If you're not using Amazon, it depends how close you live to the store. A supermarket delivery truck should drive fewer miles making 10 deliveries than those 10 people would driving to the store. Some supermarkets here will also deliver in reusable crates rather than bags. Most have offered same or next day delivery for years.
I don't know any supermarket that would let you order just paper towels though...
Having moved somewhere not near a delivery point or a lot of large stores, the convenience of same-day Amazon Prime is hard to beat.
It made sense when I was living in China, along with maybe TP and bottled water. Here on the states it seems like shipping/delivery would make it uneconomical.
They do, it’s just a subscription plan instead. And the underlying cost is still there, so if it becomes uneconomical then the subscription cost will go up or go away.
You may be able to find a situation where you get someone else to subsidize your cost, but it’s certain to be temporary.
But in China it was like a few hours from order to delivery. And even if it is technically free with prime, it really isn’t....it just doesn’t feel sustainable.
I think whatever basis you have for that intuition is off. You're saying it's more efficient and sustainable for everyone to drive to the store in their own personal gasoline-powered vehicle, taking time out of their own busy days, than to have a little bit of cardboard wrapped around the paper towels and dropped off by a shared delivery truck dedicated to the task and taking an optimal route?
Each point of drop off ya substantial costs, so you would get dinged fuel for the delivery of paper towels even if they had other deliveries in the truck. In China, it only works because there are no trucks, heck, it could just be a kid from the corner store with a hand truck.
When you go to the store and buy stuff, you are usually getting a lot of things together going point to point with other things that need getting done, or you are walking to the corner grocery store with a shopping cart if you are lucky enough to be urban. Personally, the fuel cost for having paper towels delivered is substantially more vs me going to get them by myself (since I’m walking to the store with a stroller/cart anyways).
