#GroceryDelivery #groceries #Amazon
Wes Moss saw the future of the grocery industry show up at his front door in the person of Rena, who was delivering his family’s groceries.
Moss, who writes a Money Matters column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ordered his groceries through a service called SHIPT. Rena, as it turned out, was his personal shopper.
Moss discussed his experience, and the future of the grocery industry, in a column published July 4, 2017.
Long before Amazon bought Whole Foods, Nielson had predicted that by 2025, nearly 20 percent of all grocery shopping will be done on-demand, Moss writes.
He recently tested the SHIPT service to see whether it could deliver a full week’s grocery list for the Moss family. Rena told Moss that she does as many as six to eight full-scale shops per day, earning wages and tips. Rena loves grocery shopping, Moss writes.
SHIPT employs tens of thousands of shoppers across the country. If the personal shopper model takes off, it could create a significant number of jobs, Moss writes.
Traditional grocery jobs may be replaced by more technologically centered roles, Moss writes. When ATMs came on the scene, it was feared the bank teller jobs would evaporate. The number of teller jobs actually increased from 500,000 to 550,000, Moss writes.
The point Moss is making is that old jobs may disappear, but, at least in some industries, they will be replaced by a different kind of job.
Many out there had good, “old” jobs. Those good, “old” jobs, in many cases, have either disappeared, or are about to disappear, before those who have them are ready to retire.
Complaining about the trend, or trying to force industry to resist such trends, is like complaining about the weather. You can’t stop progress, and, though people get hurt in the short run, good people usually end up on their feet – or even better off than they were.
Lamenting wastes energy that could be used to figure out what one should do next. Should he train for one of those “new” jobs in his industry? That may depend on one’s age, and how much he likes the industry he’s in.
If he’s like Moss’ Rena and loves grocery shopping, he may want to adapt to the new trend in whatever industry he’s grown to like. Or, he may literally become a personal shopper.
For some, though, it may be a chance to check out something new. There are many excellent ways to earn money without having a regular, W-2 job. To learn about one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Some of us see changing trends, downsizing etc. as evil. Perhaps it will turn some people’s lives upside down. But, like a fast-moving train with a weak brake, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to stop. Companies need to be flexible and nimble with the fast changes.
To those who work for such companies, your energy is better spent working on your next move than complaining about or resisting the inevitable.
Rena took good care of Moss and his family, he writes. She did so with a smile and lots of energy. He writes that it left him with a positive outlook on the future of food consumption.
A positive outlook on the future, whatever it holds for you, is the first step to improving your life.
Peter
Tag Archives: Amazon
UPS IS ADDING JOBS, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
#UPS #OnlineShopping #AddedJobs
UPS is “hiring like crazy” because of the growth in e-commerce. “I’ve never seen jobs get added at UPS like it has in the last year,” says Eric Massaro, a shop stewards for the Teamsters union at a UPS sorting facility in Roswell, Ga.
Massaro was quoted in an article by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Kelly Yamanouchi, published Aug. 25, 2017.
In addition to adding people, UPS is adding technology to help it get packages delivered more quickly, with fewer mistakes and greater efficiency, the article says.
The UPS situation illustrates how a decline in some brick-and-mortar retail businesses can turn in to a boon elsewhere.
UPS also had to add Saturday delivery, because people shop online on weekends and the packages back up on Mondays, the article says.
UPS is also trying to nudge customers to pick up their own packages at various locations, to save time for its drivers, the article says.
Let’s examine the UPS situation from a different perspective. Right now, it’s hiring – “good-paying jobs with benefits,” the article quotes Massaro. The workers are putting in long hours which, if you are unemployed, could make you jealous.
But what the article does not discuss is what technology could do to a lot of those jobs 10 or 20 years hence.
Think driverless vehicles, better sorting and loading technology, deliveries to homes by drones, etc. And let’s not forget that Amazon is testing its own delivery service, which could affect UPS directly. Yamanouchi reported on that in the Oct. 6, 2017, edition. The trend at UPS could be good if you don’t have many more years left to work. If you are just starting out, though, think long and hard about what you will do.
Most jobs undergo change whether the person doing them changes or not. Companies have to be flexible and nimble enough to change quickly, as situations change. Therefore, companies will need to have less structure and more technology to allow them to change more quickly.
The article says that UPS has increased its technology already, but still needs even more people. That’s good news for those looking for work today. Working at UPS for a few years could get you over the hump, if you’ve lost a good job and are having trouble finding another one.
But a wise person will also be looking at a Plan B – something he could do a few hours a week when he’s not working at, say, UPS. There are many such vehicles out there for those willing to look for them. To check out one of the best, message me. You might even see something that will allow you to do online shopping and save money, too.
It is not as easy being a working person today, as it was several decades ago. Change came more slowly then, and that allowed people to finish out careers and retire when they were ready. Today, that is almost unheard of. People are often forced out of jobs long before retirement age and are banished to a job market that doesn’t want them.
Thanks goodness companies like UPS need people. But one could mistakenly think that its need for people will be everlasting. That kind of thinking might be a mistake.
Using the retailers’ example again, there was a time when some retailers could not keep up with demand in their stores. As fast as goods came in, they were bought.
Today, many of those same retailers are struggling, because of e-commerce and other reasons. Don’t let this sudden demand for help by UPS allow you to think it won’t go away. Many good things like this usually do. Be ready, so if the rug is pulled out from under you, you can have a puffy pad to land on.
Peter