This happened literally seconds ago. I was standing at the sink eating dinner, because that's how I roll, when I heard something out front. I looked up and, through the gap at the bottom of the blinds on my front window, I saw a late-middle-aged woman with what appeared to be a bad hip roll-walking back to like a 2002 Chevy Cavalier, and there was a small package on my porch.
I live within easy walking distance of an Amazon fulfillment center, and I've seen a lot of deliveries on my street being made from everyday vehicles. I had been chalking it up to Amazon hiring tons of contractors who just use their own vehicles for deliveries, but I'm starting to think that's bullshit. There's no way that lady is cramming more than a dozen small packages into that car, and with that bad hip or whatever, I don't think getting into and out of a car all day would be very suitable work for her. I can totally see Daddy Bezos dreaming up a policy where employees are expected to deliver packages on their way home.
I guess she could be a contractor for some shitty local courier, but that's still pretty crappy. I have massively reduced my Amazon ordering, but I'm too weak to completely get rid of them. I just can't bring myself to drive 30+ minutes round trip to Best Buy to spend $49 on a network cable Amazon will deliver to my house same-day for $8. I really need to cut them off. Buying shit from Amazon can't be squared with my beliefs about the state of labor, and it's causing me psychic damage to see old ladies with bum legs delivering packages to me from their decrepit old cars.
Edit: Amazon Flex, apparently. Thank you, commentors, for bringing me up to speed on yet another dystopian helljob. I swear to God, as I am typing this, a dude is on my porch dropping off a package. I just heard him talking to himself or on his phone or something, and looked out the window in time to see him get into a normal street car and drive away.