Opinion: So Amazon reckons it has the best delivery method? It should have met our old postman, says Sharon Griffths.
There is nothing new under the sun – especially when it comes to delivering goods.
When supermarkets started offering home delivery they acted as though they'd come up with a revolutionary idea, when all they were doing was a modern version of what the butcher, baker and grocer had been doing for generations, whether on horse and cart, van or a boy on a bike.
Now Amazon has unveiled a system in which their delivery drivers will use a smartlock to let themselves into your home – all on camera which you can watch via an app on your phone.
Brilliant – but still not as good as when the postman used to leave stuff and every neighbour in the street saw him do it. And you pay for the Amazon privilege – about £190 for the lock and camera.
Meanwhile our delivery drivers and postmen just leave things in our garage, no camera needed.
When I was a child, we couldn't even lock our back door. In the days when holiday makers to Cornwall always used to send tubs of clotted cream back home, I once met our postman in the street.
'Your sister's having a lovely time in Cornwall,' he said, 'I delivered the postcard and I popped the cream in the fridge.'
Beat that, Amazon.
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