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Christmas Holiday Online Shopping

A UPS driver’s guide to holiday gift-giving

The National Retail Federation estimates that holiday spending this year will reach a new record of somewhere between $980-989 billion. That’s almost a trillion dollars – in the U.S. alone! (A trillion is a one followed by twelve zeroes.) Meanwhile online shopping, estimated at between $295-298 billion, represents nearly one-third of that total. These figures […]

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Online Shopping

Porch pirates are real-life Grinches. Here’s how to keep them from stealing your Christmas.

Only 26 days separate Thanksgiving and Christmas this year – the fewest number of days possible. That’s not a lot of time to get into or enjoy the holiday spirit! I don’t know about you, but for me nothing kills that spirit more than package theft. According to the latest numbers, as many as 58 […]

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Online Shopping

There are four kinds of online shoppers. Which kind are you?

It’s almost Christmas already! Compared with the previous two years, this year’s winter holiday season (‘peak’) seems to have flown past! Any other time of the year, the UPS warehouse where I work is largely empty after all the package cars drive away with their loads. By contrast, all through peak, piles of packages are […]

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Advice Appreciation Holiday Online Shopping Thanksgiving Workforce

Four practical ways to thank your delivery drivers this holiday season

Thanksgiving two years ago I shared my thoughts about what I was thankful for as a new package car driver for United Parcel Service. Then last year I observed Thanksgiving with a reflection on how the supply chain is really a global chain of human (inter)activity bringing our purchases all the way to our front […]

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Online Shopping Work

Every online shopper should know these 3 things

I could be wrong. I feel like it happens to everyone, but maybe I’m the only one. And I feel like it’s happened to me more than once, but one incident in particular stands out. I was in high school at the time. One day, a member of my daily ‘lunch bunch’ carelessly tossed their […]