On the other hand:

https://twitter.com/pretentiouswhat/status/16192278747494850...

>I just placed a grocery order from an Aldi 2km away on Meituan and it arrived in ELEVEN MINUTES. The drive itself takes like 8 minutes. That means the driver was already in the store, and the staff took 3 minutes to assemble my order? Why would anyone leave their home? lol

Today, China with cheap labour. Tomorrow drones.

One time I had a king sized (foam) mattress delivered for next day with prime. It was huge and heavy, the postman could just drag it from the truck into our garage, cursing.

Shipping was $2.99

10 orders in a neighborhood in 30 minutes is like 60 usd. 25 to driver. 35 for driver and truck costs. over 8 hour shift that's like 250 to amazon. Number's check out as sustainable. and that's after fees from FBA seller, which on high orders could be 10-50 or more per order, any shipping upsells to customer, and prime fees from customer. Very sustainable and profitable.

You mean something being delivered from one part of a city to another in 1-2 days should cost, on average, with the economy of scales, significantly more than $5.99?

Being able to pick an optimal time, I can have my person delivered across the city for $20 or so. That’s with all sorts of liability and no “one delivery serves many” model to maximize profit

I think you’re overestimating the value of transporting a small, light box