[scarab92]

Amazon already delivers to the house next door to yours. The incremental cost of an extra stop is near zero. The efficiency of home delivery vastly exceeds people going to the shops themselves, even if they are stopping at multiple shops.

[paulryanrogers]

> The incremental cost of an extra stop is near zero.

This assumes folks get deliveries on the same day and largely only from Amazon. And that we cannot build more walkable / bike able infrastructure.

[NavinF]

Amazon already gives a discount if you're willing to wait for them to batch deliveries. Personally I would still have an order arriving every other day regardless of walkable/bikeable infrastructure. Same as most Americans.

[antiframe]

Do most American's have an Amazon delivery every other day? It's not what it feels like where I live, but I might live in a part of the country unusually avoiding Amazon. While I see an Amazon truck every day, they visit 1-2 houses around me out of hundreds.

If feels like there are Amazon households that get a delivery every or every other day and non-Amazon households that order 1-5 times a year (if that) and batch their purchases from other retailers (physical or online). That's the genius of Amazon. Those that use them, use them a lot.

[mlrtime]

That's not the real question.... The real question is "On my block, what is the probability of any given house having at least one delivery on any given day"

I can say for certainty that Amazon delivers to my block every day. Adding 1 extra package is definitely more energy saving than me driving to Costco for the same thing.

[lkbm]

> The real question is "On my block, what is the probability of any given house having at least one delivery on any given day"

In the city, I used to see multiple Amazon delivery trucks per day. On the rural road I now live on (dead end road with fewer than 30 households), USPS does most of the Amazon delivery, but this is somehow enough people that we see FedEx and/or UPS drive by pretty much every day in addition to USPS obviously driving by six days a week.

Given that they're also visiting the neighboring roads, it's definitely enough for an economy of scale.

[windowsrookie]

"most americans" absolutely do not have "an order arriving every other day".

I order amazon on average once every 3 weeks. My mother (who has full time career and is under 60 years old) has never used amazon. Other members of my family also seem to rarely use amazon.

Also, having an order arriving every other day is incredibly wasteful.

[NavinF]

No it's not. There's an Amazon truck on my street every day. Adding one more package to that truck costs ~nothing. That's why free shipping is free.