Tech’s Last Mile
Thinking outside the slow lane
Imagine how easy life would be, if big-store tech retailers had downsized themselves into collection points for online shopping. Transitioned out of retail-park warehouses and into high-street shops.
And imagine how easy life would be, if the online stores had materialised on the high street as well. All of them converging on a shopping street near you. With shelves of twinkly little gadgets to look at (and maybe buy) while you wait for your safely stored parcel.
Two days ago, I had a delivery that required a signature. “Oh, that’s okay,” said the man, signing the screen himself.
Yesterday, I had another delivery. Different company. This time, I went down to meet the van. The woman gave me my parcel, and then ran to take a picture of a nearby doorstep — not mine.
Today, I went to the big tech store in the retail park. “No, we don’t stock those any more,” said the man. “But you can still buy them from us online.”
Which is where this story began. I went out — past the unmanned tills — and wrote that down. You can buy from us, but not from our stores…
Online shopping — is what it is. Buying occasionally delicate, sometimes expensive, “this way up”, “keep dry” valuables from a van driver in a hurry.
Yes, I did once get a card thrust through my door with “left in porch” scrawled on it. No, I don’t have a porch. My parcel was outside. Yes, in the rain. No, I didn’t shout after the man running back to his van.
Offline shopping — is buying coffee and a pastry, or a sandwich “on the go”, or browsing through a charity shop. Yes, other shops — mostly small shops, bookshops, a wetsuit shop, postcard shops, lots of empty shops and a new greengrocer — are available, but I’m making a point.
My point is: there’s a disconnect.
On my imaginary planet, the big online retailers have routinely opened small shops on the high street, and/or hooked up with corner shops, so that I can buy online and collect locally. They’ve done it routinely, is my point, so that their accountants don’t chafe at the cost-per-delivery of van drivers and thus ruin the whole experience.
I mean — no offence to van drivers, but — van drivers? This is AI. This is the information superhighway. This is harnessing the power of technology and before that it was the white heat of technology.
Tech bros (where are the sisters?) are supposed to be clever. I can order something, and I can pay for it, but — getting it? Who’s thinking about that?
Yes, I know that I can tick the box for delivery to a collection point, and yes, I know that there’s a collection point at a garage not much more than a mile from where I am now.
But down the hill from me, a couple of hundred steps by the tracker on my wrist, there’s a camera shop that’s diversified into phones, next to a phone shop that now replaces broken screens on tablets as well, next to a vacant premises. Don’t tell me that none of them would take deliveries.
And yes, I have seen pictures of conspicuous little boxes on wheels trundling along with other people’s valuables in them. But … really? On our cobbled streets? Up our steps?
