Online shopping boom vs courier services

Did you purchase goods on Singles Day, the online shopping carnival on Nov 11? If so, are you still waiting for the goods to be delivered to you?

You may never know what happens to your goods before they reach you. A China Central Television video report has revealed how they are treated at the sorting centers of express delivery companies. The packets are thrown randomly four or five meters away, used as "chairs" and kicked down from trucks to the ground despite the labels saying "fragile" clearly evident on them.

This is not the first time a media outlet has exposed the "violent sorting" methods used by workers at sorting centers. This first came to light in 2011, the year when online shopping really took off. In response, the postal authorities of several provinces, such as Jilin in Northeast China, installed cameras to supervise the process 24 hours a day. Yet not much has changed and the sorting process continues as usual, especially during online sales festivals such as Singles Day.