
Amazon launches same day delivery for Prime customers - ankushio
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=br_imp_ara-1?_encoding=UTF8&node=8729023011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-hero-A&pf_rd_r=17G0FQ73T3JJQA2N0T74&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2097006022&pf_rd_i=desktop
======
xacaxulu
I've noticed that Amazon has totally changed my shopping habits from 3-5 years
ago. Clothes and household expendable items are almost entirely purchased on
Amazon (even if I just want to try on a pair of boots). Prime Subscription or
Pantry takes care of most of the rest. I don't need to drive to Costco anymore
or spend time walking around Wal-Mart. I look forward to the day when my Whole
Foods order can be delivered fresh to my house every week.

~~~
gmac
In the UK supermarket deliveries are well established. My family gets 2 or 3
Ocado deliveries a week (they have a Prime equivalent where you pay £11 a
month to get free deliveries on orders over £40, within a one-hour time slot,
usually available at about 24 hours' notice).

Add that to Amazon, and I basically now only shop in shops when size/fit or
feel are crucial — clothes, shoes, etc. And I really resent this — I'm trying
to figure out the brands and sizes of jeans and so on that I can just reorder
online as necessary, but shops screw this up by changing their ranges all the
damn time. I feel like there must be a market opportunity there ...

~~~
clarky07
So many places have great return policies, so it doesn't really matter
anymore. There are places that specifically encourage you to buy like 2-3
pairs of shoes for example and ship back the ones that don't fit. If you are
normally a size 10.5 shoe you can happily order 10/10.5/11 and then send the 2
that don't fit back for free. [http://www.zappos.com/](http://www.zappos.com/)
is a good example. free shipping both ways.

~~~
gmac
Good point, but I find there are 3 obstacles to this.

1) Many shoes (and most jeans too) don't fit me in whatever size — either the
fit is more complicated than a simple scalar, and/or sometimes I'd need a size
somewhere between two of the sizes offered.

2) Returns on the scale needed are thus generally a bit of a pain.

3) I suspect that the overhead of paying for lots of returns makes these
services rather dear, and since I find jeans and shoes way overpriced anyway
this puts me off. (This one is probably all in my head, but it's no less real
for that).

What I'd really like is a service where I could identify to it some
clothes/shoes that fit me really well, and it could offer me a wide range of
other clothes/shoes with a very similar fit. And isn't outrageously dear. (By
all means, tell me this exists!).

~~~
tsotha
For me your #2 is the deal breaker. If I have to box a bunch of stuff back up
and drop it off somewhere it's more hassle than shopping at a brick & mortar
shoe store. There would have to be a huge price advantage to make it
worthwhile.

~~~
tlianza
There are so many delivery services... there should really be an inverse.
"We'll pick things up for you." I bet Shyp could branch out into this, though
it's clearly not their target scenario
[http://www.shyp.com/](http://www.shyp.com/)

~~~
jon-wood
Its already a thing, but its expensive so tends not to be offered, although
Amazon will arrange pick up for a small fee.

------
daenz
This is anecdotal and not 100% related, but I had Prime for awhile for the
fast shipments. When I signed up, Prime was substantially faster than the
average standard ship times. When the cost of Prime went up, I cancelled
because it wasn't worth it to me anymore. However, I noticed my stuff was
still arriving fast. It wasn't marked as "Prime", and it wasn't guaranteed
2-day delivery, but it was much faster than I remember the average standard
shipping to be.

I am wondering if the Prime shipping infrastructure is the cause of
this...everything is faster now, and it would cost money to artificially slow
non-Prime shipments down, so they get the ancillary benefit of Prime-ish
speed.

~~~
maratd
Prime really doesn't have anything to do with 2-day delivery. They wouldn't be
able to afford to ship everything by air for free.

The advantage of Prime is really that you can have everything shipped for free
without worrying about minimums. Well that and all the other perks, like
streaming video, photos, etc.

They now have warehouses located within 1 day ground shipping distance of
everywhere in the continental US. It's not that hard, I doubt they need more
than a dozen locations.

That said, and I have run into this, if your item isn't commonly ordered and
is in one of the warehouses that isn't close to you ... they will adjust the
delivery date and still ship it to you over Ground. I have called to complain
and they said that Prime 2 Day guarantee only applies to Prime items that are
geographically close to you. If it it's a Prime item and for whatever reason
it has to travel pretty far to you, no 2 day delivery. I've had items arrive a
week after order and they still considered that OK and quoted some legalese.
Now, this happens rarely, but it does happen.

~~~
mikeash
Amazon heavily talks up the two-day shipping speed of Prime:

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201118070)

There's nothing in there about it being different if it's not close to you.
The only exception to "two days" is the typical "it's business days, not
actual days" exception, and an exception for stuff that can't be sent right
away.

If they are indeed behaving as you say then it's a flat-out lie. The advantage
of Prime is, as stated, that you can have everything shipped for free without
worrying about minimums _and get it fast_.

~~~
maratd
From the page you linked, the very first note. Click that link. Here it is:

[http://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId...](http://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201118050)

The first line is very important: "Items sold by Amazon.com that are marked on
the product page _and at checkout_."

Emphasis mine. As an example, I ordered a Logitech Mouse. The item was listed
as Prime. It was shown in stock. It showed a guaranteed delivery date within 2
days in the item page. I simply ordered and didn't pay attention to anything
else.

It showed up a week later. When I called, it was pointed out to me that the
"guaranteed delivery date" that matters is NOT on the item page. It's on the
checkout page and those emails they send you after you order. They were
correct, the email I got said a week later ... of course, I didn't pay
attention, because most things come in 2 days and the item page did say it'll
come within 2 days time before I ordered.

Is that false advertising? Sure. I forgive them.

I've also ordered Prime items that were listed in stock and had a guaranteed
delivery date on the item page, but then mysteriously went out of stock later
and simply weren't shipped at all.

I order a lot. Maybe 2-3 items every week. This has happened only a few times.
With the breadth of their operations, these hiccups are understandable. I did
manage to get a few 10 dollar credits once in a while, but sometimes they just
refuse to own up to it and tell you to get lost.

~~~
berberous
I think you are falling victim to an admittedly sub-par UI rather than false
advertising. If they clearly indicated that an item was not 2-day eligible and
you clicked through too fast to notice or somehow ended up on a non-Amazon
seller, that's really not false advertising. I also order a ton, and have
never had such an issue. (I have shipped items to the wrong address, however,
since like you it can become a habit not to read the order checkout
carefully.)

~~~
joshstrange
I've have the same issue as maratd where on the product page it has said:

* Prime

* "Want it $DayOfWeek, $Month $Day? Order within XX hrs XX mins and choose..."

where "$DayOfWeek, $Month $Day" is 2 days away and I've bought it and it
didn't show up until 4,5,6,7 days later. Same thing with the email. It's not
"sub-par UI" it's very clearly designed to make you think... no fuck that,
it's not just "thinking" they TELL YOU when you will get it and even give you
a countdown to "lock in". It's not even deserving of "shitty UI" if they can't
honor that text they shouldn't show it. Period. You can't lie on your product
page then turn around and point to emails no one reads confirming my purchase.
I buy prime because I know it will get here within 2 days and if I can wait
(which I normally can) then waiting is worth not having to deal with more shit
traffic and going to the store. If it's not going to be here in 2 days I need
that in FLASHING RED LETTERS, sometimes I will still be fine. Sometimes, like
when it's medicine, I need to know it's not coming when I expect it.

I've had times I've ordered something with the text from above, it not showed
up after 2 days and then Amazon telling me it won't be here for another 3-4
days when ON THEIR WEBSITE it still say's "Want it $nowPlus2Days? Order
within...". That's bullshit.

All of that said I love Amazon and this inconvenience is minor compared to the
value they provide. I just wish they would be a little more honest on the
product page. They KNOW this is happening but are choosing to do nothing about
it, that really disappoints me. I expected better from Amazon.

~~~
berberous
"I've had times I've ordered something with the text from above, it not showed
up after 2 days and then Amazon telling me it won't be here for another 3-4
days when ON THEIR WEBSITE it still say's "Want it $nowPlus2Days? Order
within..."."

I suppose I could be wrong here, so I apologize for doubting you, but next
time that occurs double check that you bought from the same seller as the
Prime seller that's listed when you go back to check. I still suspect you are
getting lost in the UI. Specifically, I think you may have bought from Seller
Y, which when you checked out specified was not Prime, and then when you went
back to the same exact product page you saw Seller Z offering 2-day prime.
I've seen lots of people get tripped up by the way Amazon displays multiple
vendors selling the same product on the same page. Vendors will go back and
forth competing on pricing, so often the "main" seller that's listed on a
product page will continuously switch among several sellers.

~~~
maratd
> I suppose I could be wrong here, so I apologize for doubting you, but next
> time that occurs double check that you bought from the same seller as the
> Prime seller that's listed when you go back to check.

When I had this happen to me, the orders were NOT from a 3rd party seller.
They were directly from Amazon proper. This is not a UI issue.

------
iak8god
As longtime Prime member and a resident of a metro area that doesn't make the
cut (and is almost certainly not in the next round), I can't help feeling like
I'm subsidizing this service for those who live in the right place.

In fact, every time Amazon adds a new benefit for Prime members that I can't
use or don't want, it reminds me that I must be overpaying for Prime if I'm
only using the two day shipping.

~~~
georgemcbay
Despite being a Prime member for years the only thing I've used it for is the
two-day shipping but I don't mind the existence of the other perks because
just in real dollar terms Prime still saves me a boatload of money versus
shipping costs I'd have to pay for similar quick (and in a way more
importantly: consistently arriving on the correct day) shipping when buying on
other sites.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm in San Diego so this new thing does
actually benefit me... and I'm pretty excited about it. Sorry.

~~~
iak8god
> in real dollar terms Prime still saves me a boatload of money

Me too, which is why I keep it. But I do wish they'd offer a Prime Lite with
just the shipping.

------
opaque_salmon
What kind of infrastructure does it take to be able to offer this kind of
service in the chosen metropolitan areas? Do they have warehouses and delivery
trucks located nearby that are ready to go at a moment's notice?

In any case, this is super cool of Amazon, they are really stepping up their
game.

~~~
Tobani
I think this is basically the case. Here in indianapolis there is a local
Amazon warehouse and I got notification that this service is now available. I
think they've been working on this for a while w/ various strategies.

For example: I order diapers via Subscribe-and-Save. Sometimes the diapers
come in the standard amazon boxes from UPS/Fedex/USPS. Sometimes a guy in an
unmarked pick-up truck filled with diaper boxes drops off the diapers(with an
amazon shipping label adhered directly to the pampers box).

~~~
wj
How does the subscribe-and-save work as your child grows and goes up diaper
sizes?

~~~
Tobani
You just cancel the subscription and start a new one on the larger size.

~~~
ars
You don't have to cancel the subscription, they have an option for many items
to just change the size.

~~~
Tobani
Could be. I haven't done it in a while. Diapers are weird though, some kinds
only go up to size 2, then you have to switch to a different kind and its not
really just changing sizes.

------
netfire
[http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=br_imp_ara-1?_encoding=UTF8&node...](http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=br_imp_ara-1?_encoding=UTF8&node=8729023011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-
hero-A&pf_rd_r=17G0FQ73T3JJQA2N0T74&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2097006022&pf_rd_i=desktop)

That's a horrible url. Why not use something like
[http://amazon.com/news/free-prime-same-day-
delivery](http://amazon.com/news/free-prime-same-day-delivery)? Is there some
significant advantage to identifying the page with non-human readable
identifiers in the query string that I'm not aware of?

Otherwise, very cool. I just wish it was in more areas.

~~~
sleepychu
[http://www.amazon.com/sameday](http://www.amazon.com/sameday)

~~~
netfire
Interesting that they have a pretty url already generated for the page and
then redirect to something that's completely unreadable. It seems like you'd
want to have a single, readable url to have people sharing with others, if
they copy and paste the url from their browser.

~~~
theg2
Why do that when they can create a unique URL And data mine who you share the
link with or where you post it? People call it "dark social" where there are
no referrers such as IM, Text, or chat services like Slack, Hipchat, etc.

------
zer00eyz
I have a love hate relationship with amazon and this is just making it worse.

As a customer, this is amazing service. Sometimes I pay a bit more at amazon
just for speedy delivery (it is a trade off you need to balance). And for a
lot of things the selection is amazing.

As someone who runs a small business that has to ship products, amazon
continues to raise the bar to a level/place that we just cannot meet. Our
timelines for delivery and shipping costs are "out in front" and I can assure
you that in setting that expectation we are deterring some customers from
purchasing.

To that end, we are investing in tools to be more high touch and high
engagement, our margins are such that we are able to do that but a lot of
other small player simply do not have that ability.

~~~
mabbo
If what you're shipping to customers meets certain criteria, you could use
Fulfillment By Amazon to have them do the shipping and logistics for you.

There's costs involved, but maybe it comes out as an overall win for you.

------
bkjelden
The news here seems to be that same day delivery is now free in certain
metros, for prime members.

Amazon has offered same day delivery for a while, they just charged extra for
it.

~~~
jws
Where _free_ means: _Orders under $35 are just $5.99 per order for Prime
members._

~~~
giancarlostoro
Where free _actually_ means: Prime members in selected areas now receive FREE
Same-Day Delivery on qualifying orders over $35.

~~~
mason240
I'm always surprised at people's ability to spin positive things in negative
light.

~~~
Reedx
The reverse is true too. Prime shipping is never actually free, you're paying
$99/year for it.

~~~
ticksoft
A more honest word is 'complimentary'.

------
drcode
Anyone know if this uses Amazon-owned delivery trucks or a traditional package
delivery company?

~~~
rickyc091
They use their own vans.

edit: They basically leverage their amazon fresh / amazon now deliveries.

~~~
chrisper
Not always. My same day stuff came with OnTrac.

~~~
wcfields
That's a story I'd love to read about. OnTrac seems to use basically junker
cheaply painted white mid-90s minivans whenever I see them about. They simply
slap a magnet with OnTrac on it and it becomes a fleet vehicle.

While FedEx/UPS have their own custom designed fleet, OnTrac seems to scour
auto auctions for theirs.

------
mrspeaker
I don't know if I'm just unlucky, but I'm in NYC and I rarely get my "free
Prime next day deliveries!" the next day (but I am racking up a pile of "$1
off ebooks" vouchers because of it).

~~~
discardorama
Those vouchers have a fairly short (3 months?) expiry date.

------
xbryanx
Does anyone have insights/guesses into the reasons behind the cities where
this has been rolled out? It doesn't seem to correlate with market size. Is
it:

\- regulation

\- supply lines

\- weather

\- internal politics

??

~~~
nostrebored
What would make you say that? These are all large, urban places which are
known to utilize Amazon.

Indianapolis is the only city that's confusing to me, but they have a
warehouse there, and it is located close enough to ship to other locations
within the 1 day timeframe.

~~~
xbryanx
No Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. Upper Midwest is
conspicuously absent.

~~~
nostrebored
Fair point. Seems to be Amazon strategy though, after looking at their
distribution center map: [https://scmmsublogs.wordpress.com/scm-
strategies/amazon-com-...](https://scmmsublogs.wordpress.com/scm-
strategies/amazon-com-inc/) Wouldn't be surprised to see Chicago added to the
list of supported cities soon, but Houston, Minneapolis, and Kansas City are
all pretty far from current/planned distribution centers.

~~~
ChickeNES
Amazon is opening warehouses on Goose Island in Chicago and in Joliet in the
near future: [http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-amazon-goose-
islan...](http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-amazon-goose-
island-0430-biz-20150429-story.html)

------
mnml_
when I saw the page I pressed refresh thinking the css was broken. Then I
realised thats how its supposed to look.

------
ThomW
Meanwhile, the DVD I attempted to order this morning using Prime's two-day-
shipping delivery date was estimated to be Tuesday (five days away).

I get delivery issues, but the item was advertised by being sold by Amazon
using Prime.

~~~
coldpie
Did it actually take five days? I find their shipping estimates are often very
pessimistic.

~~~
Igglyboo
Same here.

I'd say about 1 in 3 packages I order end up being delivered a day earlier
than they quoted.

------
getpost
In LA, Amazon same day delivery didn't deliver on the same day in 2 of 3
orders. The order that was delivered same day came at 10pm, much too late.

Of course, I only ordered same day delivery because I actually needed the item
that day. I was trying to save a car trip (an especially valuable feature in
LA), but had to go out and buy the items anyway.

The people who deliver same day seem to be freelancers, who don't seem to have
any delivery tracking technology.

I can't see choosing this option again. Ordering for next day delivery almost
always meets the delivery commitment.

~~~
byoung2
Same day delivery has always worked for me (4 of 4), but they do come late,
always after 9pm, and it's always a private vehicle (white Chevy Astrovan). I
live in Woodland Hills, if that makes a difference. The closest warehouse
Amazon has is in San Bernardino, but 2 of my packages had tags that said
Burbank, so they must have a smaller distribution center there.

I have noticed that if you add an item to your wish list and later buy it,
with prime it will arrive the next day, not 2-3 days. I think Amazon ships
items in your wish list to a warehouse close to you if they are not there
already, but I can't prove my theory.

------
viiralvx
Interesting choice launching in Dallas but not Austin or Houston for Texas.

~~~
freehunter
I have a cousin who lives in Austin and he says he's ordered a Mountain Dew
from Amazon and had it delivered two hours later by someone in a hatchback.
This was about two months ago. YMMV.

~~~
enraged_camel
Yes, the service is called PrimeNow and it does 2-hour delivery for items
commonly found in supermarkets and stores around your area.

------
kapitalx
When amazon was pressured into charging sales taxes in many states, I
predicted that it would likely translate to same day delivery. They used it as
an opportunity to bring the product closer to their customers. I know i'll be
using amazon even more now.

------
hanlec
Amazon's Prime 2-day delivery completely changed my ability to wait for
gratification. For deliveries that take the normal 5 days, I'm finding myself
checking Delivery app a couple of times every day, hoping that something is
wrong with the details and I'll actually receive my box sooner.

A couple of examples:

1\. I have bought a couple of things from Massdrop and because these were
estimated to arrive in about 2 weeks, I was initially very annoyed and then
totally forgot about them

2\. I have chosen a product based on how soon it'll be delivered (I didn't
actually need it urgently) instead of just considering the product qualities.

------
mangeletti
Link without tracking data:
[http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=8729023011](http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=8729023011)

------
tsotha
This is why Amazon gave in on state sales taxes. In order to pull this off
they needed to expand their distribution network, which meant having a
"presence" which would have put them on the hook for taxes anyway.

I'm curious to see if they'll pull it off. There's a lot of wreckage from
previous attempts that failed.

------
yellowapple
I'm surprised (and disappointed) Reno isn't included, seeing as there's a
major Amazon distribution center just on the outskirts (in the same area where
Tesla's building their Gigafactory). That should be _really_ easy to pull off.

------
cherioo
Just checked and it seems that this is not available for Locker delivery. I
wonder why.

~~~
rickyc091
They can't guarantee you will get it the "next day" since the store owner is
the one who puts the packages into the locker themselves.

------
alyx
Requires a $35 minimum purchase

~~~
aroch
So do the vast majority of other Prime shipments, the occasional <$35
item/order may quality for free 2day shipping depending on some undefined
circumstances

Edit: Whoops, I was thinking non-prime 2day shipping

~~~
ghaff
Huh? Sorry, but that's just wrong. They do have add-on items which have to be
bought at the same time as other items to get the free shipping. But I assure
you that I routinely get free Prime shipping for single items that are well
under $35. It's the norm.

------
stickhandle
same day is ridiculous. what's next? are they going to have convenience stores
disguised as trucks roaming the neighbourhood waiting for me to realize
halfway through making tacos that I have no sour cream?

------
pbreit
Would Amazon have done this years ago if it wasn't so bent on avoiding sales
tax (and thus locating warehouses far from buyers)? Did potential Amazon
competitors miss out on this opportunity?

------
dutchrapley
I had feeling this was going to happen. While I don't live in one of the metro
areas on the map, I recently had an order that I received the next day,
although I chose 2-day shipping.

~~~
organsnyder
Recently, I've had that happen frequently—probably 50% of the time. Makes it
difficult to time orders when I'm trying to receive something covertly on a
day when I'm working from home (and my wife is not). I've ended up paying for
overnight shipping just to ensure that I have the timing right.

------
thedangler
It would be really nice if this type of information was listed in their API. I
still don't know why when you look up an item it doesn't say whether its same
day delivery or not.

------
lubujackson
Has anyone actually found a thing that is for sale on the same day? I live in
SF and for any search the "Get it today" is grayed out (and has been since 8
am).

~~~
alchemism
Yesterday I had the option of buying an SSD same-day. I'm in Philadelphia.

------
frik
As a Amazon.com customer since the late nineties I don't get the "Prime"
subscription model. I have a e-ink Kindle, I buy MP3s, electronics, many books
there on their Market Place and I use AWS.

But why should I care about "Prime"? Either Amazon cares about long term
customers or not, but don't try to force me to Prime by showing full screen
"Prime" advertisement (with a little "no thanks" link) at every purchase. I
don't need same-day delivery, but I don't want worse delivery times than
before Prime has been introduced (which happened).

~~~
freehunter
I wonder what the cause of your slower shipping was. Another poster said he
doesn't have Prime but his shipping speed is still Prime fast.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9619203](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9619203)

~~~
frik
I suspect it was the introduction of Prime as all my shipments take at least a
day longer than before. (in western Europe) It took 1-2 days, now it takes
usually 2-7 days. I also found no correlation to the reoccurring strike
problems at Amazon warehouses in Germany.

------
jhugg
Is there a way to restrict my search to eligible items?

~~~
gusmd
Yes. Filter by PRIME | Free Same Day [0]

[0] [http://g-ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/prime/sameday/VXD...](http://g-ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/prime/sameday/VXD-180-SameDayLaunch-landing-
infoSteps-900x250._V304312315_.png)

~~~
jhugg
Ugh. This is super annoying. You can only see this filter and the eligability
if your default address is in the region. I live in a valid area, but often
have things sent to work which is just outside the valid area.

I wish I could see the fast shipping option, and just know I have to send it
home.

------
tobico
Now if only Australia could get same-month delivery.

------
novaleaf
I dunno. I just ordered $100 in stuff and it's set to deliver "Saturday by
8pm" (2.5 days from now)

------
wunderlust
Why does this post have so many upvotes and comments?

------
elcct
I wonder how are they going to improve from there. Previous day delivery? "We
deliver before you buy" (tm)

~~~
zhte415
T "We thought you may be running low on toilet paper, so we sent some for
free. If you're not, then just tick no and we'll take it back, or [from a
comment that was deleted shortly after it was posted] pass it to an Amazon
neighbor for a $2 credit."

T+1 "We've noticed you appreciate our pre-emptive notifications, and hope
we've been helping you out. We'd like to opt you in to our pre-emptive
ordering system, so we can help you forget those small essentials. We've
included some complementary, ripe, seedless avocados less than 1 day from the
tree they were picked from as a sample of the power this feature can offer;
this freshness can't be bought in shops."

T+2 "We've opted you in to our pre-emptive ordering system, where we will send
you those daily essentials and special seasonal must-haves. There is no
commitment. If we ever send you some thing you don't feel you need, we'll
happily take it back at no charge and no effort from you."

There is definitely a business model there.

~~~
MatthewWilkes
The first option there is the same scam that record clubs used. In the UK, at
least, any goods sent to you speculatively are yours to keep for free; any
attempt to collect payment is illegal.

------
enjo
No Denver.. lame.

~~~
mjcohen
Only if you live in Denver.

