Hello, my dears!
Those who have been reading me longest may have gathered by now that I’m a very old-fashioned and traditional sort of lass. I grew up in a time where technology meant a telephone or a vacuum cleaner, and most of the gadgets young people use these days fly right over my head. Likewise, I like to do my shopping in person – I like browsing a shop for something I like, chit-chatting with the staff, and then going for my cup of tea afterwards.
"ebay" © 2008 TiewCF, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
Most of you young’uns, however, are not like this. You are accustomed to having everything at the tips of your fingers – including your shopping. Some of you hardly ever leave the house anymore, shopping from your computer or your phone, and causing many of the smaller shops to go out of business. What you don’t know, however, is that you’re helping keep another sort of business around - courier jobs.
That’s right. A recent report done by a specialist company has shown that ‘e-shoppers’ (or whatever you call them!) are one of the main reasons why the courier industry is not in decline. By ordering your things online – at Amazon, eBay, and other such places – and expecting them to be delivered ‘yesterday', you are actually creating the need for a great number of courier jobs – which, in turn, keeps the industry’s numbers from sinking. According to the report, the numbers for this industry are still stagnant (meaning there’s no growth), but at least they’re keeping their heads above the water – and the company who wrote the report expect numbers will increase over the next five years. All because of you online shoppers!
Now, I’m no economy expert, but as the owner of a small business myself, I know how important it is to break even – even if your numbers don’t get any bigger. When you make a living out of something, you take whatever you can get, as long as it means you don’t lose business. In recent years, an awful lot of courier jobs were either lost or altered because of mergers, acquisitions, and all those complicated things businesses do to each other. To see the situation strengthening – especially when one of my relatives is involved in this field – is heartening. So keep buying your things online, youngsters – it’s thanks to you courier jobs are still alive!
Gertie
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