https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/with-demand-surging-amazon-signals-month-long-deliveries
As the coronavirus has forced millions of families into lockdown, demand for Amazon's delivery service has surged.
To help the company deal with rising demand, Amazon has prioritized several categories of essential items, including baby products, health items, and pet supplies.
[...] An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Recode that these delivery dates weren't a technology glitch—Amazon has chosen to de-prioritize these items in the face of surging demand for more time-sensitive items.
[...] At the same time, Amazon is taking steps to increase its shipping capacity. As we reported last week, the online retailer announced that it was seeking to hire 100,000 additional workers to help cope with rising demand and was raising its minimum pay from $15 to $17 per hour.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2020, @06:51AM (3 children)
I can totally understand prioritizing certain items and classes of items. Those things, absolutely fill orders of those items first, put those boxes on the delivery trucks first, no problem. (and judging from my Amazon searches, little of that stuff is available anymore anyway, at least until they restock)
But flat out saying that you can't get something for a month? Is it that they're giving a date of a month out, and maybe if they can they'll get it to you sooner? I mean, if a particular truck is only half full, and you've got an order for something going that way, and it's already just sitting on the shelf in the warehouse...?
I just wonder if it's really that their logistics is that overwhelmed, or if they're doing it to prevent bad optics... "Grandma couldn't get masks from Amazon and died, because little Billy got his dang Atari game thingie first!"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 24 2020, @08:54AM
Keeping things in stock instead of delivering certainly costs Amazon money. Therefore I would bet that Amazon will ship something if it is in stock and it doesn't interfere with higher priority deliveries.
Note however that the prioritisation will likely not only affect the delivery, but also the restocking. That is, if the item you ordered is not still in stock, it will likely take longer to be available again. Obviously an item that's not in stock cannot be delivered, even if the truck still has space for it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by VanessaE on Tuesday March 24 2020, @12:09PM
They ARE giving dates of almost a month out - April 22 for many Prime items, at the moment.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 24 2020, @01:08PM
My guess, is huge surge in orders from home, for everything. So, they're prioritizing the things that will help keep people alive and sanitary. So, baby food, diapers, etc. for babies, pet food/medicine for pets, bandages, athlete's foot medication, etc. for everyone else. Brick and mortar stores are likely taking a pretty big hit here.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 24 2020, @02:54PM (7 children)
Just doing it like Scotty: say it'll take three hours even though it'll only take an hour. That way you look like a goer!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 24 2020, @05:11PM (5 children)
This happened to me yesterday. I needed a part for a project and got a date of Apr 21. Well, I've been very busy at work and other home projects anyway, so... fine, I'll put that project on hold until next month.
About 10 hours later I get the notification on my phone, shipped. About a month early.
My belief is their logistics algos are breaking down and they're being hard supressed to just mark everything to 4/21. Probably the 21st because the usual goofballs would get all triggered by 4/20.
If you hyper optimize algos to normal conditions, you'll get crazy results when fed unusual conditions. So rather than reporting my part will be delivered in like -3.1415+2i days complete with complex negative numbers and stuff, they hardcode the output to 4/21 until they can fix stuff.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 24 2020, @06:41PM (4 children)
Why would goofballs get triggered by 4/20?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 25 2020, @03:23AM (2 children)
'cos 2/29 is too faaaaarrroutt, man! I once had this uncle who ate Cheetos covered in Ru Paul on 2/29 and it was like 20/20 and Catch 22 all rolled into one giant scene of 2001 A Space Gaudity, what with my Aunt Erma vomiting blood every month and....
...where's my bong?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @06:54AM (1 child)
Erma, or Irma [fandom.com]?
A simple typo, I'm sure... No blood, no foul ;-)
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 25 2020, @10:05AM
No!, YOU'RE crying!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @05:52AM
Cuz they need to unwind, man.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2020, @12:01PM
That's exactly how Prime works. If you remember from when it was announced, non-Prime shipping times increased while the new Prime time was the old standard shipping time.
That's one reason I refuse to purchase Prime.