Amazon and online shopping have made buying anything you want a simple matter. But actually getting your hands on it has become annoying; either you have to fill out UPS notes, ship them to work, install a lockbox on your porch, or just hope your package isn’t stolen. Fortunately, Parcel has a new solution: Actually delivering your packages to your house when you’re there.
It’s pretty straightforward: Instead of shipping a package directly to your house, you ship it to Parcel’s mailing address in your city. Once it shows up, you get a text asking when it should be dropped off between 7pm and 11pm. Then, you just get your package.
The downside is that if you get a lot of packages, this will rack up costs fast: Parcel charges $5 a pop to deliver your packages when you can actually receive them. Also, it’s currently only available in the New York City area, and there is some question about how Parcel will expand as it adds more members and has to service more addresses.
On the other hand, it’s tempting to sign up for the service if you’ve ever had to fight to actually get your packages, which you paid for, delivered to your house. The problem with many package delivery services is that the delivery driver can essentially hold your package hostage if they feel like it, or are too dumb to figure out the concept of “put it in the box”, or in my case saw all the brown kids going to the elementary school down the block and decided that it was an “unsafe neighborhood.”
In other words, paying the five bucks to cut that guy out of the equation is something you will seriously consider at some point. And Parcel might be there to collect it.
(Image courtesy of Jeremy Vandel on Flickr.)