If you suffer from crippling anxiety and/or laziness and don’t like to leave the apartment to run errands, going shopping for groceries probably feels like an arduous task. Google, however, feels your pain. The Internet behemoth is launching a program that caters specifically to the misanthropic, bunny slippers-and-bathrobe-wearing contingent: Google Shopping Express, a same-day online delivery service for household items and non-perishable goods.
Initially launched in the Bay Area, Google Shopping Express is expanding to New York City and Los Angeles starting this Monday, the company announced today. The service delivers household goods and non-perishable items purchased from participating retailers, including Target, Walgreens, Fairway, and Costco, so you can buy your favorite Girl Scout cookies in bulk without having to lift your butt off your couch or—even better!—having to interact with a single Girl Scout.
Although there’s no minimum price requirement for items purchased, there’s a flat fee of $4.99 per store. Deliveries arrive via Google-branded car and are promised to arrive within a few hours after the time that the order was placed. If, for example, you order something around 12:30pm, Google guarantees you’ll receive it by 5:30 that evening.
It’s no coincidence that Google’s expansion of Shopping Express comes hot on the heels of a similar announcement by Amazon, which launched its own same-day delivery service in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Phoenix last Friday. (It also launched a grocery delivery service for perishable items last June).
Unlike Google’s program, however, Amazon charges a flat fee of $5.99 per order for Amazon Prime members; or $9.98 for the first item and 99 cents for each additional item for non-Amazon members who use the delivery service. eBay has also launched a similar delivery service, though it requires a minimum purchase of $25.
Because both Google and Amazon’s delivery programs are brand-new, it remains to be seen if there’s any substantial difference in the quality of service, or which one will ultimately win over the elusive market of shut-ins and barely employed freelancers that most online delivery services strive to reach. Either way, you may never have to listen to that horrible Air Supply song blast through the loudspeaker in the supermarket frozen foods aisle ever again.
H/T New York Post | Photo by Rojer/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
