Christmas Shipping

Christmas is just around the corner and if you still have shopping to do, time is running out. Today I received an e-mail from a company from which I planned to get Christmas gifts. The e-mail said that orders need to be made soon if one hopes to receive the gifts before Christmas. Fortunately I had my orders ready and got them in before the deadline. My kids will receive their gifts before that important day in a few weeks.

There are a number of online retailers urging shoppers to get their orders in before it is too late. FedEx has listed the following dates that are important if you want to get gifts delivered on or before December 22nd:

• December 15 for FedEx Ground
• December 20 for 2-day delivery
• December 21 for 1-day delivery

They also go on to list that they will be doing modified home and ground delivery on the 23rd and 24th of December. All delivery services will be closed on December 25th, which is a good thing as I would hate to be forced to work that day myself.

UPS has a similar schedule where they say that December 20th is the last day to utilize 2-day delivery for packages that will arrive on the 24th. They then go on to say that 3-day deliveries sent on the 20th, won't be delivered until Friday the 27th. 

The Unites States Postal Service is also listing dates on their website. They include different schedules for Alaska and Hawaii, which is important. While some of the dates remain the same (i.e. First Class and Priority Mail service) Ground Advantage requires 2 extra days and Priority Mail Express Service 1 extra day. Otherwise the dates look similar to FedEx and UPS.

I want my Christmas gifts to arrive as close to the special day as possible and so some might think I have waited way too long before getting them shipped. Normally I would have to agree with one exception. This year, I have decided to get something that is perishable and so I don't want them to arrive too early. It would also be a huge disappointment for them to arrive late. Hopefully I timed it correctly this year and everything works out. Hopefully you also find the information above helpful this Holiday season if you still have gifts to send.

Direct Mail vs. SPAM E-mail

One of the first things I do in the morning is to check my e-mail. I have two primary e-mail accounts with an additional three e-mail accounts that get forwarded to my primary personal e-mail. That means I have a total of five e-mail accounts for just one person. I have a pretty good SPAM filter that eliminates a lot of junk e-mail but I still have to go through about 25 to 30 junk e-mails every morning. I never even read them. I look at who sent them and maybe the title or subject before clicking the delete button. When I do bother to look at what is in my SPAM folder, there are generally 200 to 300 daily messages that I don't ever even see.

As this week is my son's high school graduation, I am working from home for a couple of days. I just got the mail from the mailbox and noticed there was some junk mail there as well. Unlike my e-mail, I at least looked at the pictures and glanced over the postcards and letters. I also went through every page of a department store catalog advertising Father's Day gifts.

I'm sure that I am not unique. There is an added value to something tangible even if it is a printed piece of paper or postcard. Now did I purchase anything based off SPAM e-mail or junk mail from my physical mailbox? No, but at least with physical mail, I got some piece of the message that was sent.

Technology is like a pendulum in that one year everyone is looking at technology as a huge benefit. Then the pendulum swings and we realize that the original technology wasn't as huge a benefit as we all thought it would be and either move to a new technology or go back to how we were doing things before. Judging from my physical mailbox today, direct mail is making a comeback.