They hunt for low-priced tickets: Up to $1,300 is viewed as acceptable for a round-trip flight from New York to Senegal. G.P.s often operate on slim profit margins. The roundabout shipping route is an attempt to solve what is known among logistics professionals as the “last-mile issue”: getting imported online goods into Senegal can be fairly smooth, but the final stretch is where things sometimes go awry. Wade, a former car saleswoman, is part of a thriving low-tech solution to a problem that continues to bedevil high-tech shopping in places where mail delivery is unreliable and street addresses are rare: Getting stuff to the people who ordered it. Wade stuffs her luggage with goods and hauls them across the Atlantic to the people who actually made the purchases: customers in Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa, who pay her a fee. The true recipients are 3,800 miles away.Įvery few weeks, Ms. Throw pillows, diapers, car parts, cellphones, high heels and AirPods pile up in the foyer, but none of the items were bought by the person to whom they are addressed: Arame Wade.

In a building on West 147th Street, the mail carriers know apartment 1A.īoxes arrive at all hours, ordered from websites around the world.

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