Shipping times aren’t always what they’re promised to be.
There’s a stressful holiday experience that most of us have had at least once in our lives.
If we know we’re going to attend a holiday function, whether it be a big glitzy year-end bash or a simple gathering at a family member’s home, we often want to give a gift to the host or hostess — or perhaps to a boss, or even a family member we only see once a year.
If you’re the plan-ahead type, you probably order a gift online with some time to spare, wanting to make sure it arrives in time for your shindig. So it feels even more annoying when said gift does not arrive within the boundaries of the shipping time promised, forcing you to scavenge the local grocery store (or whatever else is open) for an acceptable gift so you don’t show up empty-handed.
It’s the reason why many folks stick to shopping in person versus online during the holidays. And while that’s not convenient for everyone, if you’ve felt the sting of that late delivery, you can hardly blame them.
Thanks to some new data from Late Shipment’s State of the Holiday Shipping in the U.S. report, however, some states experience this problem more than others. Read on to see if yours is one of them, and if so, how you can circumvent the problem.
What States Have The Most Delivery Delays?
Considering that shipping services have to deal with millions of packages a day during the holiday season, it’s no surprise that some of them hit delays.
However, some states seem to bump into the problem more than others. There seems to be something about the Lone Star state, as the report says UPS’ (UPS) – Get Free Report delay rate in Texas last Christmas was 10.68% — the highest of all the states. Florida came in a close second at 10.18%, and New York came in third at 8.01%. In short, if you’re shipping something to someone in one of those states, you just might want to ship a few days earlier to compensate for a possible delay.
Another state that seems to suffer during the holidays is California. 17.94% of packages shipped via FedEx (FEDEX) were delayed last Christmas, according to the report, followed by Texas (again!) with 16.10% and Illinois with 15.72%.
A Recession-Proof Holiday?
While recession fears and the soaring cost of living have been a topic of conversation for months, it doesn’t seem to be holding folks back from Christmas shopping as usual.
As of last week, holiday shoppers have already shelled out $64.59 billion in online purchases — and that was before Black Friday formally began.
While some have said that they do not plan to travel for the holidays this year, people are behaving as if there’s no recession in sight when it comes to gifts.
This comes despite numerous industry predictions that spending would drop this year because of crunched budgets. It seems as if people are still buying gifts, but not quite the way they normally might.
“What’s informing this holiday season is a consumer who has lived with inflation for a year,” Steve Rogers, the managing director of Deloitte’s Consumer Industry Center, told TheStreet. “They are living within the same cost envelope but reducing the number of gifts that [they’re] buying. So hopefully you’ve been nice to your favorite aunt and are on her list.”
