HDTV Almanac - You Want It When?!?

[alfredpoor]

The Internet changes everything, or so they say. Look up information and it’s delivered to your screen at the speed of light. (Okay, maybe not that fast, but a lot faster than if you had to drive to the library.) But the Internet geeks still haven’t figured out how to deliver physical stuff over broadband. [...]

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2009/12/hdtv_almanac_you_want_it_when.php]Read Column[/url]

[stevekaden]

So is this in the same line of history as the invention of the Deli delivery service? New Yorkers really know how to do business.

[alfredpoor]

To promote the service, J&R even handed out flyers that looked like a Chinese restaurant take-out menu, but listing special deals on electronics. It's pretty funny, but I bet it works for a lot of New Yorkers.

Alfred

[stevekaden]

It would work for me (at least?) out here in LA. (If they could deal with the traffic - sans subway.)

There have been lots of times I am in the middle of a project, where I could have ordered the parts/cables I need, and continue to do other aspects of the work. I'd gladly pay for the service. Driving/shopping time can add up and has it's own cost impacts.

In fact, where it could be really used a lot is in the context of home maintenance and repair (eg. Home Depot) . It would just takes a good web site. And there are probably plenty of people out of work that would be glad for the opportunity, and could do it with an ordinary car - leaving the big stuff for normal delivery trucks.

[GiovannaVisconti]

Oh, get real. Maybe it might work in other cities or towns, but if you live in NYC (ESpecially in the "outer boroughs!") you know what a joke this kind of thing usually turns out to be. When? Uh, "sometime between 8 and 4...". You can then hope things actually will arrive within those eight hours. And, of course, if you're working...you don't have all day to be imprisoned in your apartment. Few buildings have supers available (they're busy with other things) to receive packages, and...well, you get my drift. Not blaming the retailer, it's just a fact of living in this town.

Nice try, J&R, but when you're pushing, shoving and careening through and around city traffic AND adding nearly $100 to the final tally-plus-NY-tax, it's worth it to (this) customer to use delivery the "old fashioned" way: UPS or FEDEX. Least then you pretty much KNOW when a package will arrive...and you can monitor it's progress...how? uh, ONLINE. (!)

[stevekaden]

I was thinking of the concept as deliver to a "work" location - not a 'home' one. In other words you are at a work location, not at home unless you work at home.

Thus you would be there to get the package....asap. For ordinary fast delivery, conventional would be hard to beat.

For the general case that J&R might represent, there would also be no deliver to shipper delay - the time it normally takes to get the item to the shipper - which can be a few days with some vendors.

In the you aren't there to receive case, if you can't have an item dropped off (safe at the door, or a neighbor for example) this would not work so well.

[GiovannaVisconti]

Sorry, Stevekaden, just a disgruntled New Yorker here who basically hates this town--and everything that means. Good ideas most frequently turn into hassles here.

[stevekaden]

Hey, I can commiserate, I have been to NY a bunch (but as an out-of-towner it still has it's charm). I can't tell you how much LA has beat the stuffing out of me. Can't find middle ground between expensive car mechanics and idiots! Both costing a fortune in a town that eats cars (not rust but wear and tear). And then there is every other imaginable expense chasing us - like houses! (but still cheaper than NY! I think.)

Definitely the cost for the delivery service is alot. It would have to be for the rich or really in a hurry.

BTW bundle up, we're sending you all a few wet storms!