>Emergency trip to the hospital, no food at home? Prime Now.
> Living alone sick, no food in the home? Prime Now.
> Parents feeling poorly and I'm 3 states away? Prime Now.
I hope that any of those three events don't happen to you (or to anyone else) very often.
I mean, I perfectly understand the utility of the service, in a given set of "emergencies", but the profitability (at scale) would come if the service is used consistently, every day, not in a handful of (hopefully) not often recurring cases.
> Stuck at work late, need kitty litter but no local groceries are open by the time you leave? Prime now.
> Need kitty litter but don't have a car and don't want to hulk 80 lbs of litter home? Prime now.
> Need a random ass torx screw driver and don't want to drive to home depot across town? Prime now.
> Forgot the ground beef but don't have time to get it because the oven is already on, cooking for the company coming over? Prime now.
> At a beer festival and sick of standing but didn't bring your camping chairs because you don't have any? Prime now.
> Standing in line outside in the rain but didn't bring an umbrella? Prime now.
> Ran out of Christmas cards? Prime now.
> Nieces birthday and no time to go shopping? Prime now.
As somebody who lives in the city without a car and nowhere near a home depot or a grocery store that is open past 10pm, prime now has been an absolute godsend. The fact that I can order a ton of items that I just _cant_ find locally no matter how hard I look, but also don't want to wait for shipping from Amazon/Ebay/whatnot is an absolute godsend.
I don't think you need to cook up an emergency to have a good reason to use Prime Now. I have tons of 'micro emergencies' every month where I'd gladly tip my driver a bit to bring my items within a few hours.
>I don't think you need to cook up an emergency to have a good reason to use Prime Now. I have tons of 'micro emergencies' every month where I'd gladly tip my driver a bit to bring my items within a few hours.
Yep, your examples are a lot less "emergencies", the previous examples were all connected to unpleasant events, but - with all due respect - yours are all connected to the same "base issue", forgetting to procure in time (or in advance) whatever you need.
I just relocated to Alabama from NYC and one of the only things I miss is Prime Now. I’m happy to pay a small premium to get something “now” without having to leave the house. Cables / electronics / “just thinking of you” presents for my wife / “crap, we’re out of X and the kids are actually playing happily...”.
I would frequently get heads down on a project, realize I needed widget X, would order on Prime Now, continue my work, and have the widget when I needed it.
As soon as it’s introduced to Birmingham my suburban life will be complete...
>Is this a common state of affairs? Who doesn't have at least a week's supply of food
On the morning of the grocery shopping day, I'd guess most families do not have 7 days of food left to eat.
In America, the average # of grocery trips per week was ~2.[1]
That frequency doesn't seem so strange if the number of trips is affected by: (1) family size such as 4 people including 2 parents + 2 children, (2) refrigerator size of typically less than 20 cu ft (not the luxury 28+ cu ft or extra refrigerator in the garage), and (3) preference for fresh & perishable food instead of canned items.
Yeah my dude, I'd almost venture to say that you are the outlier here (echo/bubbles, yay!). For many that I know, food is an on-demand lazy loaded resource. Sure, sometimes they buy groceries (usually when they run out of pop-tarts) ... But the odd day when they actually cook dinner, it's a trip to the store for just those ingredients that are necessary.
Is it horribly wasteful and inefficient? yes. Does that get factored into the equation? no.
Efficiency aside, that feels like awful planning to me. Growing up in the Bay Area, the threat of a significant earthquake has been ever-present. My family always had several dozen bottles of water and a reasonable amount of canned/jarred/dried food around.
Living alone and sick, I don't want to cook. I want cereal, orange juice, ice cream, easy to prepare food, etc. These are the sorts of things I don't normally have around.
My emergency supplies have food, but I don't eat the emergency food unless there is an emergency.
Hell, the 5 cases of Soylent would last a long time, not to mention a fridge and pantry full of food. Maybe not stuff I want to eat, but they're calories in a pinch.
I suppose if you take it literally, this isn't too common a thing. Having a week's supply of _food_ is easy, but if you want to have a weeks supply of _meals_ that's a different situation.
There's a difference between literally no food at home and no fresh food. You could of course eat a can of beans that has been sitting there since Obama was in office, but you'd really rather a fresh meal.
> Living alone sick, no food in the home? Prime Now.
> Parents feeling poorly and I'm 3 states away? Prime Now.
I hope that any of those three events don't happen to you (or to anyone else) very often.
I mean, I perfectly understand the utility of the service, in a given set of "emergencies", but the profitability (at scale) would come if the service is used consistently, every day, not in a handful of (hopefully) not often recurring cases.