I can’t count the number of times I spend the extra $2.99 on Amazon to have a same day delivery rather than a next day delivery.
This morning I decided to buy the pillow shown on the top of the page. I ordered this at 5:00 AM after a fitful night trying to find a comfortable sleeping position on my side.
Note above that I could have had the item delivered today at no addtional charge if it had cost one cent more. Otherwise it would come tomorrow. If I wanted it today, so I could try it out tonight, I’d need to pay an addtional $2.99. There’s that pesky penny again, as if there’s a difference between $2.99 and $3.00 worth my worrying about.
However, $2.99 to Amazon has to add up to real money if you consider that there are must be millions of people like me who want an item so badly that they are willing to take the split second to click a box on their computer screen.
Amazon knows about this addiction.
I envision an overnight worker speeding through my local vast Amazon warehouse (see “Amazon opens $500 million Oregon warehouse that stocks 40 million products: Look inside”) on a same day delivery vehicle with flashing red and blue lights and a screaming siren. I don’t know if they really have these, but this is what I imagine.
There’s no way I am alone in what I am callling “the must have and must have it now addiction” since Amazon' wouldn’t offer this option if only a small percentage of people were willing to shell out the addtional $2.99.
I admit I’ve paid this not just for items only available on Amazon, but also to buy things I forgot to pick up when I was shopping or that I could drive down to Ace Hardware to buy.
I did this a few days ago when I was working on a project that I needed diamond cut-off wheels for my Dremel rotary tool to complete. I was just too lazy to get in the car and drive for a few minutes to pick it up in a nearby store and save $2.99.
Why, you might, or might not, ask why did I want the diamond discs so quickly? I needed them to cut 6 and 10 inches off the steel bars shown below holding a multi-color dimming lamp over a large flower pot next to my patio:
I maintain the flowers not just for myself and my partner to enjoy, but for everyone else who walks by since they are on a path residents where we live often walk down and I see them admiring the flowers.
We are a nation of impatient people. I don’t know how many of us suffer from a must have it and must have it now syndrome. I don’t even know it it can be called a syndrome or an addiction. I don’t think it’s a true addition since one can stop without withdrawl symptoms. I just see it in myself and with people all around me.
I know it is better for my mental health, and for lots of people’s mental health, to learn how to chill out under various circumatances. Unhealthy impatience could be associated with getting an item they want, but it could learning to relax when you are waiting something good to happen, or it could be when someone is stuck in a traffic jam or waiting for just about anything.
I am not advocating that everyone learn to meditate. This requires discipline and commitment. It is worth a try for anybody and I won’t rule out doing it, but then I am not feeling sanguine about doing it. I think I am reasonably adept at not getting restless or anxious when I know that there’s nothing I can to to speed something up. However, on the $2.99 issue, there IS something I can easily do to speed something up.
I am just saying more people should take a breath, relax, ask themselves if they, for example, really have to have some item, whether it is something they actually need or something they just want, today or whether being impatient is worth $2.99.
Maybe there are times when it is a helpful exercise to resist clicking that Amazon same day delivery box and make yourself wait until tomorrow.
Not every Amazon item comes with a same day option. When I look at an Amazon search page I scroll the pages looking for the item I want that can be delivered in the shortest time even if it costs significantly more money.
This is really nuts. But then again. I don’t see changing this behavior.
I really do want to try that damn pillow tonight! I wonder how much more I’d spend to get it today. I really think Amazon has come up with the perfect amount, at least for me. I would pay an even $3.00, but I don’t think I’d pay $4.00. Even $3.50 might be too much.
11:00 AM Update:
Comments on the news. This is just plain insane. I wonder what Zelenskyy and Macron were thinking. Did they understand the the 4 more years referred to a third term?
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