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Amazon appears to 'brute force' logistics. USPS, UPS & FedEX seem to be better at this. We can have 3 trucks in my small 12 house edition but the other guys onl

Amazon appears to 'brute force' logistics. USPS, UPS & FedEX seem to be better at this. We can have 3 trucks in my small 12 house edition but the other guys only have 1 each. (That's why I call it brute force.) I don't believe Amazon is a logistics company... or not a good one.

PaulHoule 4y ago
Articles about their logistics business make it sound like it is all about exotic performance on the last mile but that seems silly to me. A UPS truck comes out to my rural neighborhood every day, 2-day shipping from the Northeast is straightforward in an efficient ground network. 3-day shipping from Texas to Upstate NY is straightforward. The difference matters because 2-day shipping competes strongly with going to the store. It is faster to drop everything and go to store than buy something online. Even finding time to go the store in the next 2 days can seem a hassle but in 5 days I can batch the trip with something else and with less pressure it seems fun to having an outing rather than a hassle. It's a change that makes AMZN go from being the first place you go to shop for something to the last. Now maybe it is different in urban areas, you really do appreciate the saved time when AMZN zips out three motorcyclists to deliver you three separate packages in one day. If that's what it is Amazon will really have the largest logistics network but the least cost-effective and that's not good for profits.
kobalsky 4y ago
isn't brute force the modus operandi of behemoths burning money to establish monopolies? as mentioned they are bigger than FedEX already. what will happen when the biggest ecommerce doesn't use FedEX, UPS, USPS anymore? what will happen when other sellers have trouble getting packages to customers because some delivery zones are dominated by Amazon and they become unprofitable routes for other couriers? why do you think Amazon launched the Buy with Prime button for third party sites?

PaulHoule 4y ago

Articles about their logistics business make it sound like it is all about exotic performance on the last mile but that seems silly to me. A UPS truck comes out to my rural neighborhood every day, 2-day shipping from the Northeast is straightforward in an efficient ground network. 3-day shipping from Texas to Upstate NY is straightforward. The difference matters because 2-day shipping competes strongly with going to the store. It is faster to drop everything and go to store than buy something online. Even finding time to go the store in the next 2 days can seem a hassle but in 5 days I can batch the trip with something else and with less pressure it seems fun to having an outing rather than a hassle. It's a change that makes AMZN go from being the first place you go to shop for something to the last. Now maybe it is different in urban areas, you really do appreciate the saved time when AMZN zips out three motorcyclists to deliver you three separate packages in one day. If that's what it is Amazon will really have the largest logistics network but the least cost-effective and that's not good for profits.

kobalsky 4y ago

isn't brute force the modus operandi of behemoths burning money to establish monopolies? as mentioned they are bigger than FedEX already. what will happen when the biggest ecommerce doesn't use FedEX, UPS, USPS anymore? what will happen when other sellers have trouble getting packages to customers because some delivery zones are dominated by Amazon and they become unprofitable routes for other couriers? why do you think Amazon launched the Buy with Prime button for third party sites?