6 ms·

Weekly free delivery service from Amazon.com: AmazonTote

104 points by ashishbharthi 16y ago

waterlesscloud 16y ago
"Currently, AmazonTote is available in the 98112 ZIP code."
- pkulak 16y ago
  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.
- aaronbrethorst 16y ago
  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.
- SiVal 16y ago
  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?
- blasdel 16y ago
  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.
  - InclinedPlane 16y ago
    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).
frossie 16y ago
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.
- lionhearted 16y ago
  > 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.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  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)
  - pkulak 16y ago
    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.
  - diskrete 16y ago
    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.
tnorthcutt 16y ago
I don't see the benefits for someone with Amazon prime. Am I missing something?
- JeffJenkins 16y ago
  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.
- jackowayed 16y ago
  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).
  - d2viant 16y ago
    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.
- norova 16y ago
  You get two ToteDays per week instead of one.
  - ars 16y ago
    But you have to order two days in advance - so how is that better than having 2 day free shipping with prime?
    - weaksauce 16y ago
      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.
csmeder 16y ago
Who Remembers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com 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.
- SkyMarshal 16y ago
  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?
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - transatlantic 16y ago
    Urbanfetch, I believe.
- _delirium 16y ago
  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.
rdl 16y ago
This definitely makes me miss the plastic WebVan crates (I think I accumulated >40 of them).
joshbert 16y ago
There's a small typo in there. It's supposed to be "Shop Until You're Cut Off" if I'm not mistaken.
- gommm 16y ago
  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).
  - joshbert 16y ago
    You're right, I read that in the wrong context. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
- roofone 16y ago
  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.
ben1040 16y ago
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.
BirdWatcher 16y ago
It seems to me they are trying to cut out logistics here. No longer needing a courier in many cities will lower costs dramatically,.
- studer 16y ago
  Looks like it's operated by these guys (who are described as an "amazon affiliate" in the FAQ): http://fresh.amazon.com/ http://fresh.amazon.com/
jsz0 16y ago
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.
- qq66 16y ago
  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."
  - jsz0 16y ago
    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.
- chaosmachine 16y ago
  Alternatively, they just get delivered to your local store instead. And most people drive to the store.
  - jsz0 16y ago
    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.
erikpukinskis 16y ago
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.
- gometro33 16y ago
  > 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_Simpsons#Tomacco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Products_produced_from_The_Simp...
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  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.htm http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon....
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
aspiringsensei 16y ago
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....
jlsnyder 16y ago
I like the idea. Too bad they aren't running it in my area. I reusable tote would save a lot of boxes.
wrs 16y ago
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?

104 points by ashishbharthi 16y ago

waterlesscloud 16y ago

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

pkulak 16y ago
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.
aaronbrethorst 16y ago
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.
SiVal 16y ago
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?
blasdel 16y ago
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.
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  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).

frossie 16y ago

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.

lionhearted 16y ago
> 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.
sliverstorm 16y ago
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)
- pkulak 16y ago
  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.
- diskrete 16y ago
  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.

tnorthcutt 16y ago

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

JeffJenkins 16y ago
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.
jackowayed 16y ago
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).
- d2viant 16y ago
  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.
norova 16y ago
You get two ToteDays per week instead of one.
- ars 16y ago
  But you have to order two days in advance - so how is that better than having 2 day free shipping with prime?
  - weaksauce 16y ago
    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.

csmeder 16y ago

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

SkyMarshal 16y ago
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?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- transatlantic 16y ago
  Urbanfetch, I believe.
_delirium 16y ago
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.

rdl 16y ago

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

joshbert 16y ago

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

gommm 16y ago
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).
- joshbert 16y ago
  You're right, I read that in the wrong context. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
roofone 16y ago
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.

ben1040 16y ago

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.

BirdWatcher 16y ago

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

studer 16y ago
Looks like it's operated by these guys (who are described as an "amazon affiliate" in the FAQ): http://fresh.amazon.com/ http://fresh.amazon.com/

jsz0 16y ago

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.

qq66 16y ago
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."
- jsz0 16y ago
  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.
chaosmachine 16y ago
Alternatively, they just get delivered to your local store instead. And most people drive to the store.
- jsz0 16y ago
  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.

erikpukinskis 16y ago

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.

gometro33 16y ago
> 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_Simpsons#Tomacco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Products_produced_from_The_Simp...
InclinedPlane 16y ago
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.htm http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon....

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

aspiringsensei 16y ago

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....

jlsnyder 16y ago

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

wrs 16y ago

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?