Covid-19 has affected all aspects of delivery services – the companies, the deliverers, and the receivers. 

     Shopping has been different the past year. Some stores are shut down completely, some are reduced capacity, but all are requiring masks if you want to enter. Some people are choosing to order online instead. But with that, shipping is slowed down because of the amount of online orders companies have to ship and deliver. 

   U.P.S. deliverer, Robert Ervin has been working extra hours especially at the beginning of Covid and during the Covid Christmas season. 

     “It has added more hours and days to the week,” he said. He also added that the package quantity has increased because people are at home, working from home, and they can’t go to the stores so they order their stuff online. 

     “We were called an essential service so we weren’t given hazard pay,” Ervin said and added that he felt at greater risk because he is exposed to the world. 

    Some companies are now reliant on online resources because of the shutdowns. Small business owner and wife to Robert Ervin, Kim Ervin, who creates realtor baskets, “has changed her workflow.”

     “I have to do a lot more primarily online shopping. I used to do 50% in stores and now I have to do most of it online,” she said. She also noted that it’s very inconvenient when she buys things online and they arrive broken or chipped. She has to send them back and then wait even more time to get the replacements. 

     Some people don’t like ordering online, but have been forced to because certain stores have been shut down. 

     Sophomore Rebekah Jenkins has had to change the way she shops because of the Coronavirus.

     “I definitely do more online shopping than I used to. Ordering online for clothes is hard because maybe it doesn’t fit or it’s hard to figure out how it’s going to fit [what it looks like on the screen]. So in person is always nicer,” she said. 

     Junior Abby Fordice also orders more online than before the pandemic. 

     “I can’t always get to stores. I find it harder to look around… I definitely make more purchases of just what I need or am looking for,” she said. 

     On an Instagram story, sophomores Victoria Musangu, Hailey Zinsli, Manha Mukhtarr, and Junior Mary Scott also added that it is hard to shop online and prefer in store because they don’t know what size to get and if it will fit.