> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.”

As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get shipped straight to my apartment which removes the need for me to navigate poorly stocked/organized stores and then carry it back to my apartment by walking, taking the subway, or the bus.

A lot of the time, it's actually difficult to find certain goods in stores here (or to know which store to go to). Recently I've purchased: calipers, a high torque servo motor, and playing cards online. I honestly don't know where I could find calipers and motors in stores here. I've tried buying playing cards in stores, but I could not find a reasonably sized package in stores that are also in stock. I've found 6 packs of playing cards in stores, but the regular 1 or 2-packs are always out of stock. I seriously tried for two months to buy the cards in store before giving up and buying it on Amazon.