Parcel expands its on-demand delivery service to Brooklyn

By Virginia K. Smith | November 18, 2014 - 11:59AM

Good news for doorman-less Brooklynites: your days of schlepping packages from your office all the way to your Greenpoint walk-up are numbered. Delivery-scheduling service Parcel, which launched in Manhattan last December, will expand its services to numerous Brooklyn neighborhoods this Thursday.

For the uninitiated, it works like this: for a charge of $5 per delivery, Parcel delivers shipments (sized up to two feet in any dimension weighing less than 30 pounds) to your apartment at times when you'd actually be home, which you can schedule via their app. When you sign up for the service, they'll give you a custom address, which you should use when online shopping (and if anyone sending something big asks for your mailing address). The package can then be tracked based on its Parcel address and your member number, and once it arrives at their warehouse, you'll receive a text message asking you to schedule delivery for a one-hour window between 7pm and 11pm Mondays to Fridays (so no more sitting around all day wondering when the UPS guy will show up).

When the service first launched, CEO Jesse Kaplan told BrickUnderground, “As soon as I missed my first package, I came up with Parcel. I sent things to friends with doormen, or to offices, which was inconvenient, and I was amazed by the poor customer service and lack of transparency at shipping centers.”

So, come this Thursday—and just in time for our annual frenzy of online holiday shopping—the service will be available in Williamsburg, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, Fort Greene, Bushwick, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, and Bed-Stuy. (Or, if you'd prefer to go by Zip Code: 11211, 11215, 11238, 11217, 11201, 11216, 11206, 11222, 11237, 11221, 11231, 11249, 11205.) May you never worry what your boss thinks about your Internet shopping habits—or ponder dropping extra money on a doorman building—again.

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