“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” – Herodotus
Shanghai is a city of everything. Stores and markets on every corner sell all kinds of ‘things’. The city has markets dedicated to specific items; items like the Fabric Market, the Fake Market, the Crafts Market. There is a store in our neighborhood that we refer to as the ‘Everything Store’. This store is packed full of a variety of items you need as well as those you had no idea you needed, or even existed. (Eyeball massager anyone?) Along with these stores, Shanghai offers a truly astounding plethora of ways to get around. You can choose from cars, private drivers, taxis, buses, metros, electric mopeds, rickshaws, bicycles for rent, or even your own two feet.
But this isn’t a post about transportation as much as it is about the transportation of things. With all these ‘things’ being available and all of those methods of getting to it, I am amazed by how much everyone relies on deliveries. You want dinner? Don’t’ go to the thousand options that you have outside your doorstep. Get it delivered! You want a pillow? Don’t take the metro to the market dedicated to home goods where you can barter and select from endless stalls of items at discounted prices. Get it delivered! Want a cold beer? Get it delivered! An entire world exists in Shanghai that is available at your fingertips. Go online, order it, and get it delivered!
When we moved here, we spent hours hiking up and down our 5th floor walk up in heat and humidity that made us feel like bowls of steamed noodles. We needed water – lots of it. Everyone said to text the water man. OK. We sent a message requesting water to apartment 18-502. In five minutes a man, many years older than me, was knocking at our door with two 5 gallon (18.5 liter) bottles over his shoulders. I looked behind him in shock – did he just walk up those stairs? The sweat on his brow told me yes. I quickly led him inside and after he deftly put the bottles away he smiled a heart-warmingly kind smile at me. I felt terrible. But no extra appreciation was needed or expected. Just a payment of 20 RMB ($3) and he was on his way.
After two weeks of eating the great food options by our apartment and making what we could on our own, we decided we really just wanted a hamburger. Everyone had been telling us about Sherpa’s food delivery service. We would talk about going to restaurants here or there and they would say, “Get Sherpas to deliver it.” I had recalled seeing Sherpa delivery people around town. Several times I yelled in panic for Marco or Janna to step out of the way as the delivery people sped by on their mopeds laden with supplies. We decided to see what it was all about. We ordered hamburgers and fries with beer and cola and 30 minutes later it was at our doorstep. I was surprised when ordering here that alcohol was just an easy add on: 6 pack of beer, just click here, bottle of wine, just click there, 12 cans of ginger ale – – hey, it’s like grocery shopping.
But wait, we also have plenty of online grocery shopping places. Epermarket and Kate and Kimmies are two of these that cater to western tastes but there are many. One American who recently arrived was talking excitedly to me about his first online grocery shopping order here. “I got macaroni and cheese, corn flakes, frozen pizza, and they threw in something like an eggplant or celery too”, he said. He seemed so relieved as to not have to puzzle over what to get in between the dried squid snacks and live fish aisles of our local market.
And then there is Baopals. Baopals is the English front end website to TaoBao, the online location for, yes, everything. It’s the Amazon of China. (Amazon does exist here but they are the underdog competitor to TaoBao.) I am almost ready to admit that no problem can’t be solved through a purchase at Baopals. I hear it as a reply to almost any question. “I’m looking for socks.” Get them on Baopals. “What’s the easiest way to peel a pineapple?” Oh, Baopals has that. Once ordered, the package is delivered to you in it’s own coded locker which dot the landscape of our living compound. Or, you answer your door to a delivery man handing you the package.
Maybe the throngs of people and traffic on the street aren’t the full population of this city. Maybe many of them just live inside the high-rise buildings ordering everything they need online. For us, we are going to do a little of both. There is too much to see and experience ourselves to rely on deliveries for all our shopping. Sometimes lugging home bags in the metro and taxi are part of our real-world experience. But, sometimes, yes, we’ll have it delivered!
