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Amazon, US Postal Service partner for Sunday deliveries

Amazon items can now be delivered on Sundays via the US Postal service in the New York and Los Angeles areas, with the initiative set to expand to other cities next year.

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Ross D. Franklin/AP
Amazon worker Leacroft Green places a package in the correct shipping area at an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Goodyear, Ariz.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you – there really is an Amazon package sitting on your doorstep on a Sunday.

Or at least there might be, soon. The bookselling titan is now working with the US Postal Service to extend delivery to the one day of the week when mail is usually not in circulation. The arrangement will currently be in operation only in the Los Angeles and New York areas but will begin in such cities as New Orleans and Phoenix next year. The Sunday delivery option went into effect immediately (meaning that Nov. 17 will be the first Sunday customers can receive packages).

The program will also begin in London later in November, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As New York Times writer Ron Nixon pointed out, the team-up will be advantageous for the Postal Service because delivering packages is profitable, as opposed to first-class mail which is often a money-loser. As for Amazon, it can now offer its customers even more convenience in their delivery options as they continue with their mission to deliver items as quickly as possible.

This new partnership will also help the Postal Service against such rivals as FedEx and UPS.

“Consumers have shown that there is a market for package deliveries seven days a week, and we are glad to be in a position to partner with Amazon on providing this service,” postmaster general Patrick R. Donahoe told The New York Times.

Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru told The Wall Street Journal she thinks the idea will be very attractive to Amazon customers.

"Delivery on a Sunday would be very compelling for consumers," she said. "There are certainly people who decide not to make an order on a Friday because it won't get there until Monday."

However, Mulpuru thinks Amazon may pay financially for their customers’ convenience.

“This has to be much more expensive than other days,” she said of Sunday deliveries.

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