Amazon Prime Now is One Hour Delivery in Manhattan
Do you live in Manhattan? Do you need toothpaste and deodorant hand delivered to you in one hour? Then Amazon Prime Now, a new delivery service announced today by the Internet retail giant, will make that happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODLp4ZGQwzk
According to the announcement, there are “tens of thousands of daily essentials” that are eligible for Prime Now delivery, including “paper towels, shampoo, books, toys and batteries,” which is actually pretty solid list of items. As of now, the service is exclusive to Prime members in certain areas of Manhattan – specifically the zip code of 10001 (Update! Amazon emailed us to say that the delivery area now includes 10010, 10016, 10017, 10018, 10019, 10020, 10022 and 10036) – while Amazon intends to roll the service to additional cities in 2015. Presumably, other areas in Manhattan will also enjoy the service at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Said Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations, Dave Clark:
“There are times when you can’t make it to the store and other times when you simply don’t want to go. There are so many reasons to skip the trip and now Prime members in Manhattan can get the items they need delivered in an hour or less. We’ve long felt that Amazon Prime is the best deal in the history of shopping and now it has gotten even better.”
The announcement explains that one-hour delivery costs $7.99, while adding an extra hour to the delivery window is just plain free. The company’s new Manhattan building on 34th Street “will serve as a hub for delivery of Prime Now orders.”
Eligible members will be able to order products via the Prime Now app, which is available for Android and iOS devices.
Just two weeks ago we first heard about Parcel, a new Manhattan-specific delivery service that allows users to pick a time when they’ll be home that would ensure that they weren’t away when packages arrived. Prime Now would seem to be something of an answer to that, promising delivery within the hour (or two hours) of a product’s purchase. While it’s a bit disappointing that all these cool new delivery services are restricted to Manhattan, the old adage is usually true: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
Maybe if they prove successful they’ll expand to more cities for some cool, quick delivery action. I need that toothpaste, stat!
[Amazon Prime Now Announcement]