At the end of the 90s, SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO, we were living in Portland, Oregon and ordering periodically from a home delivery business called Kozmo. They were one of those freaky late-bubble businesses that seemed to make no economic sense. You could go on the website, order a Mars Bar or some ice-cream and someone would deliver it to you, for free, within an hour.
The defining user experience seem to be you and the delivery person exchanging bemused shrugs at each other, knowing that this just couldn't last. Sure enough, it didn't. The infrastructure, the economics, the behavioural patterns just weren't there.
SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER I was hunting around the West End for a copy of FIFA16 for PS4. Arthur's hurt his leg playing football and is confined to the sofa, so I thought I'd treat him to a game upgrade. I had no luck. Couldn't find it in stock anywhere, until I thought of Argos. Bound to have it.
I trudged along to one of those lovely new Argoses (Argii?) and typed in FIFA16 PS4. Ah-ha! I could indeed buy it from them. And if I did it would be delivered to the store for me to collect - in only 4 days.
That wasn't the kind of instant gratification I was looking for.
And then it occurred to me - Amazon Prime Now.
Just over an hour later a copy of FIFA 16 was being delivered to our home.
Of course, it's not free, the costs are embedded in the Prime subscription, but it sort of feels it. And it's easy and convenient and it works.
And, crucially, it's gone from something that feels completely freakish and unnatural to something that feels inevitable and ordinary.
