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Holiday disaster looms as UPS, FedEx overloaded after online shopping soars
businessinsider.com ^ | Dec. 11, 2015 | Hayley Peterson

Posted on 12/12/2015 9:12:24 AM PST by PROCON


An unexpected surge in online purchases is putting pressure on UPS and FedEx to get packages out on time this holiday season, and that could result in extra costs for retailers.

Retailers like Target broke online-sales records on Thanksgiving Day and the following Monday this year after luring shoppers with discounts.

Broadly, online sales from the long weekend totaled $11 billion this year, according to Adobe Digital Index.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: christmasshopping; etail; fedex; ups
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To: jocon307

21 posted on 12/12/2015 9:36:47 AM PST by sparklite2 (Islam = all bathwater, no baby.)
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To: Bryanw92

I understand Amazon owns the company that makes the robotic equipment. Perhaps that’s where their problem is.

You are wise to keep up your tech skills. Windsor, CT needs you whether you know it or not! ;)


22 posted on 12/12/2015 9:37:28 AM PST by Daffynition (*Gun control is a tool to make innocents pay the price for the guilty* W.LaPierre)
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To: PROCON

While I think terrorism has to be on peoples’ minds, I think other issues (like the economy) play a large role. Here in NJ we have plenty of malls, but no economic recovery; the few times I’ve been to them over the past couple of years there are people walking around but few carrying any packages. A lot of them are foreigners, and they look around as though they are in a museum.

Also, malls are one of the few places in this very segregated state where one would encounter young ferals.


23 posted on 12/12/2015 9:37:57 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: jocon307

Anything we’ve ordered has arrived very quickly here in NJ; I noticed this over the past few weeks, and have experienced it over the past few years (outside of the holiday season). I assumed it was part of the general economic malaise here; few people have money to blow on toys anymore.


24 posted on 12/12/2015 9:40:18 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Daffynition

Nah, they are sending the packages to India so the local drivers can deliver them to deserving families there. Drivers are a lot cheaper in India than the U.S. All part of cost cutting. Trust me on this.


25 posted on 12/12/2015 9:41:28 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: Daffynition

>>I understand Amazon owns the company that makes the robotic equipment. Perhaps that’s where their problem is.

That company probably uses off-the-shelf components from the big automation companies. Most large companies build their own equipment to meet their exact requirements, but they do it with tried-and-tested components.


26 posted on 12/12/2015 9:43:10 AM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: kearnyirish2

My wife was at the Stanford Shopping Center (the huge upscale mall in Palo Alto, CA) one night this week an commented how empty it was. This is ground-zero of the high-tech explosion where there aren’t enough workers for all the available jobs.


27 posted on 12/12/2015 9:43:27 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: Daffynition

>>Windsor, CT needs you whether you know it or not! ;)

What’s in Windsor? I know that NPTU Windsor shut down long ago.


28 posted on 12/12/2015 9:43:57 AM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Bryanw92

I don’t have any info on what ‘zon uses. But they have holes in their logistics stream ...don’t know if it is self-inflicted or not.

A guy on my street works for them ....most days last week, he was sent home early or had no work at all.


29 posted on 12/12/2015 9:48:39 AM PST by Daffynition (*Gun control is a tool to make innocents pay the price for the guilty* W.LaPierre)
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To: real saxophonist

Last year, I saw UPS vans pulling trailers that they would drop off in a neighborhood, and packages being delivered by a guy riding an ATV.


30 posted on 12/12/2015 9:49:07 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Bryanw92

Amazon

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24042772/amazon-distribution-center-coming-to-windsor


31 posted on 12/12/2015 9:50:13 AM PST by Daffynition (*Gun control is a tool to make innocents pay the price for the guilty* W.LaPierre)
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To: PROCON

Our USPS carrier just delivers mail to our rural box. Packages come later in the day from part-timers in their own cars. We’re told there’s no room for the packages in the usual delivery vehicles.


32 posted on 12/12/2015 9:50:20 AM PST by ntnychik
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To: Bryanw92

KIVA Systems

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/amazon-com-buys-kiva-systems-for-775-million/?_r=0


33 posted on 12/12/2015 9:52:27 AM PST by Daffynition (*Gun control is a tool to make innocents pay the price for the guilty* W.LaPierre)
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To: Daffynition

I live in an apartment building and it ASTONISHING how many boxes delivered to the mailroom.

I’m an on-line shopper myself and wish it had been around when I was working.

.


34 posted on 12/12/2015 9:53:39 AM PST by Mears
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I noticed the same thing last weekend at a mall here in NJ; I normally couldn’t park so close to the doors any time of the year, and yet was probably 25 yards from the entrance. When I commented on this to my wife, she thought it was because it was early in the Christmas shopping season.

Years ago I would be in various pubs & restaurants and was shocked at how managers were in absolute denial that their businesses were facing a long-term decline in business as northern NJ circled the drain economically. Each would have various excuses, that became increasingly lame as the months and years passed; their clientele had either run out of money or simply moved to greener pastures, and their business models were no longer working. Even the businesses that catered to our huge illegal alien population suffered as those that were here for work instead of freebies moved on; the corners where “day laborers” had congregated in the past have been vacant for years now. In good times they had been a gold mine for bars and restaurants that served their favorite food/drinks (as many were single young men); once they left, there were few people left that drank Coronas or ate fast-food-type Latino fare.


35 posted on 12/12/2015 9:58:24 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2

Restaurants are packed here, even during weekdays. I had dinner with a friend on Thursday night and by 6:45 PM, there wasn’t a single table available. Amazon et al are really hammering brick & mortar retail this year.


36 posted on 12/12/2015 10:01:53 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: Mears

I haven’t had USPS mail for 3 days due to a storm tearing the roof off and flooding the transfer post office in Spokane twice...once in November and again more recently. I’m waiting for several packages. Sigh.


37 posted on 12/12/2015 10:03:17 AM PST by IM2MAD (IM2MAD=Individual Motivated 2 Make A Difference)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Certainly sounds like it.

I was in a restaurant in Newark NJ’s “Ironbound” section last year, and couldn’t believe how empty it was (especially considering there were World Cup games going on). These restaurants had been a huge attraction in the past; I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. I asked a waiter what was going on, and he said they really only got a little busy on Friday nights.


38 posted on 12/12/2015 10:05:33 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: PROCON

A lot of former seasonal UPS guys are now driving for Uber.


39 posted on 12/12/2015 10:14:17 AM PST by Boardwalk
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To: Bryanw92
Employers just keep getting more and more desperate as my generation retires and no one steps up to learn to maintain automated machinery.

Yep. There was a piece in the Reading (Pa) Eagle a while back on the local tech school's industrial automation classes. IIRC grads have a better than 95% placement rate. And it's getting ever more technical.

40 posted on 12/12/2015 10:17:26 AM PST by pa_dweller (Sometimes a demagogue is what's needed to shake things up.)
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