Buying online

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I keep hearing about the virtues of buying online (say, at Amazon) as opposed to going into a brick-and-mortar store, one of them being that it saves gas. But when you buy something online, isn't gas still being used for you to get your product? You yourself may not be using gas, but the delivery person is, right? Don't they have to pay for the gas?

Somebody has got to pay for it. If you aren't paying for delivery then the cost will be factored into the price of the item you are buying.

If that's your concern about ordering online, think of it like this:

Whether they're an employee and Amazon is paying for gas, or they're a contractor and they pay for it, they're out delivering multiple packages on their route.. which is more fuel efficient than each person driving to a store to buy a single item and drive it home. So, less fuel is burnt. It's comparable to public transportation for parcels. Like people riding a bus, each parcel requires less fuel than individual drivers driving.

Buying things online sucks because you don't get the items immediately after you pay for them, you have to wait for days or even weeks, and the extra cost of shipping and handling for something already expensive is excruciating. But since most of the stores where I live don't have anything halway-decent to suit my special interests or collections, I don't have much of choice.

And I'm always hearing how evil Amazon is. But I think most sellers on Ebay are even more evil because they rip people off. They'll sell something for only ten dollars and then charge eighty dollars for shipping, what is up with that. And since nearly everything I order comes from the US it costs even more. And that's sadly why I could never sell anything I have on Ebay, even if It might get me out of a financial crisis.

If you buy online, the mail or other service delivering the package from the seller's warehouse to you uses fuel.
If you buy from a store in town, the company delivering the product from the warehouse to the store uses fuel & you likely used fuel getting to the store.
No matter which way you acquire the product, fuel gets used, there is no avoiding it.

And fuel was used in getting the product from the factory to either the online seller's warehouse or the retail wholesaler's warehouse.
And fuel was used in getting the raw materials to the factory which produced the product you bought.
And fuel was used in generating those raw materials.
And fuel was used in getting that factory's employees to the worksite so they could make the product you bought.


Whoever is doing the delivery will finance their fuel by using part of the shipping cost they charge whoever is sending the product or package.

When you pay a company for them to ship your package, the money you pay them goes in to the shipping company's account total and from that total is pulled whatever money is needed when it is needed for fuel, wages, vehicle insurance, vehicle maintenance, office leases, office utility bills, advertising, so forth and so on.

Whenever you buy a product, or even a service, you are helping the suppliers to cover the fuel required to get that product or service to you.

Sometimes it's simply the cost of international shipping & what they charge for "handling," the extra paperwork, but, quite often pricing is low on the item and high on shipping because of the way eBay charges it's fees to sellers. They pay a significant % of the sale price to eBay, but not of the shipping price.. so, overall if the market value of the item is $90 including shipping, then charging $10 for the item and $80 for shipping means they get to keep more of the money and pay less to Ebay. Same for all the 1 cent items with $10 shipping or whatever the big divide between item price and s&h.

In order for them to make the same amount from the item if they included shipping they might have to charge $95 or $100 instead of $90 total, so it's potentially a win-win that they structure price & shipping as they do - and only eBay loses out on collecting more fees for the transaction.

Just a simple case of "Tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I'll behave," sort of thing, really.

I know I have to pay for gas to get to and from the store, but don't Amazon delivery drivers have to pay for the gas, too?



I did a Google search on this, and all I got were pieces of information saying that Amazon Flex drivers are required to pay for their own gas. Unless I'm mistaken, I thought Amazon Flex was the same as Amazon and vice-versa.

Why do you care who pays for the fuel in an Amazon delivery vehicle?

It really depends on where you live. I've been getting same-day deliveries for quite a while. If its not same day, then no more than 2 (which I will happily spend $2.99 on to upgrade to same-day.

Because chances are, the vans are gas-powered, too. Or are they actually electric?

Why do you care which fuel they use?

Some are gasoline, others diesel, some may be propane even, and the newest Amazon delivery vans are from Bezos’ electric car company, Rivian. So, those ones are all electric.

No matter the power source, as I pointed out above, delivering dozens of parcels on a route uses less energy than each recipient driving their personal vehicle to pick up one item each.

I like to know how constantly stopping or idling uses less gas in particular I also would like to know how it's convenient for them, the people doing all the driving and delivering. Moreover, they need to pay for gas, too.

I just placed an order, and it doesn't look like it will get here in the two-day period. Instead, it won't be until probably 1/13 and more likely 1/23. So how is that supposed to be convenient?

They shut their vehicles off when they get out to deliver to a door so they’re not constantly idling. It takes less fuel to drive around on a route and deliver dozens of packages than it does for dozens of people to each drive their personal vehicle to a shopping centre and procure one item each and drive it home. I used the comparison to a public transit bus above.

It’s convenient to them to have a job or contract that pays them so they can afford things like housing and food vs no source of income. Did you think they were being inconvenienced and forced to perform this task for no monetary compensation? Did you think they were on their way to their friend’s place or to pick up their children and inconvenienced by Amazon to swing by your place and make a delivery first? Jeff Bezos is a rich as*hole, but Amazon workers and contractors aren’t literal slaves - they do get paid to do their jobs.

Whether they’re employees and Amazon pays for the fuel or they’re contractors and they pay for the fuel, it’s been factored in as a cost of doing business.. they’re in the package delivery business - they know fuel has to be paid for. So what??

1-2 day shipping isn’t on every item. Depends where it’s shipping from. Also depends on the level of shipping service you opt to pay for at checkout. I usually select the free shipping option as I almost never Need something to arrive super quickly that I order from Amazon. Amazon doesn’t default to the free option when I check out, I have to select it. Often it’s as quick as the lower priced paid option, though. Fast 1-2 day shipping is available for a premium price Or for “Prime,” members that pay a subscription service of $9.99/month. I don’t buy enough regularly enough to justify giving them $120/year for faster shipping and almost always I’m able to spend $35 or more and get free shipping. Once in a while items don’t qualify and I pay a small shipping fee, but not $120/year And I don’t Need things in 1-2 days so just wait for them to arrive.

It’s convenient because you don’t have to get in your car and drive around and go shopping at various stores until you find the item and then transport it home. You just click and buy it online and in a matter of days it shows up at your door with nearly zero effort on your part. If it’s something you Needed faster than the shipping time then why buy it online? Go get it locally. Or pay for faster shipping. I’d still rather click and order things I want/need and then wait a week or two for them to show up than go burn fuel and time going to stores looking for things they might not even have in stock or exactly what I want.

Like a book I wanted I checked online and phoned ahead and even though Chapters/Indigo’s system said they had one copy in stock, their inventory count was off and someone had likely bought it that day but it hadn’t updated yet.. so I ended up just ordering a couple copies on Amazon and waiting for them to arrive. (One for me, one for a Christmas gift.) I had previously stopping in a couple bookstores in a mall to see if they had it. Much more convenient than trekking all over the city looking for a book - especially when the Chapters employee told me they only sell that one online and the physical copy they had in store must have been due to a rate returned online purchase.

Up to you to assess on each purchase whether the item + shipping cost and delivery wait time is a good value and convenient enough for your needs or it isn’t and you need it ASAP and are willing to go spend your time and fuel money to see if you can find it Now. I find it better to just plan ahead and wait for it in the mail as I don’t enjoy shopping malls/stores - waste of time and energy unless I’m in the mood to go Christmas shopping to buy gifts for others.

I haven't been on a bus in years, but you need to pay to ride on the bus. I believe that's how they get paid.



That's another thing: what if you order something for Christmas and it doesn't get there until afterwards?

..delivery drivers get paid. When shipping is “free,” the product is profitable enough for Amazon to pay the cost of delivery out of the margins on the product. Whether you pay for shipping as a line item, or it’s included, you’re still paying for it and the driver is getting paid to deliver it. They’re not slaves or volunteers.


If a Christmas gift doesn’t arrive in time for Christmas then you probably didn’t order it early enough to guarantee arrival before Christmas. Sometimes Winter weather interferes and delays deliveries, too. Then what happens is the gift arrives late. Pretty simple stuff. Learn to order earlier next time.

Me & my girlfriend share an Amazon Prime membership & I also order stuff off there for my parents. My parents don't like ordering things themselves online due to understandable concerns about getting their credit-card info stolen & other ID theft so I order for them & they pay me back.
Anyways... Amazon usually does not offer us two day shipping. The Prime shipping is usually a week or two. Amazon waits two days before the items are supposed to arrive before they ship em & UPS moves em fast when they get them. Amazon's shipping time was a bit better before Covid but shortly after Cvoid started Amazon was waiting about a month to ship things for a while. Two day shipping really means that shipping will take two days 1ce Amazon gets around to actually shipping it Most of what I order for myself off Amazon is supplements & I try to order at least half a month before I will need them.
BTW as usual gf, your business sense is spot on. You def have the lobes for business