[HN Gopher] The strangely successful history of people mailing t...
___________________________________________________________________
The strangely successful history of people mailing themselves in
boxes (2015)
Author : IAmGraydon
Score : 129 points
Date : 2022-01-27 12:32 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| See the childrens' book "Mailing May", which is (IIRC) based on a
| true story. They put postage stamps on a child and mailed her on
| a passenger train that also carried mail, because postage was
| cheaper than fare for a passenger. They bent the rules that
| allowed mailing live chicks to cover her.
|
| Tangentially related: Duchesne, Utah, wanted to build a railroad
| station, in the hopes of attracting a railroad. They mailed the
| bricks for the station to the town, because mail was cheaper than
| freight rates on wagons.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| I'd remembered a couple in Alaska wanted to build a cabin up a
| river with no road. So they got an address assigned, then
| mailed the building materials a brick at a time. It became the
| Post Office's problem. Had to hire a boat.
| tcskeptic wrote:
| RaMell Ross shipped himself from Rhode Island to Alabama in 2021.
| He has created an installation called Return to Origin currently
| on display at the Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.
|
| I got to see it recently -- it is fascinating and moving.
|
| https://www.ramellross.com/Return-to-Orgin
| selimthegrim wrote:
| The Ogden Museum, it is better known as.
| tcskeptic wrote:
| Ah, thanks for letting me know. It was an amazing visit.
| samstave wrote:
| I'm surprised that "People shipping pods" arent a thing...
|
| Take one of those suicide pods and modify it to support life and
| shipping and handling...
| jjeaff wrote:
| They are a thing. That's what Spirit and Allegiant airlines
| specialize in.
|
| Though I haven't heard their planes referred to as suicide
| pods, it's an apt description.
| parhamn wrote:
| They're called airplanes and we've managed to outsource half
| the shipping and handling to the cargo itself.
| samstave wrote:
| You dystopian heck!
|
| Obv you are correct, but thats not the answer I was looking
| for...
|
| I suppose the 'answer' was "how to ship myself in effectively
| first class for the cost of shipping a box of rocks, as
| opoosed to a first-class ticket"
|
| ---
|
| Sadly, what would the economies of scale be if every first
| class ticket was a pod insert, as opposed to a seat?
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| I'm not sure it would actually be cheaper than a first
| class ticket. I'm not very familiar with cost of shipping,
| so I'm going off very rough numbers her, but [1] UPS lists
| next day air shipping for packages over 100 pounds to be
| between $2 and $7 a pound. Maybe these aren't the correct
| numbers to use, but even if it costs $3 a pound, we're
| looking at $450 for a 150lb person. That's not including
| the weight of any accommodations. And that's assuming
| pretty much the low end of shipping costs for non-human
| accommodations.
|
| [1] https://www.ups.com/assets/resources/media/en_US/cwt-
| rates-p...
| Karunamon wrote:
| Make it so I'm knocked out during the duration and I'd sign
| up in a heartbeat.
|
| The real killer (ha) would be finding a way to anesthetize
| and reawaken the general population in a safe and
| controlled, yet efficient, way.
| samstave wrote:
| Until this is a common form of middle-ish-class travel
| but is used as an effective assassination mechanism...
|
| _" A delegate from the CH to the EU was extinguished due
| to an apparent oxygen regulator that failed and all 100
| of the Chinese Delegation passed during transit due to
| suffocation"_
| belter wrote:
| More interesting, can we talk about the story of people
| successfully emailing themselves...Suggestions?
| [deleted]
| perihelions wrote:
| That's a minor plot point in Stross' _Accelerando_ (although it
| was uploaded lobsters rather than people).
| belter wrote:
| Specifically, the California spiny lobster...
| https://youtu.be/5FjeCBUwxx8?t=2018
| cmusfan wrote:
| This is very dangerous especially if the box gets inverted. Also,
| you might get stuck under other cargo in a non-climate controlled
| storage area, or have a forklift poke into you. Mosy anyone who
| has worked in shipping or receiving has seen really damaged
| boxes.
| jupp0r wrote:
| You also might get stolen from a cargo train in LA!
| Bilal_io wrote:
| Or from in front of your door.
| [deleted]
| trwhite wrote:
| I wonder if being exposed to the (gamma) radiation they scan some
| of these packages with is a consideration.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| Maybe, I heard from Nick Fury that low levels of gamma
| radiation can be harmful.
| rwmj wrote:
| Apparently the box which Carlos Ghosn[1] travelled inside
| couldn't be X-rayed because it was too large.
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan
| hotpotamus wrote:
| Where would they scan packages with gamma? That seems too high
| energy for any imaging, but it's not something I'm super
| knowledgeable about.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| hyperhopper wrote:
| Makes sense. Packages dont host, provide a breeding ground for,
| and spread extremely contagious viruses.
| friendlydog wrote:
| People are refuting it now but China thought that mail was
| dangerous around 9 days ago:
|
| https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-china-
| disinfects...
|
| Also packages contain cardboard which is often host to
| roaches and other plague spreaders, but we both know you were
| referring to a specific virus.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Doesn't make sense, because the vaccine does not prevent
| infection. Meaning the vaccinated are getting infected at
| same or higher rates than unvaccinated, and spreading it just
| the same. Current data for Ontario. 3rd graph. Case rate per
| 100k.
|
| https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data?fbclid=1
| hcknwscommenter wrote:
| Ontario is 89% fully vaccinated by your own link. In order
| to assess whether vaccinated are getting infected at same
| or higher rates (certainly untrue, but that is what you
| assert), you have to adjust for the fact that there are
| vastly more vaccinated in Ontario. A quick and dirty (but
| still pretty good) method is to simply multiply the
| "unvaccinated" numbers in "3rd graph. Case rate per 100k"
| by 10. If you make that adjustment it is quite clear that
| the unvaccinated are getting decimated by infection as
| compared to the vaccinated. This holds for graph 1 (in ICU)
| and graph 2 (in hospital) as well.
| feoren wrote:
| From the link: "Rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 is
| calculated by dividing the number of cases for a
| vaccination status, by the total number of people _with
| the same vaccination status_ , and then multiplying by
| 100,000."
|
| I'm as surprised as you are, but those particular graphs
| do indeed support GP's statement about vaccinated having
| higher case rates. (Doesn't mean the risk is the same:
| are the vaccinated more likely to have parties?) But GP
| has no evidence for the vaccinated "spreading it just the
| same".
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| That makes zero sense what you wrote. You're proposing to
| adjust the numbers twice.
|
| 3rd graph.
|
| January 5th (peak):
|
| 78 cases per 100k people in the unvaccinated group.
|
| 102 cases per 100k people who were double vaccinated
|
| January 26th:
|
| 35 cases per 100k people in the unvaccinated group.
|
| 37 cases per 100k people in the double vaccinated group.
|
| My claim stands that the vaccinated have the same or
| higher chance of being infected based on this data.
| [deleted]
| TheDong wrote:
| There's something weird going on in that graph.
|
| If you click through each age group individually, they all
| show the unvaccinated rate per 100k as much higher than
| vaccinated. Yet, the "All ages" group has the opposite.
|
| That doesn't seem like it should be possible. The age
| ranges supposedly cover every age (0 to 80+ seems like all
| ages to me), and within each sub-group, unvaccinated case
| rates are larger... it doesn't seem possible for the all-
| ages graph to show the opposite.
|
| Do you have any insight into that discrepancy?
| feoren wrote:
| Possibly not what's happening, but this is a well-known
| occurrence in comparing subsets to an overall set. It's
| called Simpson's Paradox:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Yes, they stopped tracking by age, I believe October
| 24th. So when you switch the graph to view by age group
| you're seeing the graph upto October 24th. It shows you
| data before Omicron. There's a disclaimer on top of the
| page explaining this.
| Iv wrote:
| A package has more right to travel than a human. Period.
| melenaboija wrote:
| This made me think on this recent event:
|
| " Stowaway found in South Africa plane wheel at Amsterdam
| airport"[1]
|
| Amazing to survive without oxygen and probably not decent clothes
| at that altitude for that long.
|
| [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60104010
| sandworm101 wrote:
| The lack of oxygen isn't really a problem. At 30-40k feet you
| will likely pass out, but a few hours will not kill a healthy
| person. The cold certainly might, but there is enough air for
| basic breathing needs. Those drop-down oxygen masks on aircraft
| are really not necessary. If you remain calm you will probably
| be fine. If you panic then you will pass out and wake up once
| the plane descends to denser air. I'd be far more afraid of
| being crushed or snapped in half by the hydraulic gear.
|
| There is thinking that those oxygen masks should be removed
| from planes. They have likely never saved a life, but they have
| caused at least one crash after the oxygen generators ignited.
| ArnoVW wrote:
| Loss of pressure at 30k is deadly. In recent history a
| mechanic forgot to reset 'oxygen' to 'auto' after some
| debugging session. The two pilots missed it on their
| checklist.
|
| While they were climnbing they gradually lost consciousness.
| One of the non flight crew ended up being the only conscious
| person on board. When his air ran out, he lost consciousness.
|
| The flight ended when all kerosine was used, by flying into a
| hillside.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522
| tehjoker wrote:
| They would keep people awake and alert even if they don't
| pass out. That's pretty useful in an emergency.
| melenaboija wrote:
| Totally agree, being smashed by the wheel sounds dangerous.
|
| The lack of oxygen for a long period though can have severe
| consequences or even kill someone.
|
| That is at least in the mountain where you need more oxygen
| as you are moving but staying few hours in any condition at
| 30-40k feet still does seem a problem to me.
|
| https://climbtallpeaks.com/how-high-can-you-climb-before-
| you...
| sithadmin wrote:
| 30-40k ft is absolutely a problem. Even if you remain
| conscious, you're completely unable to think coherently and
| generally have no idea what you're doing. Stay there long
| enough and you will unquestionably suffer brain damage and
| probably death as well.
|
| SmarterEveryDay did a good video about hypoxia training
| that demonstrates the very rapid onset and severe effects
| of hypoxia at cruising altitudes:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUfF2MTnqAw
| rezonant wrote:
| You will pass out in 15 seconds no matter how calm you are.
| Then, after 4 minutes without oxygen you will begin to suffer
| brain damage. The oxygen generator the mask is connected to
| generally supplies about 15-20m of oxygen which is more than
| enough as it typically only takes 2-4 minutes for the
| emergency descent the pilot will do after loss of cabin
| pressure, this is of course, assuming the pilot is still
| conscious himself. There are numerous accidents where the
| pilots themselves delay putting on their oxygen masks with
| disastrous consequences, because your critical thinking and
| reasoning skills hit the floor within seconds.
|
| The main point of the oxygen masks though is primarily to
| keep all passengers alert and ready as it is essential that
| at all times an evacuation can be performed in under 90
| seconds. When the passengers are not able to reason correctly
| due to hypoxia, that's effectively impossible. This is what
| could kill you and your fellow passengers if you fail to put
| on your oxygen mask in a pressurization failure incident.
|
| Which incident are you referring to with the oxygen
| generators igniting? Not this one I hope?
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Airlines_Flight_592
|
| > However, the NTSB quickly determined that just before
| takeoff, 144[15] expired chemical oxygen generators, each
| slightly larger than the size of a tennis ball can, had been
| placed in the cargo compartment in five boxes marked COMAT
| (company material) by ValuJet's maintenance contractor,
| SabreTech, in violation of Federal Aviation Administration
| (FAA) regulations forbidding the transport of hazardous
| materials in passenger aircraft cargo holds.
|
| Because that's not exactly the fault of the ones that were
| installed on the plane itself.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> You will pass out in 15 seconds no matter how calm you
| are.
|
| Well, I certainly didn't. In training (military) I did a
| pressure chamber day with 33,000ft breathing (lots of fun,
| do it if you ever get the chance). They took us to 12,000
| in a big chamber and then fed us a reduced oxygen via masks
| to simulate 33,000ft. After about a minute I certainly felt
| effects, but I was very much awake long long after 15
| seconds. I was playing solitaire on an iPad thing. After
| everyone noticed their personal symptoms they switched us
| over to pure O2. Some experienced tunnel vision and such.
| All I ever felt was as slight headache and that I was doing
| worse at the ipad game. I was awake enough to remember the
| Sargent who walked up and down the chamber looking us in
| the eye to see if we were awake. He was scary.
| rezonant wrote:
| You can undergo training to improve function during
| hypoxic events and some people are naturally better at
| dealing with it, but that doesn't mean the general
| population will have the same experience, so I don't
| think removing this vital tool for aircraft safety is a
| good call due to a single incident (let me know if you
| have a reference on that as I'm very curious).
|
| It would make more sense to determine why the incident
| occurred and modify the design of the oxygen generators
| to avoid that scenario in the future, which is what I
| assumed happened.
| morcheeba wrote:
| There are different kinds of training - it sounds like
| you got a good one, but it's not fully simulating a
| blown-door situation. There's a difference between less
| oxygen @12,000ft and the actual low pressure of 33,000ft:
| The higher altitude has about 1/3rd the pressure of the
| lower altitude, so it actively removes oxygen from your
| body (lungs, blood) faster. But simulating with an abrupt
| 33,000 feet would cause ear pressure problems, and it's a
| lot safer (and quickly reversible) to just play with the
| oxygen concentration.
|
| Also, in this thread, I think you all know this, but
| wanted to make sure - a chemical oxygen generator "burns"
| to produce oxygen. The exothermic reaction is started
| with a small explosive; burning means its producing
| oxygen. Of course, in the 592 crash, they weren't
| properly packed with heat shielding, so catching other
| things on fire (plus the excess oxygen) was the cause of
| the crash.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_oxygen_generator
| DarylZero wrote:
| > You will pass out in 15 seconds
|
| You can easily hold your breath or stay underwater for
| longer than 15 seconds.
| LorenPechtel wrote:
| 15 seconds is the time at FL400 and it's not a total loss
| of oxygen, you've got more than 4 minutes before brain
| damage. While a healthy person would probably wake up fine
| after the emergency dive someone who already has health
| issues is another matter.
| rezonant wrote:
| Good points
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Or the other recent events with planes leaving afghanistan with
| people who tried the same on the wheels, but as far as I know
| no one succeded alive.
| rsfayez wrote:
| "As travel technology changed, the romantic notion of a stowaway
| took a hit. " not really sure what the romantic notion was about.
|
| The article definitely reminded me that What We Do in the Shadows
| is literally one of the finest pieces of entertainment the world
| has witnessed.
| brink wrote:
| One of the qualifications for being romantic is being
| irreversible. Once you're in that container, you can't get out
| until it's over.
| qbantek wrote:
| Story is missing a few modern day examples, I still remember this
| one:
|
| https://www.sunjournal.com/2004/08/26/strongcuban-woman-ship...
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Even stranger:
|
| https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4555146/US-parents-...
|
| "At least seven children were stamped, mailed and dutifully
| delivered by the service between 1913 and 1915"
| bell-cot wrote:
| Maybe I'm too old, but these stories amount to "in an old rural
| area, where everybody knew everybody, paying postage on the kid
| provided a decent excuse for Post Office managers to look the
| other way when folks wanted an employee to escort their kid
| somewhere".
|
| When (a few decades later) I first started walking to
| kindergarten as a kid, my mother paid an older (maybe 5th
| grade) neighbor kid 10 cents a day to make sure I got there &
| back okay. (It was a bit over 1/2 mile each way, otherwise
| alone. And 10 cents would easily buy a full-sized candy bar
| back then.)
| technotarek wrote:
| Velvet Underground anyone? Slightly less successful.
| royaltheartist wrote:
| He mailed himself successfully in that song. It was the opening
| of the box where things went wrong
| tlholaday wrote:
| Marcia: It's from Waldo!
| jonstewart wrote:
| That schmuck!
| Optimal_Persona wrote:
| Just like an octopus, hands all over the place!
| skinnymuch wrote:
| First thought. For people not into music or this sort of indie
| rock music. The song is worth a listen for its innovation and
| sleekness at the time. The song, The Gift, is from Velvet
| Underground's 2nd album in 1968. It's long and is all spoken
| word. The story comes out of the left speaker and the rock
| music comes from the right speaker.
|
| The song is influential. The more contemporary 'Undone - The
| Sweater Song' by Weezer in 1994 is influenced by The Gift. Also
| has sleek rock music and a lot of spoken words.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I hadn't heard this before, but it reminds me a lot of "Spill
| the Wine" which was from 2 years later.
| troyvit wrote:
| It has been bugging me off and on for years that I couldn't
| remember this song! Saw this HN article and hoped somebody
| would mention it. Thank you!
| technotarek wrote:
| Here's the song: https://youtu.be/mI-YiaWDgB4
| everyone wrote:
| "like so many rolls of toilet paper from Amazon"
|
| Who the hell buys toilet paper from Amazon!?
| jwdunne wrote:
| My mum did but that's only because there was an insane deal and
| she got 1,000 rolls for like PS10.
|
| Sadly, this was right before the toilet roll shortage from
| panic buying before the first UK wave of Covid and she'd give
| them all away by that point.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| I do!
|
| Toilet paper is the one thing I do not want to run out of, so I
| always have plenty of backup. All of my bathrooms are well-
| stocked, and I make sure there's spare rolls in the basement.
|
| When I replenish one of my bathrooms, if I'm getting low on
| spare rolls, I pull out my phone and order more off of Amazon.
| The price is quite similar to the grocery store, and it's about
| as easy to order more from Amazon as it is to put it on my
| shopping list and buy some at the grocery store.
|
| BTW: I'm not as crazy as my parents. At the beginning of the
| pandemic we all had plenty of backup rolls, but my parents are
| a little neurotic and had my sister and I looking for their
| specific brand. (They think their septic tank will explode if
| they use anything but Scott.) I managed to get a giant box of
| Scott, with plenty of toilet paper for all three of our
| households, sent to my house. My parents refused to use it
| because it was 2-ply instead of 1-ply. When I finally went
| inside of their house when it was safe, they managed to hoard a
| 2-year's supply of toilet paper in their basement.
| dashwehacct wrote:
| Now I'm curious. How many rolls of toilet paper is a two
| years supply?
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| It varies _widely_. For just me, I 'd estimate a two year
| supply of toilet paper is ~24 rolls. For another member of
| my household, well, I doubt a two years supply would
| physically fit in my 3 bedroom house.
| Gunnerhead wrote:
| This was seriously such an interesting anecdote.
| unknown_apostle wrote:
| +1 pls tell us more :-)))))
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| I enjoyed this lengthy soliloquy on toilet paper.
| aurizon wrote:
| Yes, he left location hints on GA, we grabbed his stash and
| are selling it now...
| [deleted]
| hydrok9 wrote:
| my grandfather used to drive to another town half an hour
| away, because toilet paper was one or two dollars cheaper. No
| one could ever convince him that he paid more in gas than he
| ever saved. But he always had a small room full of toilet
| paper! He also kept his bonds in...the trunk of his car.
| mortehu wrote:
| We buy basically everything other than hot food from Amazon.
| Why is toilet paper special?
|
| Going in person to a warehouse style store like a grocery store
| or department store is becoming a quaint experience from the
| past (for us at least).
| everyone wrote:
| Do you live in a weird area? Like very remote or extremely
| low density or something? Or are you just upper class? I
| would assume getting all your groceries delivered from amazon
| would be significantly more expensive than buying them from a
| supermarket.
| ravenstine wrote:
| In the LA area, I've noticed that the vast majority of
| grocery store customers are elderly. It's common for me to
| be the only person under 50, besides sometimes mothers with
| kids in tow or some dude buying beer. Whether I'm on the
| westside or some random suburb, it's like this. Once enough
| of the elderly die off, so will many of these grocery
| stores, I think. One of the few exceptions is Trader Joe's
| for some reason. Even I have been buying more groceries
| online just to avoid the abysmal experience of grocery
| stores.
| hunterb123 wrote:
| Very strange. So people buy their TP online and get it
| shipped to them with more paper around them than it takes
| to make the rolls themselves? Opening, breaking down and
| disposing the box seems much more work and wasteful.
|
| I understand groceries delivered by Instacart etc., but I
| don't understand ordering bulk non-perishable consumables
| online when a one time trip to a wholesale store like
| Sams would be much cheaper and "greener".
| toast0 wrote:
| > Very strange. So people buy their TP online and get it
| shipped to them with more paper around them than it takes
| to make the rolls themselves? Opening, breaking down and
| disposing the box seems much more work and wasteful.
|
| TP ships to grocery stores in cardboard boxes too; if you
| buy the large sizes, they just put the shipping label on
| that box.
| hunterb123 wrote:
| - Stores _could_ recycle /reuse the boxes a lot easier
| and maybe they do.
|
| - You don't have to handle the breaking down and
| disposing yourself.
|
| - How many people doing this are buying 96ct boxes?
|
| - It takes a ridiculous amount of space for last mile
| delivery especially if they are buying the 96ct box which
| would be the closest to efficiency of a wholesale store,
| but still not as good.
|
| I'm not a eco-nazi so I don't really care to squabble
| over emissions, but it's a bit silly, do people in LA not
| do wholesale runs a couple times a year for bulk items?
| It just seems wasteful for the delivery system and
| yourself, financially and otherwise.
| TigeriusKirk wrote:
| I feel like their has to be a business in collecting used
| Amazon boxes and selling them back to Amazon.
| laegooose wrote:
| How is it greener? You drive to a store and back alone;
| delivery driver has multiple deliveries next to each
| other on the route.
| hunterb123 wrote:
| You can buy more in bulk and shipping doesn't just
| involve the delivery driver, whose truck you just took
| 1/4th the space of with TP, requiring more resupply
| trips.
|
| Shipping to a wholesale store is obviously more efficient
| than to the last mile, I don't see how that's up for
| debate. Generally you run other errands as well.
| mortehu wrote:
| You are making guesswork drive a lot of your opinions
| here. Why can you buy more in bulk in person than when a
| truck drives to your building? The concept of "last mile"
| makes no sense for Amazon, since they will drive past
| your address in the suburbs anyway, and in a city they're
| already driving to your building (several times per day
| if it's big).
|
| I agree Instacart is probably garbage for the
| environment, because in the suburbs it's often a
| passenger car delivering for just one household, but
| that's just equal to the baseline.
| hunterb123 wrote:
| There's limited space on that truck, you know that right?
|
| They have to resupply. Bulk TP takes up room, a little
| amount of TP is inefficient.
|
| In no way is getting TP delivered to you ever more
| efficient than buying from a wholesale store.
|
| You're trying to justify it, for whatever reason. I'm not
| advocating to banish it, it just seems silly.
|
| > and in a city they're already driving to your building
| (several times per day if it's big).
|
| Yes they're driving around all day because everyone is
| buying stuff like TP lol.
|
| - edit to reply below because post limit -
|
| TP is a lightweight, large volume package. The more TP
| you order more frequently, the less space the truck has,
| the more amount of resupply trips needed.
|
| The alternative (normal way) I'm proposing is not those
| cars filling the same void as the truck. It's that you
| should buy in bulk those items, directly, less frequency
| and leave more room for mass last mile delivery of items
| that are small / perishable / unavailable in bulk.
| mortehu wrote:
| > There's limited space on that truck, you know that
| right?
|
| What sort of delivery mode is this statement supposed to
| defend?
|
| I deleted a lot of text to substitute this simple
| question: if you wanted to bring toilet paper to all 250
| apartments in our building, would you use a passenger car
| or a truck?
| putnambr wrote:
| These responses are really unsettling to me. For how much
| people complain about Amazon's power and unfair treatment
| of workers, how it ruins small business, moves money out of
| rural areas, how shipping price increases are driving
| inflation, how bad shipping/Amazon is for the
| environment... it's jolting to see people say they order
| not only a lightweight but high volume material like toilet
| paper, but also the majority of their groceries to their
| homes. Everyone I know shops at WinCo, Fred Meyer, Trader
| Joes, and the Co-Op. The only thing I've ever considered
| hitting the 'subscribe and save' button on is a medication
| for my dog.
| siva7 wrote:
| What exactly is more economical on owning a car and
| driving to the grocery store than just ordering it?
| rsj_hn wrote:
| If all you did with a car was get groceries, it would
| probably be more economical to just order delivery. Most
| people use their car for a lot more than that, though.
| mortehu wrote:
| Why exactly do you think in person shopping is better for
| the environment? Studies usually come out in favor of
| delivery.
|
| On top of that we live in an apartment building, and a
| single truck makes deliveries for dozens of, if not a
| hundred, households (there are 250 units, and multiple
| trucks arrive each day). Imagine if all of us drove cars
| to accomplish this instead.
| acheron wrote:
| You would assume wrongly, then.
| everyone wrote:
| Maybe not in some kind of dystopian mad-max land I
| suppose.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| A lot of times when I go to the grocery store I compare
| prices. Amazon is usually similar. (With free shipping)
|
| I can either add an item to a grocery list on my phone, or
| I can just order it from Amazon. I might as well just order
| it and "be done."
| mortehu wrote:
| I live in lower Manhattan. Stores here aren't particularly
| cheap, but I haven't done a thorough comparison. Even if
| the stores were cheaper, the time savings would cover a
| pretty big difference. Having kids certainly increases the
| value of time.
| kube-system wrote:
| For a while, Amazon delivery from Whole Foods didn't have
| any extra fees with Prime, I believe.
| showerst wrote:
| It may be the opposite -- if you live in a city with amazon
| fresh, the prices are about the same as the grocery store.
| Various amazon sales/credits (and cashback from an amazon
| credit card) usually offset the delivery price. If you live
| somewhere where they fulfill whole foods, then those prices
| are the same as well.
|
| FWIW I live in a city and don't have a ton of storage
| space, so getting bulk prices from a warehouse store is
| impractical. TP and Paper towels come on subscribe and save
| and are cheaper than the corner store, and roughly the same
| as the grocery store.
|
| I still shop in person most of the time because I like to
| pick my produce and the substitutions tend to be a mess,
| but delivery is great when things are busy or we want a
| bigger order.
| ReactiveJelly wrote:
| During the TP shortage of 2020, it seemed like the safest thing
| to do
| whatever1 wrote:
| The first time I had to post a mail was when I moved to an
| apartment and I had to send the check to the landlord.
|
| So I wrote my landlord's address at the top and my address below
| it, stamped it and happily posted it.
|
| Sure thing after two days I received in my mailbox my check
| /facepalm
| sandworm101 wrote:
| That is actually an old legal trick. By mailing something to
| yourself you are getting a sealed envelope that is dated by a
| government agency. If you want to prove that you had or knew
| something at a particular time (like a copy of a will or a
| statement by someone) then it is a useful scheme.
| conductr wrote:
| More commonly, to deliver the letter without postage.
| mindcrime wrote:
| That doesn't actually prove anything. Consider: you could
| have mailed an open, unsealed envelope to yourself, and then
| sealed it at any later date.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| If your post office is accepting open envelopes then they
| need to stop doing so. It's not just against various rules
| but can jam the machines that sort envelopes.
| mindcrime wrote:
| You could tack it shut just enough to get by, but not
| actually full seal it. For that matter, you could
| probably just stuff the outer flap down inside the
| envelope and _maybe_ put a very small piece of tape on
| it. Same difference in the end. The point being, mailing
| yourself an envelope doesn 't really prove anything about
| the provenance of whatever is found inside later.
| Verdex wrote:
| I guess you could tape it shut and then carefully remove
| the tape when you get it. Once you have something you
| want to "send to the past" you use whatever natural
| stickiness comes with the envelope.
| samatman wrote:
| Did you write RETURN TO SENDER on the envelope and stick it
| back in the mailbox?
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