ecommerce takes over, commodity delivery systems will have gotten good enough to enable a drop-shipping future. The sites would be aggregators (stumbleupon, digg, etc.) with a good UI and packages would come directly from wholesalers and manufacturers.

Meanwhile, it's the 20s and delivery is still a strategic capability that the largest companies on earth compete on.

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#89

Post by steveeq1 »

igetspam wrote: post #30

I hope they can do a better job than Amazon but I'm not confident. I'm currently gaming their system of one day delivery failure credits because they can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact hat USPS won't deliver to my door and the packages are too large. USPS gets a box, it won't fit, they take it back to the post office and tell me I can pick it up the next day. I contact amazon, tell them it's late because…

Is that an ethical thing to do?

Re: Walmart announces next-day delivery, firing back at Amazon

#90

Post by bob_theslob646 »

It is for orders above 35 dollar and only available on certain items?

How is this a shot back?

Does Amazon have a money printing side business that allows them to subsidize/ keep prices near 0?

Until then, this is the equivalent of pissing in the wind.

If I was an investor, this looks like WMT opex just increased big time.

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