When you’re hosting a party and notice that the alcoholic beverages are running a little low, you might momentarily panic: who in their right mind wants to leave such a great shindig to go on a beer run? No one, that’s who. And now, with the long-awaited addition of alcohol delivery to Amazon’s one- or two-hour Prime Now service, no one has to… unless you live outside of Seattle, in which case you still have to go to the store. [More]
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Amazon’s Echo Might Be Getting More Useful With SmartThings Integration
By 8.21.15
If telling your web-connected home entertainment speaker to reorder laundry detergent wasn’t enough (when is it?), Amazon is reportedly giving Echo the ability to essentially run your home through a new partnership with SmartThings. [More]
Amazon Bans Ads Using Adobe Flash From Its Sites
By 8.20.15
Amazon sells ad space on its e-commerce site and on other sites that the company owns, accounting for a huge number of pageviews. At the beginning of September, they’ll no longer accept Flash ads on those sites, following a general trend online of distrust of Flash, especially after Yahoo’s ad network was used to potentially deliver malware to users in a Flash ad. [More]
Macy’s Hopes Tablets & Dressing Room Deliveries Will Speed Up Your Shopping Time
By 8.19.15
Looking for a new outfit? You’ve got two options: Quickly buy online and hope what you purchase fits (and looks good on you), or go to the store and spend time scouring racks before trying things on to see if they fit and flatter. In an attempt to mesh the convenience of online shopping with the confidence of buying after trying, Macy’s is revamping its dressing rooms for the current generation of shopper.
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Amazon’s Stupid Shipping Gang Sends Giant Off-Balance Box Of Kitty Litter
By 8.17.15
Indira ordered a small box of cat litter, as boxes of cat litter go. The litter was fine, but she was a little concerned about the box that it arrived in. From what we’ve learned, this box was a bad choice both to accommodate the merchandise inside, and for its journey from Indira’s doorstep. [More]
NY Times Claims Amazon Is A Cruel, Soul-Devouring Workplace; Jeff Bezos Disagrees
By 8.17.15
Over the weekend, the New York Times published a lengthy article based on interviews with current and former (mostly former) Amazon employees about the company’s employment practices. They concluded that for most employees, the pace of work and atmosphere were unbearable, allowing employees no personal lives, encouraging snitching and paranoia, and working employees impossibly hard before spitting most of them out a couple of years later. [More]
Watch An Amazon Fulfillment Center In Action
By 8.13.15
Amazon recently announced that it will open a new fulfillment center in Dallas, which will employ 1,000 more people. To give the public an idea of what these jobs will be like, the Dallas Morning News sent a reporter, a photographer, and a videographer over to an existing center in the area to watch humans and robots work together in perfect harmony to get a pack of socks to you in 2 days. [More]
Mail Carrier Wedges Package in Box, Doesn’t Have To Leave Vehicle
By 8.13.15
The weather in Alabama, where reader Alison lives, has been extremely warm lately. If she lived in an old cartoon, mercury would be bursting out of the top of the thermometers. With temperatures of about one hundred degrees every day, she doesn’t really blame her mail carrier for not wanting to get up. However, what takes more work: walking to the porch, or shoving a package in the mailbox so firmly that the customer can’t get it out? [More]
Amazon Ending Pay-Per-Click Ad Program That Took Shoppers To Other Retail Sites, Creates Text-Only Ads
By 8.12.15
Smaller retailers who pay to have ads appear on the bottom of Amazon search results will soon see less of their products and more text, as the e-commerce giant prepares to shutter a pay-per-click ad program that took shoppers away from its site. [More]
Amazon Isn’t Cracking Down On Shared Prime Accounts, Reminds Everyone Of Actual Rules
By 8.4.15
Amazon is finally sort of cracking down on Prime members who share their membership within a “household” that actually consists of their old roommate, their dad who lives four states away, and a co-worker. We all learned this when the e-commerce company quietly changed who is considered a “household” for the purpose of sharing your Prime benefits. Now Amazon has responded, and their main point is valid: most people weren’t using the feature in a licit manner in the first place. [More]
Amazon Echo Is Coming To Staples, But Not One Near You – Only Online
By 8.3.15
So who will be the first retailer to offer Amazon’s high-tech, sort-of assistant speaker? None other than the e-tailer’s office supply rival Staples. [More]
Amazon Puts A New Limit On How & Who You Can Share Prime Benefits With
By 8.3.15
Amazon appears to be reining in the number of people who share some of their Prime member benefits with others. In a rather stealth move over the weekend, the e-commerce giant reduced the number of people that could share a Prime member’s perks from four to just one other member of their household. [More]
Walmart, Sears, Amazon & Other Retailers Agree Not To Sell Realistic-Looking Toy Guns In NY
By 8.3.15
Almost eight months after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent cease-and-desist letters to several retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Sears and Kmart, those companies have agreed not to sell realistic-looking guns in the state. [More]
Amazon Debuts Launchpad, A Store Showcasing Crowdfunded Products
By 7.28.15
From books to mini-tanks, Amazon might be a one-stop-online-shop for just about anything consumers could desire, and with the unveiling of its new platform, Launchpad, the e-tailer is now gunning to be the one-stop-marketing-and-distribution center for startups. [More]
Someone Is Planning A Drive-Thru Grocery Store In Silicon Valley: Maybe Amazon
By 7.27.15
A real estate developer has filed building plans for an 11,000-square foot grocery pickup facility in Sunnyvale, CA, but won’t say who their client is. Sunnyvale is the Silicon Valley town where Yahoo is based, but word in the local real estate community is that their new grocer isn’t a local startup: it’s Amazon. [More]
Amazon Adds 5% Cash Back For Prime Members To Store Credit Card
By 7.22.15
Hey, you, person who buys things on Amazon but who doesn’t have a Prime subscription. Yeah, you! If the discounted shipping, streaming media, and the deals and festivities of Prime Day weren’t enough to convince you to subscribe to the service, what about a credit card? Yes, Amazon already has a variety of credit cards, but what about a special Prime credit card? [More]
Amazon Expands Local Services Marketplace To 15 New Cities
By 7.22.15
Despite a pending lawsuit claiming it stole provider lists from rival service marketplace Angie’s List, Amazon announced today that it would expand its upstart Amazon Home Services to 15 new cities, offering consumers a place to find local service providers for repairs, installations and other jobs around the house. [More]
Walmart’s Getting Really Sassy About Amazon Prime Day
By 7.20.15
While the Internet mocked Amazon’s new shopping holiday, Prime Day, and waited for a cheap large TV that they had no chance to buy, competing mega-retailer Walmart declared their own day of deals. Now that Prime Day has passed, Walmart is still making fun of the weaknesses of Amazon’s event. [More]
