GlennLog

Turning technology from mumbo-jumbo into rich tasty gumbo

September 12, 2008

Hello, Kozmo

Lynn and I have been regular users of Amazon Fresh, a very local test here in Seattle of fresh, frozen, and packaged grocery delivery by our dot-com survivor and thriver (and once my employer). Fresh only delivers to certain neighborhoods. The level of service is pretty exquisite at the moment, because it's boutique. They offer in-office dropoff for certain companies, which is probably where real money is to be made. With in-building secured locations, employees of Google and other firms are probably racking up orders of expensive stuff on a casual basis.

We enjoy the before-dawn option for delivery, where orders of $25 or more are delivered free (it's a $50 threshold for attended 1-hour windows). The unattended option is either before dawn or after dinner or in multi-hour blocks during the day.

While Amazon is charging a bit more than Whole Foods on some items and about the same on others, when you factor in our lack of time, the cost of gas, wear and tear on our vehicles, and the ability to get organic products--well, it's not really a premium we're paying.

So when I checked out the Fresh page to place an order this evening, I discovered Amazon Now, a subset of their product offerings that I could order, you know, now. Books, toiletries, electronics, video games, and so on. Stuff that they must keep in their local warehouse. This is big. It's not quite Kozmo, where you could get soda and M&Ms and a DVD delivered in about an hour after you called, but t'ain't far off.

Lynn noticed a few weeks ago that whenever we ordered anything from Amazon proper, a guy in an unlabeled car and not wearing a uniform would drive by and drop it off on our porch, sometimes the same day, I believe. This was a little crazy. I was thinking, we're paying for Amazon Prime, but is there really someone assigned just to deliver our stuff?

Bespoke ecommerce.

Posted by Glennf at September 12, 2008 7:47 PM