Fast delivery gets faster for Triangle with Prime Now
Fast delivery just got even faster for Triangle residents.
Amazon's new one-day delivery service, Prime Now, rolled out to customers Thursday.
Amazon Prime members can now choose from tens of thousands of items and get them on your door step in as little as one hour.
Two large brown bags filled with everything from paint brushes to soda arrived on Emilie Carol's doorstep early this morning.
"We placed it about 7:45 this morning and at about 8:40 a.m. the car showed up with all the stuff!" she said. "It was super easy."
The north Raleigh resident was among the first customers to test Prime Now and is already raving about it.
Carol was just as impressed by how fast the items came as how they arrived.
"I think it's really safe because you can see who the driver is and when they're going to be at your door," Carol said.
Amazon uses an "Uber-like" model called Flex where individual drivers go get the product at a warehouse in Raleigh and deliver it to your home or business.
Customers must have at least $20 worth of items in their cart to check out.
You can choose two-hour delivery for free or 1-hour delivery for $7.99.
RELATED: IS PRIME NOW AVAILABLE IN YOUR ZIP CODE?
"This is a huge game changer for Amazon because the biggest knock against Amazon is if I need it now I can't (get it) for two days. That's why people would go to a store, so now you don't need to," said Scot Wingo, co-founder of ChannelAdvisor.
The Morrisville-based company is one of Amazon's largest partners for helping retailers sell on the site.
Some of the most popular items are bottled water, toilet paper and snacks, but not everything is within an hour's reach.
"Furniture or business and industrial supplies are not on Amazon's Prime Now so it's a smaller set of goods that are available, but they tend to be the everyday essentials you need," Wingo said.
That is good enough for Carol who plans to become a regular user of the service.
"I think it's going to take off really quickly," she said.
Prime Now has launched in 25 cities across the country.
It is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
