Over a decade ago, I lived I San Francisco and marvelled at DHL telling me my latest Apple product had arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, en route from China to me. It was exciting!
But that’s all you’d get told. Your package was in Anchorage and would be with you in a day or two.
Fast forward to today. I get packages from Ali Express in China and use the Packages app to track them. It’s an incredible app that tracks every major provider in the world and with incredible detail.
But take a look at the detail in the tracking these days. It’s a long way from “Anchorage”. A now it’s telling me to chill!
15 February 2026