eBay and Argos agree UK-wide deal to deliver parcels

[POSTMAN]

http://postandparcel.info/68675/news/eb ... wide-deal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

eBay and Argos have today (15 October) announced that they have signed a wider multi-year partnership that will offer UK-wide fulfilment services to eBay sellers.

Under the partnership, eBay will for the first time roll-out a national parcel drop-off service, enabling eBay consumer sellers in the UK to drop-off their sold items at Argos stores across the UK. The service will start with 150 stores before the end of 2015, with more stores set to follow in the coming year.

Under the new service, items packaged and dropped off in Argos stores by consumer sellers will be despatched to eBay buyers within 48 hours.

The drop-off and delivery service was piloted earlier this year in ten Argos stores across four towns.

Additionally, Argos and eBay have also announced that they have extended their ongoing commitment to their Click & Collect programme, an exclusive partnership which began as a small pilot in late 2013.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Tanya Lawler, UK Vice President, eBay, said: “Our ambition with this deal is to grow and establish some of the most exciting and innovative fulfilment services in the UK. The eBay and Argos partnership further dissolves the lines between digital and traditional retail.”

David Robinson, Chief Operating Officer, Argos, added: “Argos invented click and collect in the UK, and recently added to its record of innovation by introducing FastTrack Collection and FastTrack Delivery – market leading fulfilment services for the online shopper. The ability for customers to get their purchases quickly, easily and locally has become the new retail battleground.

“With over 800 stores and a friendly face on every high street, we are ideally placed to attract eBay’s business and consumer customers to use our unique store network. This deal reaffirms and builds on the successful and deepening relationship between our businesses.”

[5plusbonusball]

whatever next? maybe giant vacuum tubes above every house like those at tescos tills to transport items in capsules!

[Lounge Lizard]

whatever next? maybe giant vacuum tubes above every house like those at tescos tills to transport items in capsules!

That would be nothing new.
Pneumatic post or pneumatic mail is a system to deliver letters through pressurized air tubes. It was invented by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch in the 19th century and was later developed by the London Pneumatic Despatch Company. Pneumatic post systems were used in several large cities starting in the second half of the 19th century (including an 1866 London system powerful and large enough to transport humans during trial runs – though not intended for that purpose), but later were largely abandoned.
A major network of tubes in Paris was in use until 1984, when it was abandoned in favour of computers and fax machines. In Prague, in the Czech Republic, a network of tubes extending approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) in length is used for delivering mail and parcels.
Pneumatic post stations usually connect post offices, stock exchanges, banks and ministries. Italy was the only country to issue postage stamps (between 1913 and 1966) specifically for pneumatic post. Austria, France, and Germany issued postal stationery for pneumatic use.
Typical current applications are in banks, hospitals and supermarkets. Many large retailers use pneumatic tubes to transport cheques or other documents from cashiers to the accounting office.
Historical use
1853: linking the London Stock Exchange to the city's main telegraph station (a distance of 220 yards (200 m) )
1861: in London with the London Pneumatic Despatch Company providing services from Euston railway station to the General Post Office and Holborn
1865: in Berlin (until 1976), the Rohrpost, a system 400 kilometers in total length at its peak in 1940
1866: in Paris (until 1984, 467 kilometers in total length from 1934)
1875: in Vienna (until 1956)
1887: in Prague (until 2002 due to flooding), the Prague pneumatic post
1893: the first North American system was established in Philadelphia by Postmaster General John Wanamaker, who had previously employed the technology at his department store. The system, which initially connected the downtown post offices, was later extended to the principal railroad stations, the stock exchanges, and many private businesses. It was operated by the United States Post Office Department which later opened similar systems in cities such as New York (connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan), Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis. The last of these closed in 1953.
other cities: Munich, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Hamburg, Rome, Naples, Milan, Marseille, Melbourne, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

whatever next? maybe giant vacuum tubes above every house like those at tescos tills to transport items in capsules!

Just so long as we don't have to down one when a signature is needed