Skip the Store
Amazon launches one-hour delivery service in Austin
Austinites can now get tens of thousands of daily essentials delivered ridiculously fast at no extra cost. Amazon has launched Prime Now in Austin, making Austin one of the six cities eligible for the ultra-fast service.
A step beyond Amazon’s same-day delivery service, which is already available in 13 cities, Prime Now is exclusively for Amazon Prime members (a $99/per year membership) and requires a separate mobile app. Originally launched in Manhattan at the end of 2014, Prime Now has since expanded to Brooklyn, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta and Austin.
The app is meant to boost Amazon Prime benefits, offering members a way to get daily essentials like toilet paper or office supplies delivered to their door within one hour — for $7.99 — or within two hours for free.
Since its launch in Dallas last month, some of the most popular items delivered through Prime Now in Texas have been Campbell’s Soup, bottled water and organic iced tea, says Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations. “We know customers in Austin will love the opportunity to skip a trip to the store and get items delivered right to their door in under an hour.”
It will be interesting to see how the app — which includes a way to track the courier en route — does in Austin, where apps like Favor and Instacart are already popular ways of skipping the store and getting grocery-like items.
Besides the potential financial benefit of using Prime Now over a regular delivery app, the app’s appeal might be that it can deliver much more than soup and organic tea. A promotional video on amazon.com instructs us to use the app to “shop for items like home basics, electronics, toys, kitchen and office products — and even TVs!”
As of Thursday, Prime Now is available as for Amazon Prime members, seven days a week, from 8 am to midnight. View all of the eligible Austin ZIP codes here.