Pallets with mail-in ballots at a USPS center. Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
If you rely on last-minute holiday shopping, 2020 won't be your year.
Why it matters: America's biggest shipping companies are out of excess capacity, and that's before the holiday rush.
- "The capacity shortfall could average as much as seven million packages a day between Thanksgiving and Christmas," the Wall Street Journal reports.
The big picture: This goes beyond your Amazon orders — many stores might dial down their Black Friday offerings because they've been running leaner on merchandise since March, the N.Y. Times notes.
- Call it "Shipageddon," as a Retail Geek podcast noted earlier this month.
Other efforts to meet the surge:
- Amazon moved Prime Day up to October.
- FedEx moved to seven-day-a-week pickup.
- High volume retailers will be charged bigger fees.
- Stores are pushing customers to buy online and pick up in stores.
- USPS will change its priority to holiday shipping after the election rush.
The bottom line: “Consumers should be prepared for deliveries to take extra days no matter which carrier is delivering their parcels,” ShipMatrix President Satish Jindel told the Journal.