With Christmas approaching, a lot of people are shipping packages these days. A natural question is: how long will it take this to reach its intended destination?
I don’t think it’s “normal” shipping is this slow, but if you happen to have something shipped by the United States Postal Service’s slow service, it might take a long, long time.
Recently I placed an order at Performance Bicycle. I’m not 100% sure where it ships out of, but I’m pretty sure it’s North Carolina, since that’s where the company is located and where returned products are sent. The order was shipped on November 2. Here’s the tracking information:
DELIVERED – KNOXVILLE,TN 11/15/2005 12:02 PM
ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL TO POSTAL FACILITY – DDU CEDAR BLUFF – 379239998 11/10/2005 12:00 AM
DEPARTED – APX ATLANTA 11/8/2005 3:16 PM
SCANNED AT INTERMEDIATE HUB – APX ATLANTA 11/7/2005 11:55 PM
DEPARTED – APX NORTH EAST 11/6/2005 7:40 AM
SCANNED AND ENROUTE – APX NORTH EAST 11/4/2005 9:08 PM
LOAD RECEIVED – APX NORTH EAST 11/3/2005 9:23 AM
That’s right–it took two weeks to go travel to an adjoining state. Once en route, it took a week to get from Atlanta to Knoxville.
I could have ridden my bike over to Chapel Hill, picked up the order, and ridden back in considerably less time than it for the carrier to deliver. So much for that notion of the world getting smaller, eh?