hedwards: Even within cities it can easily cost more than $5 to go retrieve a package.

hedwards: Not to mention taking an extra hour or more, if you're not somebody that drives. It's barely any better if you're already out picking up groceries, you still have to find a place to park which can be an incredible hassle. And the traffic, it took my Dad almost an hour to leave the city yesterday.

hedwards: As far as sparse populations go, the numbers you're looking at aren't accurate. Alaska is pretty freaking huge and has a tiny population, but places like New England that are ridiculously over populated make up for it. It might appear that we're less sparsely populated, but those sorts of nationwide numbers really don't reflect just how unpopulated large parts of the US really are.

hedwards: So yeah, it might work in Sweden, but I cannot imagine this working in the US, the logistics of it would be a nightmare. Not to mention the relatively small number of chains that are truly national, requiring a huge number of deals with different businesses to ensure reasonable coverage.

AFnord: Ah yes, I forgot that US has, in many places, rather horrible public transportation.

AFnord: Here it is handled on a store to store basis. While it is not uncommon for the larger chains to handle it, there are still many smaller stores (independently owned or smaller local store chains) who has deals with the delivery companies

Khadgar42: A company named YODEL would never have a chance to be taken seriously in Germany. Maybe in Bavaria they get some hardcore fans, but they don't like being Germans in the first place, so they don't count in my book.

So, sadly I can not tell you any funny stories about YODEL.
But UPS is bad, and it translates in German as Oops! So you actually can understand why nobody wants to sent fragile goods with UPS.
We have Hermes, the great messenger god and the parcel service in Germany that everybody hates, except me, because its the only one I never had any problems with.
They have some weird contracts with laundries and other small buisnesses, so I can pick up my packages after work even if I'm not home. I still have to make a phone call for them to deliver it to their laundry partners.

Worst service is TNT, probably blows my packages up, but they never arrive when TNT is the delivery service. I deliberately choose DHL and pay gladly any surplus charge if they offer TNT as standard service.

DHL and its service has taken the acronym of "Dauer Halt Länger" which translates roughly into "It just takes longer" which again is a pretty deserving title.

Last we have some weird and secret organisations that are very small and hardly known, like GLS, DPD and others, but I didn't have much to do with them.