The "How long to get a shipment?" thread got me to wondering.
The years is 1890's - 1930's
Farmer McDonald wants to order a dress from Sears to suprise his wife on her birthday. How far ahead should he order it ensure recieving it in time?.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
DSchmittFarmer McDonald wants to order a dress from Sears to suprise his wife on her birthday. How far ahead should he order it ensure recieving it in time?.
That would depend on a number of things:
1. We must take into account the outgoing mail order. Variable not stated are distance from Farmer McDonald to Sears warehouse.
2. Processing time of the order. (no computers, done by hand)
3. Variable: Was dress shipped through US mail (was that even possible then) or Raiway Express Agency etc
Not saying that with this information I can answer your question, just noting that you need to provide more info in order to get an answer. Maybe someone on the forums was around then and could provide anecdotal evidence? (looking for someone 80 or so years old)
Back when I as a kid 50+ years ago, I remember mail order ads saying something like allow 30 days for delivery.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusman Back when I as a kid 50+ years ago, I remember mail order ads saying something like allow 30 days for delivery.
That or perhaps "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery".
My first mail order was from AHC in NY and as a 12 year old I thought it would never arrive.
A REA package was faster since it came by passenger train.
Larry
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I think the speed with which we recieve shipments today has us all spoiled. Years ago there was little or no tracking either. Since all companies were pretty much tied to the same delivery systems there was no need to try to beat the competition.
My personal experience showed that REA was much better than the USPO. Also you could get larger or heavier things by Railway Express than you could through the mail.
Regular mail was something like the PRR yard at Enola. Box cars went into a black hole and then popped out a few days later. Meanwhile nobody seems to know what was going on.
As for that farmer's present for his wife, you can bet if it took too long to arrive, nobody used holiday volume or bad weather as an excuse. Like I told UPS customer service back when I had a business and they dropped the ball, Don't give me that stale old Christmas rush and blizzard back East excuse. Winter comes every year and Jesus has been having a birthday for 2000 years, now you guys just found out?
Charlie
After giving this more thought, I don't think the shipments spent much time in the hands of the express companies. Most of the delay was probably due to the shipper/manufacturer/dealer bottleneck.
For example, you know express shipments by rail were pretty fast if you consider how many boxes of baby chicks and other live poultry rode in express and baggage cars. Of course, the hatchery was quick in boxing them up and getting them down to the depot and the guy receiving them was probably waiting to go pick them up. Transit survival rate was extremely high.
There are also lots of different "products" for shipping and they would have different priroties and different handling. REA Express, postal express, parcel post, LCL all moved in different pools and were not necessarily treated the same. The pictures are of a boxcar next to a loading dock. The path that the shipment/parcel took to be in that boxcar at the that dock could vary. Baby chicks were expedited (and the shipping rate probably reflected that) while parcel post might take a lot longer (and the shipping rate probably reflected that too). Shipping something "express" was like shipping something "next day delivery" today (not saying the transit times were the same but the decision process on which mode to use was similar). When I have stuff shipped to me I usually ship it standard rate and don't pay to have it shipped next day. Similarly, if famer McDonald was frugal, he would have had it shipped standard rate and waited. But in those days, everything was "4-6 weeks delivery" so he would know to order it 5-7 weeks ahead of when he wanted it. It was normal.
Since Sears is located out of Chicago, its pretty much less than a week from everyplace in the lower 48. You have to figure that Ole McDonald mails the letter, it takes just about as long for the letter to get to Sears as it does for Sears to get the package to McDonald So right there is one to two weeks. If it was paid for by check or money order there are a couple days waiting for the payment to clear at least (a check might be a week or more). Then to time to pick and pack the shipment. Lots of slop in there, why REA was beating the USPO and UPS beat REA.
The biggest delay wasn't shipping, it was paying. Even in recent times, paying with a check would take weeks - you send the check to the mailorder place, they process your order, send the check to their bank, who sends it to your bank, who sends the money to their bank, who puts it in their account...and then finally the order is shipped. If it took six weeks to get your order, probably four of those weeks was waiting for the paper check to clear.
Orders could be sent "C.O.D." (cash on delivery) but I'm sure many mail order places required payment up front.
Intesting coincidence, the 1st Q 2016 issue of the New York Central Historical Society's "Headlight" magazine (I was a little late renewing so just got it now) has an article on LCL (Less than Carload Lot) shipments. The author selected three ficticious but plausible small shipments that could be sent from the northeast thru NYC's big LCL transfer center in Utica NY to places in the west and midwest. In each case, the package took about 8-10 days, and had to be transloaded 3 or 4 times (so like the package would be in a freight car going from a manufacturer in Massachusetts to Utica. There it might be moved to a car going to Chicago, where it would be transferred to a car on another railroad going farther west, etc.)