Package delivery -- the other "last mile" problem

We've had bad luck with package delivery during the last six months:

• An order of kids rain boots from Walmart was stolen from our front porch. Unfortunately, a small box containing a ring from TheRealReal was delivered at the same time and was also stolen.
• Walmart replaced the rain boots and TheRealReal gave us a refund, but my wife was disappointed not to get the ring.
• We received a package from TheRealReal via Federal express. It should have contained a bracelet, but it was empty. Again, we received a refund, but not the gift. It may have been taken by someone at TheRealReal or Federal Express.
• We ordered a pressure cooker from Amazon. The package it came in was marked "fragile" but was in poor condition. We opened it, saw two dents in the pressure cooker and returned it for a refund.
• We ordered a blanket from SweetDreamsHome, an Amazon Marketplace retailer. The order was placed on December 14 and scheduled for delivery. We planned to be out of town on the scheduled delivery date, so requested a different and were assured it would arrive on December 23. It did not arrive on that date, so we contacted Amazon. We were assured that it would arrive on December 28th. It did not. When it did not arrive on the 29th, we cancelled the order. It arrived on the 30th.

Amazon and the others were extremely polite and responsive and we received prompt, no-hassle refunds, but we were disappointed, a Christmas gift was late and we had to be worrying that a package might come while we were out and unable to sign for it or, worse, that it would be stolen.

I checked the American Customer Satisfaction Index of the Consumer Shipping and Internet Retail industries and found that their scores of 80 out of 100 put them in the top six of 43 industries surveyed. (Internet service providers were ranked last because there is little competition in the industry).

That being said, the survey only considers the US Postal Service (74), UPS (80) and Federal Express (82). The private companies are rated higher than the Postal Service and all three have been relatively stable over time. (The US Postal Service moved up in the late 1990s, while UPS and Federal Express have slipped a little).

Fortune magazine says Silicon Valley venture capitalists are giving up on on-demand delivery and I am not expecting on-demand drones or robots or self-driving delivery trucks any time soon. (If they do, the thieves may start stealing drones and robots as well as packages). Are vendor-agnostic local pickup locations a solution?

Maybe this was a run of bad luck and we plan to keep shopping online, but not as frequently.