Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 161 posts

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#41

Post by philwelch »

dkrich wrote: post #35
mooreds wrote: post #24

It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc). Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.…

What does the local store win on? I think in the long-run, it'll be price. Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Y…

Wal-Mart has the downside that you have to go to Wal-Mart though. I don't just mean that in the dismissive sense that their stores are unpleasant (which they are), but there's a fundamental mismatch between an urbanizing population and a big box store in the suburbs that everyone has to drive to and lose their car in a massive parking lot.

In fact, Sam Walton knew this. His mission wasn't to dominate the world of retail, it was to bring the same economies of scale urban retail already had to rural communities.

Keep in mind that physical storefronts have costs too. Wal-Mart has warehouses too, and they're probably simpler, but when all you have is warehouses, there's a lot of complexity you can add and still have a simpler, more cost-effective model than employing battalions of people to operate cash registers and stock shelves in thousands of small towns and suburbs across the country.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#42

Post by Instacartlove »

Having the ability to pickup and deliver from multiple locations throughout a city like Postmates or Instacart does is a huge advantage. At least for a one hour delivery. Density of drivers in a city is an important factor as well. If you can route a driver to a location nearby instead of a single warehouse you can be more efficient. Instacart and Postmates also both have high frequency categories that they can use to leverage less frequent items, e.g essentials over time and potentially at lower costs.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#43

Post by morgante »

I just placed an order with this new service (some HDMI cables for our office).

The selection is pretty decent, definitely comparable to Google Shopping Express.

One very odd note though: they ask for a variable tip to the delivery courier (something Google doesn't do). So even for "free" 2 hour delivery, you're paying for delivery. While I see how this is better for the courier, I think it's a big mistake—people hate navigating the social dilemma of how to tip properly, and solving social dilemmas is a key advantage of digital services.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#44

Post by icebraining »

ics wrote: post #34
mooreds wrote: post #24

It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc). Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.…

It's a draw on cost too, as Prime prices are sometimes inflated beyond other stores or even the regular retail price. As for convenience, those without a doorman always think twice before placing orders online.

As for convenience, those without a doorman always think twice before placing orders online.

I think that's one of the major gains of cheap/free fast delivery. It's easier to order if you know you'll get it during the next hour or two when you'll be at home, instead of "tomorrow".

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#45

Post by darkmighty »

mooreds wrote: post #24

It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc). Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.…

I'd dispute both cost and knowledge.

If a store is close to your commute route, for example, the delivery costs will probably never be low enough to match with that.

I would also dispute on knowledge. In this case, knowledge is a matter of time: you can always google exactly the product you need, but that's going to cost you time. If you're not sure about the exact specifications of what you need, reading reviews isn't necessarily going to help either. Salespeople, if available, can tell you what you need and what's the best cost-benefit (probably leaning towards the more costly).

There's an additional aspect you didn't account for: entertainment. I don't get entertainment off of shopping, but i know a lot of people do. You get some of that while looking things online, i.e. 'browsing' items, but it's not the same experience. Also, shopping is often tied to other entertainment like eating out, movies, etc -- this is done strategically for mutual benefit of mall venues -- and of course can't be replicated online.

It's easy to imagine even if the whole catalog of Amazon were available today for 1-hour delivery for $7.99 (or less), a big part of the average urban dwellers' shopping would still be done offline.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#46

Post by dkrich »

tesseractive wrote: post #40
dkrich wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the local store win on? I think in the long-run, it'll be price. Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Y…

Another big difference between this and Wal-Mart is geography. Wal-Mart's strongest areas are less-densely-populated rural areas where one store can draw customers from miles around. And indeed -- you can't easily set up a same-day Amazon delivery service in rural America. The distances and low population density make it completely impractical. For the foreseeable future, Amazon will compete with Wal-Mart in these ar…

So then my question would be- where does Amazon store their inventory? They still have to figure out a way to give people selection and timely delivery but do so in a way that doesn't involve storing large amounts of inventory in expensive, densely-populated urban areas. The same rules apply to them as Wal-Mart in that regard. Wal-Mart could open a distribution center in Manhattan too, if the economics of it worked out.

So let's supposed that this can be done profitably in New York. New York is a special case in a sense, that it is one of the most densely-populated areas on earth, and so deliveries do scale there in a way they don't elsewhere. But then what is the play in a place like Atlanta, Dallas, or Los Angeles, where driving is essential and addresses are wildly irregular?

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#47

Post by Chevalier »

morgante wrote: post #43

I just placed an order with this new service (some HDMI cables for our office). The selection is pretty decent, definitely comparable to Google Shopping Express. One very odd note though: they ask for a variable tip to the delivery courier (something Google doesn't do). So even for "free" 2 hour delivery, you're paying for delivery. While I see how this is better for the courier, I think it's a big mistake—people hat…

Agreed on all counts. At least build the tip into the cost, like the ride-sharing services do.

I'd vastly prefer doing away with tips altogether and just paying a living wage, but the least these services can do is to spare me extra work.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#48

Post by stronglikedan »

morgante wrote: post #43

I just placed an order with this new service (some HDMI cables for our office). The selection is pretty decent, definitely comparable to Google Shopping Express. One very odd note though: they ask for a variable tip to the delivery courier (something Google doesn't do). So even for "free" 2 hour delivery, you're paying for delivery. While I see how this is better for the courier, I think it's a big mistake—people hat…

There's a pizza chain that does this for online orders, and it drives me crazy. I don't tip until after service is rendered, because tipping ahead of time insures nothing. There's no place to put a custom note on the order either, so I have to order by phone. It's good for them that they have great pizza, because I'm sure this turns off a lot of potential customers, but not me.

Re: Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

#49

Post by Tiktaalik »

mooreds wrote: post #24

It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc). Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.…

I was thinking recently that at this point, I'd only feel comfortable opening up a retail business if a significant part of the business was oriented toward short notice purchases, as that would be somewhat protected from Amazon and other online retailers.

With this development that "short notice" protection doesn't seem so concrete.

Post reply on HN