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Amazon Launches One-Hour Delivery Service In Baltimore and Miami

Posted by samzenpus on from the but-I-want-it-now dept.

schwit1 writes Amazon.com announced the launch Thursday of its one-hour delivery service, Prime Now, in select zip codes in Baltimore and Miami. It initially launched in Manhattan in December. The one-hour service, available to Amazon Prime subscribers through the Prime Now mobile app, costs $7.99. Two-hour delivery is free. From the article: "Amazon Prime's success has blown away the company's projections and 'petrified' local and national retailers, said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm headquartered in New York City. 'If you're a retailer and you're not scared of Amazon ... you should be,' he said. 'They are the change agent. They are leading the change in retail.'"

4 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Re: What's more interesting to me... by BlueTrin · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you have retail experience you will see that many people will come to the shop to try and then buy online. One counter is to sell your own products but that does not work in every sector.

    --
    Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
  2. Yes, I'd be afraid of Amazon by hughbar · · Score: 3, Informative

    I live in the UK and have cut down on Amazon for nearly 'everything'. I appreciate their efficiency, their systems and their prices but I don't want to live in a world where there's just one shop. That's the thing for everybody to be afraid of. They treat their staff pretty badly too.

    With great power comes great responsibility, with late-stage capitalism comes winner takes all. I'm prepared to give up optimal pricing and some of the the rational economic man stuff for 'choice' and 'quality of life'.

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    On y va, qui mal y pense!
  3. Re:I don't see how this delivery model can scale.. by jpapon · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. If I place seven orders a day, I alone have monopolized a driver and his vehicle for an entire work shift if the distribution center is 30 minutes away from me. That's the labor cost and vehicle cost for an entire day that my orders must pay for in "shipping".

    Only if there are no other deliveries to be made anywhere near you.

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    -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
  4. Re: What's more interesting to me... by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's even a word for it - showrooming.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."