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Testing Amazon Prime Now in Seattle, with whiskey of course

Cheers, Amazon.

 

Aaron Sankin

Tech

Posted on Aug 25, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 2:29 am CDT

Ordering booze on Amazon Prime Now is expensive. 

It was $22.99 for the bottle of Jameson, $7.99 for the delivery fee, $6.35 for sales tax, $2.83 for the spirits liter tax and a $5.00 recommended tip for the delivery guy. All told, the total cost was nearly twice as much as the sticker price. But, on the positive side, I didn’t have to go outside.

Aaron Sankin

The top results for whiskey were Jameson and Fireball. There wasn’t an enormous selection of whiskeys, only about 15 options. The beer selection was wider with over 100 different beers to choose from. You can also have beer home-brewing kits delivered, which is weird because who would urgently need something that could get them beer in two months?

Within 10 minutes of ordering, I got a notification that Michael, my delivery guy, was on his way. Using the Prime Now app, I could track his progress from the distribution center to my place.

Aaron Sankin

Michael was at my door 23 minutes after I hit the order button. He checked my ID and said that the service went live at 8pm last night. He told me that he had been working non-stop since 8am this morning mostly delivering a combination of alcohol and bulk items.

“I’m just looking to blow people away with how fast I can get there,” he said. “People have been really excited with how quickly I can get them stuff after they order.”

Yes, you can order toilet paper. Yes, there an delivery instructions form on the app so maybe you could ask them to walk into your house and bring it directly to the bathroom. No guarantees they’d do it, but the possibility is there. You know, if worst came to worst.

Aaron Sankin

For people with too much disposable income and not enough impulse control, Amazon Prime Now is an excessively convenient vision of a very particular future. Now for that whiskey.

 Photo via ActuaLitté/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

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*First Published: Aug 25, 2015, 7:57 pm CDT