Light Bulb Quest
A UPS driver’s view of returns, reverse logistics, and why UPS’s pullback from Amazon doesn’t feel like a clean break. When was the last time you visited your local UPS Store? Your answer probably depends on whether – and how much – you shop online. In early 2025 United Parcel Service announced it was reducing […]
Twelve weeks! That’s how long I ended up being laid off from my job as a UPS driver – from the end of February to the middle of May. It’s felt great to be back in ‘browns’ after wearing street clothes for my part-time shifts in the warehouse. I’ve already written about the various elements […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]