It is interesting to talk with people of different ages about their perceptions of modern culture. A person’s perspective is almost always influenced by their grasp of history. And most people’s understanding of history doesn’t go beyond stories told to them by parents and grandparents. You can see the phenomenon in action within the home delivery concept.
People much younger than me have grown up with the expectation of having virtually anything delivered to the front door. And because today’s home delivery relies so heavily on mobile apps and online sales, it is just assumed that the home delivery phenomenon was birthed from ecommerce. But that is not the case.
Let Me Order a Pizza
This writer was born in 1965. I remember, even as a grade school student, the prospect of ordering a pizza and having it delivered to your home. But pizza delivery wasn’t the only home delivery game in town. You could get lots of other things delivered, too.
Though my family didn’t opt for milk delivery, plenty of our neighbors did. They got daily milk deliveries from the local dairy. A lot of us also opted for home deliveries from the pharmacy. We could get medications, toiletries, and a variety of sundries delivered within hours of being ordered.
When I became an adult, I took a job delivering cotton diapers to homes. That was some 30 years ago. While I was out on my daily route, I encountered all sorts of delivery drivers dropping off everything from bottled water to pet food. But home delivery wasn’t even new back then.
Centuries of History
The very first pizza delivery allegedly occurred in Italy in the late 1800s. About the same time, daily lunch delivery was emerging as an attractive business in India. Meanwhile, farmers in various countries around the world had already been delivering fresh vegetables, fruits, and dairy products for decades.
The home delivery concept is pretty old. It has centuries of history behind it. In this country, home delivery’s first entry was food. Pizza and Chinese takeout started it all. Then neighborhood restaurants got in on the deal. Meals on Wheels was born in 1954, taking food delivery to the next level.
Almost Anything Can Be Delivered
We could continue looking at the evolution of home delivery in the U.S., but you get the point. These days, anything you purchase from Amazon is delivered. App-based delivery services will deliver your groceries, restaurant food, flowers and gifts, and so forth.
Even cannabis can be delivered to your front door in states where it is legal. Granted, cannabis home delivery is highly regulated to the extent that your options are different from one state to the next. But delivery is available, nonetheless.
Utah dispensary Beehive Farmacy says that medical cannabis pharmacies in Utah can deliver their products statewide as long as they maintain regulatory compliance. The market in Utah is such that only one state-wide delivery company operates. Meanwhile, cannabis users in California have access to a much broader delivery environment. Hundreds of thousands of Golden State consumers have cannabis delivered to their homes.
Home delivery may seem like a relatively new phenomenon if you have grown up in the internet age. But truth be told, proprietors have been personally delivering their wares to customers for centuries. They just haven’t had ecommerce and mobile apps to make things easier.
There is no reason to believe that home delivery is going anywhere. It’s not. Home delivery is a permanent fixture. It is too convenient for customers and too profitable for businesses.
