With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• The Verge reports that "Amazon will charge $1.99 per delivery for in-garage deliveries that used to be free if the customer wants to get them made outside of their designated weekly 'Amazon Day,' as described in an update to Amazon’s blog post."
According to the story, "Until now, Prime members could have delivery drivers drop packages inside garages for free, regardless of the day, if they enabled the service and used a supported smart home garage door opener from companies like Chamberlain and Genie."
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the change to The Verge, characterizing it as giving customers "more flexibility and control over their Amazon deliveries using Amazon Day with Key Delivery, including the ability to choose their delivery day and combine in-garage deliveries so they’ll arrive on the same day."
A cynic might say that this is just another example of Amazon simultaneously tightening its corporate belt and searching for spare change in the couch cushions. But in an effort to be less cynical (call it a reaction to all the reading I've been doing about Jimmy Buffett), let me suggest that maybe Amazon is just trying to assign value to its offerings and get people to pay appropriately for things that have value. In fact, it probably was inevitable and not even uncommon - what Amazon did was build market share, and now is trading in on what it has built to solidify the business model. Nothing wrong with that.
• Grubhub Campus announced that "Amazon's Just Walk Out technology is now available at Loyola University Maryland, the first Grubhub-partnered campus to deploy the technology.
"With Amazon's Just Walk Out technology, Grubhub campus partners are able to offer a frictionless experience that allows students, faculty and staff to shop at convenience stores on campus and skip the checkout. This means no lines, no need to scan products and no fuss. Students simply scan a QR code in the Grubhub app to enter the store, and the technology detects what shoppers take from or return to the shelves. When guests have completed their shopping experience, they are able to leave the store without having to wait in line and the payment will automatically be deducted from their meal plan, declining account balance or other stored payment methods linked to their Grubhub account when they leave the store."
Get 'em while they're young, and their preferences and mindset will be established for the rest of their adult lives.
