Weekly free delivery service from Amazon.com: AmazonTote | Hacker News Reader

Weekly free delivery service from Amazon.com: AmazonTote

tote.amazon.com

104 pointsashishbharthi53 comments

This is a great step.

I think what would complete this is if you could leave items in the bag that you sell on Amazon Marketplace, and Amazon would pick them up and deliver them to the buyer.

Then you'd potentially have a packaging-less, production-free, nearly energy-ideal system for moving around used goods.

Imagine instead of having a tag sale, you'd just scan everything you want to get rid of into Amazon, and they'd come pick things up as they find new homes for them.

Add in automatic market-based pricing, and you basically have near perfect liquidity for used goods. That'd be radical.

The step after that is just to allow people to distribute home-produced goods. Harvest tomatoes from your back yard on ToteDay, drop them into Amazon mini-totes, and have them delivered, at market prices, to people in your area.

It'd be like the economics of the App Store applied to all goods.

Shit, I'm going to go apply for a job at Amazon.

You can already ship all of your Marketplace items to Amazon and they'll sit in their warehouses and be packaged and shipped by Amazon for you, for a fee of course.

See: http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon....

> Harvest tomatoes from your back yard on ToteDay, drop them into Amazon mini-totes, and have them delivered, at market prices, to people in your area.

Then you run the risk of people selling Tomacco[1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Products_produced_from_The_Simp...

One day in and the Woot acquisition is already bearing fruit -- Amazon is now selling Woot's famous "bags of crap."

Being Prime subscribers, my wife and I get a shipment from Amazon usually on a weekly basis. I might try this just because I'm sick of throwing away Amazon boxes. Bags I can send back seems like a nice idea.

edit: Bad design on the part of Amazon. It lets me sign in with my account to see when my delivery dates would be, and even gives me an answer once I've signed in. However it doesn't tell me that all of the shipping addresses on my account are thousands of miles away from the only place the service is offered.

"Currently, AmazonTote is available in the 98112 ZIP code."

Great. Page after page of detailed information, a request that you sign in for more info, specific info about the delivery day for people in your zip code is provided, and near the bottom of one of the linked-to pages it finally mentions offhand, as if it were just one more great feature, that there is actually a zip code--one zip code--in which the service they've been gushing about is available! For almost everyone, it's a big fat "never mind, we were just kidding!" Wouldn't that be better stated near the top of page one?

Likely soon to expand to more of the AmazonFresh delivery area:

  98004, 98005*, 98006*, 98007, 98008,  98011, 98012,  98019,
  98021, 98024*, 98027*, 98028, 98029*, 98033, 98034,  98039,
  98040, 98052,  98053,  98056, 98057,  98059, 98065,  98072, 98074,
  98075, 98077,  98101,  98102, 98103,  98104, 98105,  98106, 98107,
  98108, 98109,  98112*, 98115, 98116,  98117, 98118*, 98119,
  98121, 98122*, 98125,  98126, 98133,  98136, 98144*, 98146,
  98155, 98164,  98178,  98199

A subset of Amazon-fulfilled items hand delivered to my doorstep? I already get that directly from AmazonFresh, where I use such purchases to boost my order size to get free grocery delivery.

It's especially useful when buying booze from them, where the order size minimums are much higher because the delivery must be attended — instead just leaving it in a plastic crate at my doorstep, the driver puts it in my fridge for me.

I probably won't ever use this unless it covers close to the full set of Prime-eligble items, which would involve them keeping no local inventory unlike what they're doing with Fresh already.

Note: this is not a subset of Amazon-fulfilled items as with AmazonFresh, this is pretty close to everything that Amazon ships. (It's basically just Amazon delivering otherwise super-saver shipments the last mile to your door using their own trucks, where available).

To which I say "hooray!" Amazon seems to LOVE my zip code. It's a cozy part of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood centered around a more residential experience than what the Hill is usually known for. I'll be using this. Especially as a Prime member.

Why is that significant?

EDIT: Oh! It's only available there. That's odd. I signed in and they told me my day was Wednesday, even though all me addresses are in Oregon. Oh well.

Who Remembers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com :)

note: Don't take the above comment to mean I think Amazon is going to fail with this. 10 years ago an unknown company couldn't make this work. Im sure Amazon will do fine in Seattle with this.

Is that still the record for most VC dollars raised without ever reaching an exit? If Wikipedia's figures are accurate, they raised $250m, or about $315m in 2010 dollars.

I remember Kozmo. I also remember they had a competitor in NYC, but I can't recall its name. I just remember having them bring me some delicious lobster&steak from Fulton Fish Market or somewhere. Anyone remember their name?

Urbanfetch, I believe.

Ironically, I feel so bad when I order five things in one order (ship when everything is ready, free shipping) and them Amazon sends me five different packages at great expense, that I am almost relieved they are offering this.

Absolutely; same here. I try to group my shipments even though shipping cost is no longer an issue with Prime. In reality they probably have a deal worked out so that 2-day shipping doesn't cost practically anything, but I still feel that guilt when the expedite that $3.35 item to me. I wonder if guilt's part of the Prime business strategy? I still haven't figured out how it works out in their favor (which it has to, or they wouldn't offer it)

There is also the guilt of having an item flown across the country and delivered by truck. An item that costs $10 and is readily available at a store 1/2 mile from your house. I’ve done that, because I can be done with it in two minutes and forget about it.

is readily available at a store 1/2 mile from your house.

How did that item get to the store?

True. But it was probably accompanied with many other copies of itself. Also the truck arriving at the store likely delivered more cargo per mile driven than a UPS/FedEx/Mail equivalent. Those services are more expensive ($/gasoline/packaging/...) than just shipping a truck full of toothpaste to a distribution center and then hundreds of tubes to a multitude of stores because of the piecemeal fashion in which they pick up and drop off at the ends of their networks.

When I had Prime I still selected standard shipping all the time for things I just didn't need right away. I just didn't like the thought of all the fuel used to put some toothpaste on a plane instead of a truck.

> I feel so bad when I order five things in one order (ship when everything is ready, free shipping) and them Amazon sends me five different packages at great expense

They were probably at different warehouse/shipping facilities and Amazon figured it was better to just fire them off than try to unite them in one place. I find when I order obscure stuff - uncommon books, a Go board, whatever - it's more likely to show up by itself than if I'm ordering mostly bestsellers and popular books.

I don't see the benefits for someone with Amazon prime. Am I missing something?

I don't think it's really aimed at Amazon Prime people.

I think it's really to get people to order more from Amazon, even for orders <$25. Tote will probably cost them enough that those orders don't make them anything, but it will build loyalty (and they let you keep the tote bag--keeps Amazon in your mind).

Will it really cost them that much more though? Since they assign your "Tote Day" for you, it seems like they could save a ton of money on the efficiencies gained in their delivery/location scheduler.

You get two ToteDays per week instead of one.

But you have to order two days in advance - so how is that better than having 2 day free shipping with prime?

If time is your only concern then no it's not better but it is more environment friendly... And you get to keep the bag to use somewhere else.

If you're using the service it looks like you'd get a much easier way to do returns. What I'm wondering is if it works in apartment buildings. If it does, I'm all over this.

see frossie's comment; it prevents guilt :)

I'm not sure their is a benefit for the customer other than hoping Amazon will pass the savings on in the long run. However, this service might some what eat into the revenues of Amazon Prime.

Also, Amazon Prime is not available everywhere, for example it is not available to Hawaii.

Edit: I have had 3 Amazon packages arrive in one day - one by USPS, one by FedEx and one by UPS. I get mine at work, so I'm not bothered, but I can imagine it is a convenience for people who have to answer their own door for packages to know that everything will arrive in one go.

eco-consciousness

You know what would be kickass, is if they offered a small discount to Prime members who opt to have the item delivered in this fashion. 2-day delivery has got to cost them more.

This definitely makes me miss the plastic WebVan crates (I think I accumulated >40 of them).

I wonder: Is Amazon now trying to compete with Fedex? What's the benefit to them of building out a shipping network on top of their distribution network?

I'm sure there's some margin that could be potentially captured - and it might be neat to be dealing just with amazon - but why not focus on stuff that doesn't involve becoming a competitor to established shipping services. In my view, the US Postal services are already kind of underpriced....

I love the idea of it but at the same time I feel like most items you require on a weekly basis should really be obtained in a more sustainable way. It's wonderful we can (currently) afford this luxury of putting items on an airplane, flying them to a local hub, and driving them right to your house twice a week but there's more to consider than just the cost of the service itself.

The sustainability of Amazon-style shipping is pretty complicated. If you buy items on Amazon, yes, they must be shipped, but you can bet that Amazon will find the cheapest (and likely relatively low-energy) way of shipping it to you.

Meanwhile, you don't have to have as many physical retail stores, which consume tremendous amounts of electricity, and contribute to the suburban sprawl that causes "car culture."

It's definitely complicated. I was thinking of a few different scenarios and in some cases it's not clear that local distribution is always a better route. For example if your local store gets a shipment of 100 items and only sells 10 what happens to the other 90? Do they get shipped back? Thrown away? Who knows... If the UPS truck happens to be down the street and needs to go 1 mile out of its way to make a delivery to me that's better than my own 10 mile trip. Even with your example of less physical stores we'd have to consider that means less jobs, less revenue for the town in the form of property taxes when the business closes, less sales tax for the state -- apparently Amazon only charges sales tax in 5 states.

It often ceases to amaze me that here in Australia I can often buy books at 33-50% of the price that I can buy them retail locally. That's with international air freight and all. I guess it's less sustainable than if books were otherwise printed locally. Though a lot of stuff is here is printed in Asia anyway and tech books are printed in the USA. If books are sent by air freight to local distributers I guess it's the same.

That said, I'm also finding bookdepository.co.uk cheaper and despite the greater distance shipping is much quicker from Europe than the US. (Many of the books I've ordered through them have been printed in Europe as well).

Borders are now claiming to price beat amazon (http://www.borders.com.au/borders-price-guarantee).. Not that they do - but I guess that menas if you're willing to go through some hassle - you can get books even cheaper.

Someone on /r/australia recommended http://www.booko.com.au as a book search comparison tool as well.

Alternatively, they just get delivered to your local store instead. And most people drive to the store.

Most cars get better gas milage than a UPS truck though. I know there's a ton of factors to consider here (what if the UPS truck is already making a delivery to my neighbor?) but it just seems really wasteful and indulgent to me. It's one of those things where I know if I signed up for it I would use it for the most frivolous and lazy purposes because it's just too easy and the consequences are completely hidden from me unless I make a real effort to think about it.

It doesn't seem that complicated. A UPS truck drives less than 100 miles per day[1], and gets 9 miles to the gallon[2]. At most, that's 11 gallons of gas to deliver packages to 150 people[3].

If those 150 people were to drive to the store instead, they'd get an average of 23 miles to the gallon[4]. The average round trip to the grocery store is 5.5 miles[5]. That's 35 gallons of gas for all of those people to go to the store.

By that calculation, driving to the store uses more than three times as much gas as centralized delivery.

[1] http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/30/fedex-aims-30-percen... [2] http://www.hybridcars.com/news/fedex-and-ups-add-electric-dr... [3] http://gas2.org/2008/12/11/ups-drivers-using-bikes-to-delive... [4] http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_stat... [5] http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/foodnutritionassistance/fun...

That is the best research-to-length-of-post density I've seen on HN to date. Kudos sir.

Why is it more sustainable to drive yourself to the store and back in a mostly empty car than it is to have the same goods delivered to you on a truck that also delivers to dozens or hundreds of others? The total per-item miles are probably less for the delivery scenario.

Think of it as car-pooling, but for stuff instead of people.

It's sort of like UPS truck pooling in my case. I live in a high rise that gets daily deliveries regardless of what I order, which is why I don't feel too bad about my incessant stream of Amazon orders.

I live in 98112 and nothing is showing the Tote button, even items with local same-day delivery available (another fine Amazon perk for Seattle residents). Where are the Tote-able items hiding?

I like the idea. Too bad they aren't running it in my area. I reusable tote would save a lot of boxes.

It seems to me they are trying to cut out logistics here. No longer needing a courier in many cities will lower costs dramatically,.

Looks like it's operated by these guys (who are described as an "amazon affiliate" in the FAQ):

http://fresh.amazon.com/

There's a small typo in there. It's supposed to be "Shop Until You're Cut Off" if I'm not mistaken.

No, the cutoff date is the date and time by which you can't add anymore things to the tote-bag (ie. in this case 10 a.m. 2 days before your delivery day).

You're right, I read that in the wrong context. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

In this sense "cutoff" is a noun, possessed by you: "your cutoff."

While grammatically correct, it is confusing if you stop and think about it while you are reading.

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