Even if you haven’t used Amazon’s latest service, Amazon Now, it’s about to change your life in a few very important ways. Gone are the days of spending your whole afternoon running errands. July 17 (Amazon Prime Day) marked the beginning of Amazon's new service, Amazon Now, and it's absolutely revolutionary.
Delivery services have existed for years, some being more successful than others. Whole Foods offers delivery to customers close enough to certain locations, and we all know that our favorite Chinese restaurants have been delivering for years, but with Amazon, you can get almost anything with the tap of a button in no time at all.
Our phones do everything for us. All we have to do is ask Siri to wake us up in the morning, and we can sleep with a certainty that we will wake up in time for class. We connect with friends across the globe and are even able to have a glimpse into our favorite celebrities' lives, thanks to social media. The new Now app allows customers to shop directly from their phones, pay with a credit card and have a delivery made, pizza style, within two hours, or one hour for around $8. Personally, I was amazed by the speed of the delivery and loved the ability the app gives you to track the location of your package in real time. It's pretty amazing.
Our society finally feels ready, though, for a full on lifestyle delivery service. This is totally attributed to the fact that the generation who was handed the birth of computers now has children who don't know a life without a computer or tablet. We have developed a willingness to accept the personal disconnect that often accompanies overuse of technology. Small town grocery stores just aren’t the hometown staple they used to be. Yelp reviews dictate where we spend our time, and brand loyalty seems to be a thing of the past. The convenience of a successful online ordering service is only the first step toward a new way of shopping.
Even if you aren't ordering from Amazon Now, you will probably be faced with the choice soon to click 'order' or to go interact with your world. We all live busy lives and time is precious, but at what point do we risk trading convenience for isolation? Mom and Pop grocery stores are sweet because we run into our neighbors and friends when we least expect to. It's in these moments of unplanned community that we build our lives, and it's hard to think about a world where we limit ourselves to online connections.
