Day 18 – “DELIVERY”
During the month of April, I’m writing 30 Words for 30 Days: Thoughts from Six Feet Away, one topic per day. Find out why here.
“DELIVERY”
Delivery has quickly become one of the most valuable words in our culture today.
As we’ve shifted to lock-down and isolation, with many businesses closed and restaurants shut down or limited, delivery has taken on a new importance.
You’ve Got Delivery
For those cooped up inside, the site of a UPS, Fedex or Prime truck pulling up outside can mean not only the arrival of goodies but also a welcome interjection into the everyday sameness.
Even if the goodie is just a bulk package of toilet paper.
Almost like the old AOL email ding with an announcement of “you’ve got a delivery”, the sight of these trucks elicits an excited response.
I picture parents, working from home, helping their kids with school, exhausted and bleary-eyed, pushing their kids out of the way to rush to the door to not only retrieve their special package but to also utter words of thanks to the fellow adult bearing this gift of joy.
Perhaps we’ve started to order more online out of convenience.
But I argue that there is an equal possibility that it’s just to bring some excitement to otherwise lifeless days.
I believe that the modern Prime truck is now the parent version of the ice cream truck.
Amazon could just put random packages in the back of a Prime truck, drive slowly through the neighborhoods blasting 80s hits, and make bank by stopping and selling random packages to parents in the neighborhood through a side window.
Food Headed Your Way
When I was little, I can remember getting pizza delivered.
It was almost magical. This guy shows up at the door, you pay him some money and then you get to enjoy the cheesy, pepperoni-laden goodness without stepping foot into your kitchen.
Back then, even if the pizza tasted nasty, the fact that you could get it delivered in thirty minutes or less was enough to counteract for that.
For years, the pizza industry owned delivery. I don’t remember any other food getting delivered.
But in the past decade that has all begun to change, with the rise of Uber Eats, Door Dash and more offering delivery of just about anything you want.
Even so, I wonder how much they really accounted for restaurant sales.
And then this happened. COVID-19. Lock-down. Restaurants shut down or at the least forced to deal with a new reality.
Food delivery has suddenly taken on a new light and importance.
Knowing that you can’t physically go and hang out at that restaurant, why not just hang at home and still enjoy the same food?
I know this has much easier for some than others. Some are just not set-up for that.
But I have wondered how things will change when restaurants do open back up.
Along with offering the same ambiance, service, food and community within their walls that everyone has come to enjoy, perhaps they will be able to have grown an additional following in the delivery sphere; and so, grown their reach.
I hope that’s true.
I have so much more to share about this… but a truck pulled up outside and I need to run. Hope you understandÂ đŸ™‚