I interpreted that to mean in terms of getting things delivered, but reading was never my strong suit, let alone understanding what I read.

You are right, somehow my English parser broke on that paragraph and I took it to mean timezones. Maybe I need to take a break…

The assumption of it being about delivery time is correct, and having very little to do with actual physical distance.

Each delivery method has its own time as well. And stock in anything I need for work is not available at any store in the city I'm in, typically, so needing something means there's always a delay.