Furious delivery driver begs Brits to stop ordering ‘tat’ in lockdown amid ASOS, Zara and Pretty Little Thing parcels
A FURIOUS courier has today begged Brits to stop ordering clothes and “tat” online during the coronavirus lockdown.
The self-employed delivery driver, 40, shared an image of a pile of 120 packages she was required to take to a single housing estate in Bury, Greater Manchester.
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She had to deliver packages from ASOS, Next, Zara and Pretty Little Thing and claims she currently has more non-essential parcels to deliver than ever.
The delivery driver – a mum who wished to remain anonymous – said when she returned to depot the following day her load was similarly high.
She claims this is far more parcels than she was delivering on a standard day before the Covid-19 lockdown and has slammed people using their time at home to go on web spending sprees.
ECONOMY DEBATE
The decision to order non-essential items has sparked a debate online with people arguing the online delivery business is keeping the economy going with no rule against online shopping.
One person wrote online: "If I order non-essential goods online, am I doing a good thing by propping up the economy, or a bad thing by diverting scarce resources from essential goods delivery?"
Another Twitter user added: "How many people are online shopping right now? Prop up the drowning economy vs delivery people coming into orbit with 50 stranger per day."
An online shopper added: "I guess the nice thing about this whole crisis is that I can now justify my impulsive online shopping and irresponsible use of Amazon's two-day delivery as "doing my part to help the economy" and not just poor money management skills on my part."
KILLER BUG
It comes as the latest figures showed 2,392 have died in Britain after contracting the killer bug, with 29,497 being infected.
The mum, from Manchester, who has been granted key worker status due to her role, said: “Please stop ordering non-essential tat.
“While you keep ordering online, workers in warehouses are risking their lives having to keep picking and packing it, and us couriers have to keep putting ourselves at risk collecting from crowded depots to deliver it.
“My load on Friday was 120 just for a small estate in Prestwich. There was another 104 waiting for me the next morning – all non-essential.
“We understand we are key workers, and we are happy to do our job and risk our lives and the lives of others to deliver essential key items for people to survive during the lockdown.
“I’ve delivered Superdrug packages which I’m sure are full of handwash, and educational items from places like The Works – all that is totally fair enough.
“But when people are ordering clothes online, that is madness. I don’t understand where they’re going in this stuff anyway at the moment?
“120 parcels in a day is much higher than the average number I was delivering pre-coronavirus.
NON-ESSENTIAL ITEMS
“The worst thing is, I have to go back to the same homes three days later to pick up the items when people decide they want to return them anyway.
“Shoppers are not thinking about the impact they are having.”
Some of the other brands visible on parcels the woman has delivered since the lockdown began include Boohoo and H&M.
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While she does not blame her employer for providing the deliveries they are contracted to carry out, she has urged members of the public to think about how necessary their shopping really is.
The courier added: “The couriers are getting more and more scared.
“We want to remain in employment and do our bit to help, but we don’t want to risk ourselves unnecessarily.
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“We get paid per parcel, but at the moment I would rather come in and find 10 parcels which are clearly all essential, than 120 which aren’t.
“If you continue to buy things you don’t need, you are forcing people to risk their lives in packed warehouses packing the items too.
“The high street shops have shut, so why are online clothes retailers still able to sell?
“If it was a small business struggling to survive, I could understand more but these are big multi-million pound companies. It just seems crazy.”
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