Tracking the Rise in Online Ordering at Amherst

Emily Byers ’25

Contributing Writer

Last year, Amherst students collectively ordered almost 75,000 packages. According to Post Office Supervisor Don Kells, this averages nearly 40 packages a student — almost a 60 percent increase from levels in 2014. These staggering numbers correlate to detrimental environmental impacts and an increased strain on staff at Amherst College. So why are Amherst students ordering so many more packages than we used to? Advents in online ordering and the lasting effects of the pandemic have both contributed to this change. The Student attempted to piece together how this rise in shopping habits has impacted our campus community.

Kells says he has witnessed first-hand how package deliveries “have just shot up.” Since he started working at Amherst in the 1990s, Kells has noted a steady but significant increase in students’ online ordering. However, it has become increasingly clear that the problem has only worsened since the start of the pandemic, he said.

While many expressed understanding that the amount of online ordering increased substantially when students couldn’t leave campus due to Covid, what’s perhaps more surprising is that those numbers haven’t gone back down as other parts of life return to normalcy. With close to 80,000 packages arriving on campus for students in 2021, and with close to 75,000 arriving in 2022, online ordering has decreased only minimally since the start of the pandemic.

Etta Gold ’24E, who has worked in the post office since before students got sent home because of the pandemic in March 2020, shared that she’s noticed “a steady increase in packages.” Gold echoed Kells’ observation, stating that she “can’t believe people order so much” and noting a “huge increase in package ordering during Covid.”

Amherst is one of many higher education institutions facing difficulties with increased online ordering — other colleges like Bowdoin College and Ithaca College are reporting similar trends. What the post office supervisors of these schools reaffirm is that “The influx [in packages] is fueled not by care packages from Mom, but by a surge in online shopping — for textbooks, Halloween costumes, Valentine[‘s Day] sweets, dormitory décor, even mini-fridges.”

Kells confirmed that, in the past decade, he has been constantly surprised by the items students order to campus. While hard-to-find textbooks or birthday care packages feel more justifiable according to Gold, she said it seems like “the majority of it is stuff people don’t need,” and that the basic items students do need are oftentimes readily available at campus stores or within walking distance in town. She recounted one instance of students ordering snow tires, which require large amounts of packaging and are much easier to buy in-person when you already have a car on campus.

This trend isn’t isolated: Across the country, online sales increased by 44 percent from 2019 to 2021, with “e-commerce sales accounting for 21.3% of total retail sales in 2020.” Today, nearly a third of all U.S. internet users report shopping online at least once a week, while another third of internet users online shop at least once a month. With more access to online ordering, people are opting to get products shipped to them, rather than buying products in-person or foregoing the purchases in the first place.

But this new habit has a price.

On a national scale, online ordering heightens our waste production and supports large companies like Amazon while edging out small, local businesses; closer to home, the surge in package deliveries has placed a real strain on the work of Amherst’s mailroom staff.

Impact on Post Office and Staff

Kells reported that limited mailroom space has caused major package processing problems for staff for almost as long as he has been working at Amherst. For starters, the Keefe mailroom was never designed to process packages. Kells' job used to consist of primarily processing letters and magazine subscriptions. Now, he handles around 400 packages a day during the school year. Kells said that the number of packages has gotten “out of hand, [it’s] nowhere near where it once was.” This increase in packages has caused the post office to spill over into Kells’ workspace and even extra rooms like the McCaffrey room to accommodate students’ online ordering at particularly busy times of the year.

Note: The 2014-2019 data represents the corresponding academic years, while the 2020-2022 data represents the calendar years.

Gold highlighted the strain the increase in student packages has had on full-time post office staff.

“It’s just very stressful and a really difficult job for Don and Bobby and Chris,” she said, describing other members of the post office staff. “For them, it’s … difficult physical labor; you’re on your feet all day lifting boxes and running around,” she said. “I think when the post office is super full after a break or something like that, it’s just really really stressful, like packages get lost more easily … Everything gets disorganized and there’s no space.”

Kells' job used to consist of primarily processing letters and magazine subscriptions. Now, he handles around 400 packages a day during the school year. He said that the number of packages has gotten "out of hand, [it's] nowhere near where it once was.

Continued on page 12