
Retailers hide the costs of delivery - CaptainZapp
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/the-myth-of-free-shipping/603031/
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nabraham
We’ve gone from customer pays for shipping, to free shipping, to 25% of the US
prepays for shipping.

After free and faster free shipping, the next best thing feels like predicting
what you want and sending it to you.

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ceejayoz
Amazon experimented with that years ago.

[https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/18/5320636/amazon-plans-
to-s...](https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/18/5320636/amazon-plans-to-ship-your-
packages-before-you-even-buy-them)

> Drawing on its massive store of customer data, Amazon plans on shipping you
> items it thinks you'll like before you click the purchase button. The
> company today gained a new patent for "anticipatory shipping," a system that
> allows Amazon to send items to shipping hubs in areas where it believes said
> item will sell well. This new scheme will potentially cut delivery times
> down, and put the online vendor ahead of its real-world counterparts.

IIRC, they now site the most frequently ordered items in smaller, more
localized distribution centers for quicker/shorter shipping.

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Red_Leaves_Flyy
Grocers have been doing this for decades...

People have been doing this far longer.

There's nothing novel about putting stacks of toilet paper in warehouses near
big populations.

~~~
ceejayoz
Pre-positioning staples like toilet paper isn't new, no.

Pre-positioning a few black truffles because one person thought about buying
them yesterday is, though.

