What's Up With Delivery Times?
Well, it is safe to say I am a shopaholic. Some people go to therapy and I decided retail therapy would be the cheaper route at some point in my life (read: it isn’t). So, I have always been an online clothing shopper and making the transition to almost exclusively online shopping here was not a hard sell for me.
BUT, this does not mean that boxes come in a timely manner. In fact, most Amazon purchases (and I am talking Prime purchases) take anywhere from 2 days to a month to get here.
Now, as someone who thought anything more than 2 hours was too much to wait before getting here, when someone told me a box would take a month, I thought they were kidding. Hands down thought they were playing a prank on the new girl to see if I would be tough enough.
Turns out, they were not kidding.
When I first got up, I brought the basics in furniture. A bed, a couch, a clothes rack. You know, the essentials. My thought was I could purchase furniture over time to find all the pieces I wanted and not go too crazy all at once. But I quickly learned that my scope of shops available to ship furniture from were:
Amazon
Shop n Deliver by Lulu (don’t worry, we will go totally in depth about this place someday)
Now, as someone who likes to hit the purchase button myself (I read once it releases endorphins which would explain a lot), I ended up using Amazon as my go to spot to buy all of my furniture.
The good news is Amazon will deliver furniture here. The bad news is the selection is much smaller and the delivery time is much longer. The thousands of options you are used to are narrowed down to a couple hundred typically and for me, things that I ordered in March often did not get here until mid to late April.
The fastest boxes to arrive from any store though: Nordstrom. I know what you are thinking, why would you need more clothes Rachel? Don’t you already have two closets that barely close? This may be true but like I said, I am a shopaholic and we all need our coping mechanisms.
Now, Nordstrom took 2-3 days to get my purchases to me. I was genuinely surprised since it usually is more like 6-8 days when I am back in the Lower 48. Plus, even though it is Alaska, their shipping is still free here which ranks them even higher in my books as a go to place when I just have to have a new pair of jeans. Or 3.
And, as much as the long delivery times suck and I dislike them, I have to admit, I have gotten used to the delayed gratification and it has saved me money more than once.
It used to be so easy for me to just click the buy button and know something would arrive at my door in a matter of hours that I could just as easily return. Now, I tend to plan my purchases and really think through if I am going to go through all the effort of having things shipped here, I might as well make sure it is the exact thing that I want.
And for some reason, I kind of like the delay in getting my items too. Now, it is a fun surprise when the chair I ordered shows up 3 weeks later and I finally get to see what it looks like in my space (and it's a fun surprise because I forgot I ordered that chair. my b). I never thought I would understand that idea but it is just one of the things that you have to accept you cannot change when you live here, so you might as well embrace it.
The infamous chair I forgot I purchased.
So, don’t think you have to stop being a shopaholic by coming here. My credit cards can tell you that I sure didn’t. But, just change your expectations and realize that the speed in which your packages get here will be vastly different from what you are used to. Purchases will eventually get here and in the meantime, you can look at the bright side that you can always be online shopping for your next purchase.
- XOXO Rachel