📦 From Canning to Clicks: How Delivery Culture Took Over Our Lives
By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
I was born in 1962, and when I think about how much the world — especially here in British Columbia — has changed, it sometimes feels like I’ve lived on two different planets.
I remember my grandmother's kitchen. The stove burned wood. The food was grown or gathered, canned or cooked from scratch. Milk might have been delivered by a milkman, but everything else? You either grew it, made it, or went out and got it yourself. There was very little waste. Food came in glass jars, paper bags, and cloth sacks. Plastic was rare. Convenience meant you didn’t have to hitch the horse.
My mom, born in 1930, lived through the Depression and WWII rationing. She knew how to make a little go a long way. When my parents moved to Surrey, they bought a little hobby farm. We had chickens, a garden, fruit trees — and a deep freezer. My mom canned peaches, made jam, and baked bread. That was normal.
Then the malls came.
We lived for the Sears Christmas Wish Book. It came in the mail, and my siblings and I would fight over it, circling toys with pens, dreaming. Later, Eaton’s had a catalog too. Shopping was a planned event, usually requiring a car trip to town or the newly built mall. You didn’t buy something unless you needed it. And when you did, it came in a paper bag and lasted.
Fast forward to now…
It’s 2025. I walk outside and see more delivery people on bikes, scooters, and in cars than I’ve ever seen. It’s like an army of couriers — rain or shine, dodging traffic, hauling padded bags and cardboard boxes. Amazon, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes… you name it. It's not just packages and electronics. People get toothpaste, sushi, socks, dog food — delivered to their door within hours.
Every item arrives cocooned in layers of packaging. Cardboard, plastic wrap, bubble wrap, packing tape, bags within boxes. The waste is staggering. Some apartments have more Amazon boxes in their recycling than they have groceries in the fridge.
What have we traded?
- We traded time-saving convenience for local connection.
- We traded self-reliance for one-click dependency.
- We traded home-cooked meals for algorithm-chosen snacks.
- We traded neighbours helping neighbours for gig workers under pressure.
- We traded a sense of enough for an endless stream of more.
And the irony?
We now have to bike to the food bank or struggle to get housing, while vans and scooters flood our neighborhoods delivering stuff most of us can’t afford anymore — to people stuck inside, overwhelmed, or overworked.
Meanwhile, the cost of living skyrockets. And those gig workers delivering all the convenience? Many can’t even afford to live in the cities they serve.
Where did the simplicity go?
There’s nothing wrong with progress — but we have to ask, progress for who?
When a generation that once grew their own food and made their own bread now watches their grandkids wait for a robot to drop off takeout at the doorstep, it’s time to pause.
Maybe we don’t need to go all the way back to wood stoves and hand-churned butter — but maybe we need to reconnect with what we’ve lost: community, self-sufficiency, dignity, and a sustainable way of living.
Maybe we need to can something. Bake something. Share something.
And maybe we need to ask: who’s really benefiting from this so-called convenience?
💠Reflective Questions:
- When was the last time you made something instead of ordering it?
- What part of “convenience culture” are you willing to give up to live more sustainably or reconnect with your community?
#DeliveryCulture #Consumerism #Sustainability #CommunityConnection #VancouverVoices #Zipolita
