3 Tips to the Perfect Delivery Driver Basket this Holiday

Here comes Amazon, Here comes Amazon, right down my driveway. 

In all seriousness, between online Christmas shopping and running an online business where products are being delivered daily I'm on a first-name basis with most of my delivery drivers. Adam, if you're reading this, please hide tomorrow's package from the husband. Joking.... sort of. 

I thought I'd share my most simple, easy and favorite way to spread Christmas cheer loud for all to hear! Before I ran the boutique, I had our Elf on the Shelf assign this very special task to my son. Such a simple and easy way to get off Elf duty easy and begin to teach your little about how small gestures can have HUGE impacts. Seriously, you guys, last year I shared videos from my porch camera of delivery drivers shouting to other drivers if they want anything and how much they loved it. I've had countless drivers shout out, "Thank You" through the door...which was a real head-scratcher the first time when I was sitting on the couch alone watching The Housewives and heard a man call shout out "Thank You".....after I jumped 20 feet into my 10 foot ceiling I got much more used to it the next few times.  

So every year, I put together this little basket of goodies after a girlfriend posted a picture of hers. At first, my son was disappointed, no one was taking anything. Hadn't we put out good enough snacks?! Were my efforts wasted? I can be a little extra when it comes to perfecting a thing and so I joined a huge UPS Drivers Group and polled them, they were extremely shocked at my craziness  but it also resulted in the perfect answers as to why some years our baskets saw less action than others! Over the years and with their help, I think I have finally perfected the basket and since seriously my basket empties out pretty much daily in the final few weeks before Christmas, here are my 3 quick tips to the perfect delivery driver basket. 

Tip #1 - Location, Location, Visibility 

Any open basket, container or box will do BUT and this is a big one location matters. That first year we placed our basket in a chair on the porch with a little paper sign we made and colored. My son was soooo disappointed the first 3 days when no one had grabbed anything but then I realized all of our packages were being delivered on the other side of the porch. Drivers understandably are in such a rush they aren't scanning your entire porch as much as your door area so just by moving the basket in clear sight of the door already we had our first "customer" the same day. 

Tip #2 - Location Matters, Signs Matter MORE

Next, the sign. Last year we moved to the chalk sign and every year my font gets bigger on "UPS, FED EX, USPS, ETC". Again they're in a rush. The bigger, the more likely they will see it and the shorter the message, the more likely they'll read it.

Tip #3 - What are the Perfect SNACKS?!

What to put in it? Now you all know I don't do anything half-bootied (totally a word) so after years of my own personal basket and asking a group of over 10,000 UPS Drivers, here are the snacks and drinks they really light up for and the ones you thought were great might surprise you! (although it should be mentioned that every single one of them felt the thought counts most no matter what you supply your basket with!) Thankfully many of these could easily be picked up at the dollar store even! 

-Peanuts, Cashews, Almonds, Trail Mix, basically they said ALL the nuts A LOT.

-Sunflower Seeds Now I'm going to expand on this and say staple a ziploc bag because I don't know where they plan to spit them out at?! I DID THIS THIS YEAR SO ILL LET YA KNOW HOW IT GOES!

-Jerky....are you feeling the very "dude food" pattern here yet?!

-Cookies, Small bags of chips and Granola bars were definitely mentioned but surprisingly many felt they're too messy on the go and they'd more likely eat them during a lunch break. I spent the first two Christmas seasons filling my basket with almost exclusively these items, eek!! I personally was shocked that bags of pretzels did well last year but I can see how after reading their comments less messy and still crunchy!

-Drinks. WATER. I repeat, WATER. I easily went through a case of water between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year for Drivers. They would often take them over most drinks I've tried to put out but Gatorade and Red Bulls definitely got some honorable mentions, my personal experience. They take the water over the Gatorade but still add them and have included tea this year. I've considered energy drinks but there are just so many to choose from, I'll have to give it another poll. :') 

So there you have it, my fellow, online shopaholics. The perfect basket is ANY basket because it's the thought that counts most BUT if you really want to make sure your basket is a hit, make sure that baby is practically going to trip them (not literally, don't sue me) the sign is BIG and to the point and that you supply that baby with Water, nuts, seeds, jerky and something that crunches but isn't too messy. 

 Happy Holidays!