Yes, you would “share” your car with their packages and they would give you a small discount to cover the cost of gas, but they wouldn’t “share” your insurance costs if you get into an accident on the way, and you certainly wouldn’t get paid for your time. In other words, you get to work FOR FREE for the richest family in the country! Feel the oligarchy!
(Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.
Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world’s largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as “crowd-sourcing,” or the “sharing economy.”
[…] Wal-Mart has millions of customers visiting its stores each week. Some of these shoppers could tell the retailer where they live and sign up to drop off packages for online customers who live on their route back home, Anderson explained.
Wal-Mart would offer a discount on the customers’ shopping bill, effectively covering the cost of their gas in return for the delivery of packages, he added.
Wow. I really didn’t think Walmart could stoop any lower, but I see I underestimated them.
I wonder if they must wear a Walmart shirt for this job.
No. No. And No. Such an act does not in any way approach what is truly meant by a “sharing economy”.
To use “sharing economy” in this fashion is along the lines of some Orwellian scenario wherein we learn that “War is Peace” and that “the Department of Truth told the following lies today”.
The only way anything useful could come of this would be if someone could hack the Walmart online customer list, and just for giggles drop off a bucket of rusty nails or something, with an announcement of “here’s your latest order from your friends at Walmart”.
Um, if I sign up and find myself delivering a 56″ plasma TV and get robbed on the way home, then …. then what? Knowing Mallwart, I get charged for the TV, right?
(Why do I keep hearing voices shouting “Are they NUTS?”)
Actually Quixote it would be kinda fun to return the 56″er to Walmart and when they ask what went wrong, “Well they only tip 10%.”
Hahahaha. I love it.