I live here and watch twitter personalities call it a burning, ruined warzone every day.
Here’s a fun exercise: count up every single unique business you can find that’s said to have been looted or burned. See how many articles you can find that stray outside the same list of around six or seven on the same street. Tally up how many were actually sweet little family owned startups and not just the apple store or target, already hated for having pushed out dozens of smaller businesses themselves
Every time I say “don’t nationalize Amazon, they have nothing worth nationalizing” this is what I’m talking about.
We have a ridiculously robust postal service already. Support THAT.
Great question!
To the best of my understanding, the main difference (at least for FedEx, UPS, and DHL) is in the packages. USPS is a postal services, primarily letters. UPS and FedEx and DHL are shipping companies.
USPS is always better for anything that can be stuck in an envelope. Sending a letter? Use USPS. (Maybe give it a hot second for the current kerfuffle to die down. If you’ve got the cash, you can support them directly by buying USPS merch from the site; I got a book on art deco mailboxes for myself and a stamp dispenser for my mom. They also have bags and t-shirts.)
Now, for bigger packages, companies like FedEx, UPS, and DHL may be a better choice for you. They have different policies for things like package insurance, different speeds to get things to places, etc. They are also made specifically for medium-to-large packages. Most of them will immediately hand off letters and some smaller packages to USPS, unless it’s an express/emergency letter. (Soapbox time: shipping things express/emergency is incredibly damaging ecologically. Please avoid it unless it’s a legitimate emergency, like medication.)
If you speak with small businesses that handle things like stickers, pins, and apparel, you’ll find that those in small towns especially end up sending pins and stickers via USPS, and apparel via UPS or FedEx. Some small, local post offices can get overwhelmed by the waves of outgoing orders that a business produces.
That doesn’t mean “You should always use USPS for letters and always use a shipping company for packages.” If you ship one package every few months and it’s not a fragile thing, use USPS! I certainly do. But if you run a small business or charity that involves shipping out multiple medium-to-large packages per day or per week, or lots and lots of small packages, then you might be better off using a shipping company. Check with your local USPS office to figure out if they can handle the influx. If you live in a large city, it’s probably a drop in the pond. If you live in a small town… maybe not.
DHL in particular is preferred for a lot of international orders. Research your options, etc.
THE EXCEPTION: Amazon.
Oh god, Amazon.
Unlike FedEx, DHL, and UPS, Amazon is not primarily a shipping company. They’re an eCommerce website that developed a shipping branch (along with a million other things) in order to consolidate their services.
They also outsource a lot of their shipping to USPS. However, a lot of what they do is predicated on having warehouses full of commonly-ordered goods in the vicinity already. What they do is less “we ship your new pillow in from across the country in less time than the USPS” but rather “we have your new pillow on the other side of the state already and can cut down on time because we cut down on distance.”
This isn’t… inherently a bad thing. On the surface, it’s not that different from ordering delivery from a local take-out restaurant.
Except it normalizes overnight delivery for cheap. Because of Amazon, places all across the US consider overnight delivery the norm, 5-8 business days the cheapo option, and 2-3 weeks unreasonable, even for packages that are coming in from other continents.
And I cannot emphasize this enough: this is really bad for the environment, small businesses, marginalized communities, and Amazon’s employees.
Overnight delivery is not the norm unless it’s something that’s less than, what, fifty miles away? Overnight shipping from across the country should take several days, because when it doesn’t, it’s flying by air.
And that wastes so, so, so much more gas than ground/sea shipping.
Another difference between USPS packages and FedEx/UPS packages are the kinds of things you can send in the packages. There are some things you are not allowed to send in the mail. Those things basically boil down to explosives/things that can explode: firearms, perfume, alcohol, batteries.
This is because - as it was explained to me, at least, though I was never an actual postal employee but I did work for about a year in the mail center of a university bookstore - the USPS transports mail on commercial passenger flights, while FedEx and UPS have cargo planes.
So if you’re buying perfume or sending a bottle of wine to a friend, UPS or FedEx are your best bet. If you’re sending cookies or books (media mail is great!!) or anything non-electronic, USPS Priority Mail packages are a pretty reliable, safe, trackable bet.
PS: Did you know that if you put an address and postage on a coconut, you can just… mail a coconut? As the package? I did that at least once while I worked there.
An important addition! UPS/FedEx/DHL aren’t POINTLESS, they’re just specialized for a different range of services, and ultimately aren’t a viable replacement for the existing postal service
if mangoes didn’t have the stone in the middle, humanity would reach a new level of hedonism. we could just eat thru the whole thing without having to think. we’d permanently regress to a primal state. the seed grounds us, makes us careful when we eat. this defines us. fuck i wish i had a mango
Doofenshmirtz isn’t incompetent; he *plans* his inventions to fail. Why? Because it was never about the inator. He just wanted Perry to show up so he could talk to him about his past struggles. It’s how he overcomes his trauma, it’s therapy.
Someone stole the bathroom key at work. They were upset that the employees on the clock at the time did not have time to right there go thru a collection of comics he wanted to sell, and told him he would have to either leave them for them to go thru later, or bring them back another time. He used the bathroom, and when he came back he said he locked the key in the bathroom and left. When they got a spare key out and went back, it wasn’t back there.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
