Ethics of home delivery of non essentials.

[Snaleandthewhail]

Next isn’t delivering. Other major retailers have reduced their range and delayed their delivery times. But there’s a lot of stuff you can still order for home delivery.

If a company is trading and open and delivering, is it ethical to use its services to deliver non essential things which put more risk on to everyone involved in fulfilment and logistics?

I’m obviously not talking about food or medicines. Then there’s a whole range of consumables-but-not-essentials (paint and glue at the moment for my kids). But say - the new flat pack bed you’d been meaning to buy for your child growing out of their cot, or the set of saucepans you’d been saving up for. Stuff you would have bought, could still buy, but could wait six months...

I’ve ordered a few things (books/crafts stuff, printer paper/ink and birthday present for DC). However, I try to be careful about where I shop as a general rule and would never order from ASOS or Amazon again after the way they’ve been jeopardizing their staff’s health during this crisis.

I've bought plants( local nurseries are being crippled by this lockdown) ...I'm shielded so can't even go for a walk outside my house....my garden is maintaining my mental health and allowing me to exercise and I realise I am privileged in that I have a garden

I'm waiting for a huge refund from a very posh hotel where I had paid for 1 night of a 2 night booking and The Royal Opera House for cancelled performances.

When I get the money some of it will be spent on another dress from this company. All their dresses are made in the UK.

palava.co/

If I run out of tea I will order from the local, independent tea merchant I always buy tea from. Their shops are shut but they are still selling online.

I have a small ebay business. Sales were getting worse and I was thinking of packing it in but these last few weeks it's been manic. I give the packages and the bag handle a spray of anti bac. The postmaster wears gloves and takes my bag through a hatch that I leave in. None of it is essential items, mostly gifts for others as I'm often asked to change addresses or add a nice message to the invoice. If they stopped buying I wouldn't starve but I'd miss the money

@perniciousdot how did you find out that Next is reopening next week?

We bought a lot of plants etc from the local garden centre, I believe it is really important to try and keep local businesses going, my teenage DS bought darts & a dartboard to keep him occupied... as PPs said the future of the economy is going to be a far bigger problem that a few weeks of lockdown ?

I was shot down on a Facebook group for saying keeping the economy going is important. This virus will be the tremor before the earthquake if the economy collapses.

I bought this last week by mail order. It's sold by Joules but made by a company in Leicestershire

www.joules.com/Home-Garden/Kitchen-Textiles/Cross-Back-Apron/Navy?size=One-Size&id=FOJ|2155|APRON-NAVY|Navy|One%20size

I've been ordering load online .. DD has no summer clothes whatsoever so I've had to order her some so she doesn't boil alive in the hotter weather, I've also ordered her stuff so life is more bearable at home - a balance bike, craft stuff etc.

I also want to sort my skin out properly whilst I don't need to wear make-up so I've ordered new skincare regime products. And a tonne of loungewear & sports bras/bralets because I never want to wear a bra again!

Oh, and a monitor for work.

how did you find out that Next is reopening next week?

It has been widely reported in the media today.

I'm buying things that aren't at all necessary but nice to have, but trying to buy from Ireland only to support local business here. The places I buy from are often family business so they will be isolating together anyway, and everywhere that isn't a family business has quite clear info on their website about how they are keeping their staff safe. We are also ordering the occasional take away from places that are still open, they all do contactless delivery now.

Some small businesses are actively encouraging online orders as this is the only way they can keep the business going.
For example small coffee roasters who normally supply cafes have lost all that business and only have retail customers keeping them afloat. Farmers market stallholders likewise have lost their in person customers, so online ordering can be a lifeline. I saw an article about small artisan cheesemakers worried about having to potentially throw away some of their products due to falling demand and encouraging people to order online, with a list of links.

I recently ordered freshly roasted and ground coffee and some biltong (from two different places) both arrived by post and fit through the letterbox (so minimum contact). Both arrived with a nice personal handwritten note, thanking me for my order and for supporting them, which I thought was a nice touch.

I tried to order some Aromaco deodorant from Lush yesterday, turns out their website is closed for the foreseeable, I'm gonna stink, but hey, it does seem like they might care about their staff? (Not too sure about that though, dunno if they're being paid.)

I get packages everyday. Always have.

I know a fair few small businesses who are desperate for people to buy stuff online or they won't survive the lockdown. Obviously a bit different if it's Amazon or ASOS but I do want to support our local book shop for example.

I ordered various things from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Nothing urgent, and the estimated delivery time was early May, which was fine. Anyway, it all arrived yesterday.

I've ordered from some small businesses too (garden plants, dressmaking fabric, yarn), and again am happy to wait as long as it takes to arrive. They need to be sensible about following the guidelines, but they also need to try to stay in business. So, I figure, as long as they're still accepting orders, I'm willing to support them.

I've just ordered kitchen worktops from Ikea, they'll be with us at the end of next week. I've had to order shorter ones as Ikea have stopped all two person deliveries and the longer ones are a two man lift.
The way I see it is they're still open, we need the items and with DH furloughed it's an ideal time to do the work

I can't see anything wrong with it at the moment, the businesses want to stay open and the people doing deliveries are happy to work.

perniciousdot where did you see that Next is reopening again please?

I’m buying everything I want or need, got a parasol coming this week from John Lewis for sitting under in the garden, also a delivery from Amazon this week and if Next reopens I will get some stuff from there.

I ordered plants, compost and a grow bag from a local nursery via their Facebook page. They have thousands of bedding plants which would have died if not for social media. Paid over the phone and they left at the door.

DDs 13th birthday would be a disaster, were it not for online shopping.

I am doing my bit to support the economy, jobs etc.

In Australia though, so a little different to the UK.

We’ve been sending little gifts bought online direct to our grandchildren for Easter, we miss them so and they were happily surprised. Got lovely face time calls from them.
Getting the garden ready buying bedding plants compost and the like from our local garden centre who are happy to get some income during lockdown. They have the most amazing tea room serving lovely home made cake and scones, how we miss them. They sent out a few scones free with each delivery.
Our fruit and veg is delivered by our village greengrocer and our butchers are doing the same.
They say they are noticing lots of new customers due to lockdown and they are limiting new customers on certain items, keeping some stock for their regular customers. I get it, these customers drove past these businesses to shop in the supermarkets in the town.
Nervous going out to the supermarkets now. Thankfully we always have a good stock in our store cupboard and freezer as we tend to get cut off in the village during bad weather.

If you're buying books check if any local independent bookshops are doing deliveries before you use Amazon.

perniciousdot I cant see anything in the media and the Next website says it remains closed till further notice. Can you say what paper you read it in please.