This isn’t really worth a TidBITS article, but I found it interesting since Amazon is normally so close-mouthed with details.
It is a very interesting disclosure by Amazon, and I wish they at least gave a few details about the global distribution of its members. I’m also very interested in seeing how they roll out their grocery business, which I think has great potential in the US and beyond.
I used the Amazon Prime shopping thing to get a delivery from Whole Foods. Mostly it was testing the system, which a little bit of “I don’t WANNA”. In order to avoid a delivery charge I had to spend $35 which I wasn’t going to do, but I added some yogurt my wife likes and got the total up.
There were two things I didn’t like. First, it gave me a 2 hour window 3 hours in the future, but offered me an upgrade for $5 for the next hour with a single hour window. this meant I could get my delivery in 3-5 hours, or 15-75 minutes if I paid more.
Second, they showed up 20 minutes early. Now, this might not be an issue for most people, and it might not be an issue for me in the future once i am used to this, but I wanted to be home when the groceries showed up and I wasn’t.
I got what I ordered, no issues. the perishables were inside insulated bags (inside sealed paper bags) and I would do it again, but not very often as the store is very close to us and it would be a rare day I wouldn’t drive by it anyway.