It’s Christmas. Did you ever think about how your gifts get under your tree? It’s a Lot.
There was a time when your holiday packages were loaded on coal trains and went chugging down the tracks for weeks to get to your doorstep. But with todays’ modern factories, efficient box trucks and planes flying at 500 mph, you can get a box in your hand in hours. Sometimes the cost of speed costs factory workers, delivery drivers sleep, injuries and added stress.
Seven Seas: From Warehouse To Tree
Many people purchase things for Christmas without knowing the thought and effort put into getting those items under their Christmas tree; many items are bought in just a few clicks. These items bought in such a small amount of time take so much effort to be created and shipped to buyers. These items that are ordered might have even travelled across the seven seas to be made. Many people work hard to create these items people buy around the world, but only a few think about them.
Overlooked & Overworked
There’s a serious amount of work that goes behind the scenes during these simple purchases. Things like packaging the product and then shipping the product, which takes time to do. Workers from Amazon usually rush to match the deadline, many workers even get injured! Keep in mind the next time you purchase something online, be thankful for the workers who are getting overlooked, and overworked.
Built in 30 seconds. Shipped in days.
Many people simply overlook these simple things, simple things. Think of the simple click you made to purchase an item, compared to the intense number of hours and labor that goes into getting that simple item to their doorstep. Few people think about how long it takes to build and ship an item
Creek Scholar Jace Lathan says “I want a PS5 for Christmas, and I think It can be created in like 2 weeks, maybe?” However, a PS5 can actually be built in around 30 seconds; Shipping and availabiliity is another thing altogether. A popular product like a PS5 sells out fast, leading to added stress on shippers who are often to blame for those gifts that don’t end up under the tree in time for Christmas.
Think of this: You live in California, and your loved one is in New York. You want to send them a box of coal, right?
In 1900, it took twelve hours of labor to get that coal shoveled and shipped, compared to about three hours of labor to build and ship products this holiday season. You can thank airplanes, trucks and automated factories for the lightning speed. However, the casualties of shipping still stand, as does plenty of stress and mistakes in making the item you’re shipping.
How Many Gifts Do You Ship?
Most of us still rely on logistical work for their day-to-day packages and not only for those for Christmas.
In 2024, around 24.73 billion packages were shipped around the world, with the Christmas season alone. However, in 2024, with the holiday season around 2.3 billion packages were shipped out.
Teacher Ms. Palarca said she is a heavy-holiday shipper this year. The average family ships just a handful of gifts or cards each Christmas. But Ms. Palarca said she is a heavy-holiday shipper. “Okay (I send) maybe around like, um, five to ten.”
Palarca is just one person ordering and shipping gifts fortheir family. Now think of this but on the scale of tens or hundreads of millions of families around the world, all depending on logistical work.
It was never this easy though to simply click a button and order a package, however mishaps and problems, and modernization brought us to the simple button clicks we can do today.
