1.5 million packages. Charge $1 per box surcharge....clogging our streets with trucks, ridiculous packaging and blighted store fronts because people are too lazy to walk to a store.
Even if people curtail online buying, is that not enough $ to NYC to help with some of our staggering issues?!?!!!!
Online orders are really taking a toll for those such as myself. Having to work at the pre-load shift over at Fed Ex Ground, the volume really shoots up this time of year. At this time, there have been days where I have start even earlier and work an extra day with longer time on some of them just to keep and it hasn't been very easy doing that. I come home feeling very swamped from that day. Unfortunately, I still have to put up with this for about another three weeks when Christmas comes and things will start lessening out and things will go back to normal. Adding insult to injury, I still have to do a lot of errands throughout the day with my family after coming home as if I'm doing extra shifts.
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Regarding the constant flow of delivery vehicles, there needs to be a concerted effort to transition to electric vehicles. Since it appears from recent reports that, because of the 2017 "tax break" (for rich and companies only), some of the delivery companies pay no federal tax (looking at you, FedEx). The city could charge a tax on all delivery vehicles, based on size of the vehicle, to help pay for infrastructure and traffic patrols. But the companies could get a reduced tax if their delivery vehicles were electric. This may not get rid of the vehicles completely (not EVER likely), but it would reduce their impact, both environmentally and logistically.
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Truck deliveries: This is not just an NYC problem; trucks deliver all over the country every single day.
Further, to bring this item up at holiday time - when the NY Times and many other publications benefit enormously from PAID ADVERTISING designed to get people to BUY more stuff - is disingenuous at best!
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@L - regarding " is disingenuous at best!" - It's interesting that you have that reaction to what I've tended to see as a good thing, the best of the press being willing to discuss matters their publications that are actually not in that very same publication's best financial interests. And yet it's gets circular - if you can follow this convoluted logic, which I think I understand fully so I hope I can say it right:
The fact that the Times is willing to risk opening readers' eyes to things that could hurt the Times' financial interests actually becomes impressive and generates more clicks, and even gets more people to read the Times, so maybe that ultimately benefits the Times!!! (or any other press outlet that does that)
If needed, I can draw a flowchart. :). There's no tax planning work in Trump Mnuchin tax reform for individuals - so I'm always looking for things to do financial analysis on, LOL.
Just a quick word about Bodegas.
No offense. But nothing makes me cringe more than to hear all these newcomers to the city moon over how great their bodegas are, when more often than not they are part of the reason why neighborhoods are changing and bodegas are shut down due to escalating rents.
Yes. There was once a time when these Mom & Pop stores were the center and heartbeat of the 'hood, a place that offered any type of food 24/7, and comfort when you needed it.
Amazingly, they had everything in a store half the size of an average studio apartment, not to mention having the ubiquitous bodega cat and you could sometimes barter with the prices.
But like everything else, they're slowly fading into memory and nothing -- outside of new commercial rent laws will bring them back.
There's still one holding on in my neighborhood.
Thank goodness!
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@N. Smith
Moved out of Manhattan. Bodegas are ubiquitous in the outer boroughs.
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Milk's too often sour.
And when there are three 24-hour deli-bodegas within three blocks of one another, don't know what else they're selling -- not at 2AM.
Not enough cab drivers coming home at that hour even in my neighborhood.
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@B. - regarding the milk,
Back when Kathy Griffin used to kid Anderson Cooper for being out of touch with regular people for not knowing how much milk cost, I realized I almost never knew how much ANY individual item I bought at a bodega cost, just if the total didn't seem like too much for what I got, I didn't even ask for the receipt. Somehow, in the Food Emporium, where you think you're dropping in for three or four things, but you see the line so figure you might as well buy ten items while you're there, those register receipts that now shoot out yards of coupons are so clear that it's almost impossible not to read it while waiting for the elevator (and really seem to want me to have a great day since I spent money there).
I'm definitely paying more per item for the bodega's convenience, but I'm also buying less stuff on impulse.
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The trucks park in front of taxpaying stores whose owners are responsible not just for paying taxes but for the cleanliness of the sidewalks, and undercut them.
This is an imbalance that must be addressed.
Tax delivery trucks, thus allowing the stores to compete fairly.
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There should be more mention of the enormous environmental impact of e-commerce in NYC.
Not just vehicle pollution but boxes and plastic packing.
While delivery is a necessity for many elderly and disabled and those without transportation, it is appalling that in walkable NYC, so many able-bodied people will no longer walk a few blocks to a store.
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@SLM
I'm reasonably able-bodied and Amazon has a greater selection and better prices (which matters to me). I can much more easily research products by reading descriptions and buyers' reviews and can do it at my desk. I do try to support brick-and-mortar stores, but frequently can't get any assistance when I need it. I hate waiting in a long line when I could be doing something else. It's boring and stressful.
You need to address the realities of why people use delivery services instead of simply shaming them.
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@Lifelong Reader
Respectfully - last year we (parents and kids) made a conscious decision to significantly reduce Amazon purchases. We walk, take the bus, shop locally, including small stores when feasible. We wait on line, even if it is boring. Yes we may pay more but it seems worth it to support the neighborhood and be mindful of the environment. (There is no Planet B).
Regarding Amazon prices, it is worth noting that few of us would want our salaries reduced or to lose our jobs to a "cheaper" employee, but somehow we are OK with using Amazon because it is cheaper....
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@SLM
I don't have transportation and grew up in an outer borough that required us to take three buses to visit a nice grocery store. I'm not taking a bus to go grocery shopping. If it's a small amount, I'll walk 10 blocks and carry my purchases home, but if it's a lot, I need to use a delivery service.
I don't know anyone who uses Amazon who doesn't support better working conditions for its employees. Jeff Bezos, its Board, and its shareholders are in a much better position to institute change.
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The delivery bikes are a welcome addition, but what New York City needs is a law setting a minimum size for a package eligible for residential delivery by truck. Packages smaller than the minimum should be brought to a local distribution center, perhaps located in storefront that has been otherwise left vacant due to the rise of online shopping.
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It's hard to object to the introduction of more works by people of color in the curricula of a public school system that is majority minority as long as the new books introduce the same language concepts. The article didn't describe the materials used: Are they generic readers, classic children's books?
But I'm skeptical enough to expect in five years a new excuse for low reading scores.
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This article and Amazon's behavior assume that consumers are demanding immediate delivery and the trucks need to keep rolling. But that demand is a marketing strategy pushed by Amazon.
I would prefer delivery in 2 or 3 or more days if it allowed deliveries to be consolidated so that the trucks on my block came only every other day. And that shift in reduction in delivery speed would not only reduce truck traffic and make my neighborhood more livable, but would also make my local stores more competitive.
If Amazon et al can't come up with a system by themselves, City Hall should pilot a new alternate delivery days model.
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@mg
Fast delivery is more than a marketing strategy. Customers love the fast response and some (the homebound because of age, disability, caretaking or childrearing responsibilities) require it. It also makes up for not being able to see the product in the store: if it's not what you expected you discover quickly and can send it back.
There are arguments against the delivery services, but customer indifference is not one of them.
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"A 14-year-old was among the casualties this year in a Queens neighborhood ravaged by gun violence."
As adamant as I am in regard to gun control -- there is no reason for anyone other than a soldier (or a cop, depending on circumstances) to wield a military-style gun -- I also know that competent, civilized people can own guns and not wreak havoc in their communities.
Vermonters own a lot of guns. They don't go on shooting sprees every weekend, the way young men in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens do.
And if Democrats and their legal experts don't stop shooting off their own feet, Donald Trump will have four more years, and we'll have no hope of any semblance of gun control.
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I would consider the fact that major mass shootings have happened everywhere, not just Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Not sure why you’re calling out minority-heavy boroughs versus Vermont (???) when the majority of mass shooters have been young white dudes in the suburbs.
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Maybe young men in VT are going out on shooting sprees, but not hitting anybody because there is nobody outside of their front door. There are only 650,000 people in ALL of VT. I hear gunfire off in the distance all the time while outside working.
Obviously mass shooters tend to be white and either antisemitic, homophobic, or racist. But I live here, in New York City, and my point is that guns are problems, but gang members are more problematic than the guns they carry.
As I said, Vermonters own guns but don't turn them on one another. Inner-city gangstas get guns precisely in order to shoot one another.
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Is there no offset to the fact that these people are going out physically to a store? Does that not count for something?
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