In large cities in China they effectively have this through a million people being employed as couriers. You order something on taobao.com (kinda like amazon) and someone calls you up, asks you where you are, and half an hour later they show up on a motorcycle wherever you are and you hand over cash for your order.
It's basically UPS entirely staffed by bike messengers. It's realtime and it's awesome.
Was thinking that exact thing yesterday when I had to go to the mall for last minute presents - had major crowd/chaos anxiety, turned and bailed. If Amazon could do real time shipping, it would be a miracle. Happily pay a premium for it. They could have distribution hubs in all major cities...
Comments
I'd take on shipping. It seems to me that UPS could be in-part replaced with intelligent routing of people's ordinary daily routines.
In large cities in China they effectively have this through a million people being employed as couriers. You order something on taobao.com (kinda like amazon) and someone calls you up, asks you where you are, and half an hour later they show up on a motorcycle wherever you are and you hand over cash for your order.
It's basically UPS entirely staffed by bike messengers. It's realtime and it's awesome.
It's much more of a social challenge than technological one.
Bruce Sterling has described a beautiful society functioning along these lines:
http://tqft.net/wiki/Maneki_Neko
Was thinking that exact thing yesterday when I had to go to the mall for last minute presents - had major crowd/chaos anxiety, turned and bailed. If Amazon could do real time shipping, it would be a miracle. Happily pay a premium for it. They could have distribution hubs in all major cities...
They're offering same-day shipping in major cities now.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...
The crazed mall crowds make me anxious too but I've learned to enjoy it. How often do you get to see humans in their native habitat?