Pedestrian

On my walks to/from home and work and my daughter’s school I often see people who deliver packages to my office.  These are people I see almost every day but I don’t usually know their names.  Sometimes they recognize me “outside” the office and sometimes they don’t.

Today, walking from home to work, I saw a UPS truck and I heard, “hey you!” delivered in my general direction.  It’s “my” current UPS delivery guy.  “What are you doing in this part of town?,” he asked.  “Just walking to work,” I said.  “You’ve got only one box waiting for you today,” he advised with a big grin.

I do a lot of online shopping for myself and for my business. I get a lot of deliveries every week — almost always to my office.  (Note to self: should buy stock in delivery companies based on personal habits!)

Over the past 10 years my company’s office has been in South Park (SOMA), Hayes Valley, and, most recently, on Folsom near 8th in SOMA.

Most of the deliveries are via UPS or FedEx or USPS. Based on 10 years of almost daily deliveries, here are sweeping stereotypes I’ve noticed:

UPS and FedEx packages are much better (than USPS) at finding my company more than a year after a move.

The USPS delivery people are usually aloof, tuned into headphones, and not chatty.  Our current USPS deliveryperson throws open our front door, tosses packages on the landing, yells, “PACKAGES,” and then heads down the street as the door closes behind her.  The regular postal delivery guy just throws the mail on the couch.

The FedEx delivery people are more attractive and sometimes more chatty. One of our current FedEx delivery people has an obvious crush at my office. Almost everything is addressed to me, but delivery guy always delivers it to Nash, who sits about 5 feet away from me.  When our office was in Hayes Valley our FedEx delivery person always delivered chatty chatty chatty leftist political opinions with packages and envelopes.

The UPS delivery people are the friendliest  — though I’ve never met a chatty UPS delivery person — and it seems like change routes more often.  We see a UPS delivery guy at our current address who used to deliver to our previous address.

I often see lefty opinionated FedEx guy when I’m walking between my daughter’s school and home — school is in Civic Center and he delivers around Civic Center and Hayes Valley where my office used to be.  He still chats me up and advises me how to vote, who to call, and what political event or protest to attend.  I think it’s charming and small-town-ish that he’s been seeing my daughter grow and that I run into him regularly and spontaneously while walking.