I Want It Today - How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail.

[exboyfil]

13. Wal Mart's big advantage (besides is obvious size)

is its logistics network. That is how it has grown to the size it currently is. Lots of academic papers have been written on it. The technique has been so effective that most other large box stores have tried to emulate (Target etc). The optimum approach is to geographically ship an entire households needs/wants to a location relatively close to the household to be picked up on a weekly or sooner basis. Alternatively with sufficient volume having carriers deliver packages for time sensitive materials (those you have to have or would like to get sooner without having to bother to drive). Postal carriers already run 6 times/day (UPS and Fed Ex already tied into them). What if WalMart, Amazon starts delivering packages to them in morning before they go out on rounds (presupposes that excess space and time to deliver in schedule already exists). Marginal costs of additional deliveries will be very low. Of course UPS, Fed Ex, and possibly a retail companies own delivery fleet could be employed as well with sufficient volume.

I am not making a value judgement - I am just saying what it would take to optimize delivery of goods.