locals may have to accept that same-day delivery is a thing of the past
In a pedestrian-friendly city like Amsterdam, couldn’t they mostly replace this with a pickup depot / Amazon locker type setup? (maybe residents with wheelchair / limited-mobility / etc permits can still get front-door package delivery, but it’s not something most people need)
Vonnegut wasn’t a Too Good For This recluse like Pynchon or Salinger or whoever, and the content of his books made him fairly well insulated against charges of being a sellout; they probably offered him a bunch of money and he shrugged and said sure.