Amazon starts same-day delivery...

[Bob Of Burleson]

. . . in parts of Tarrant County

By Barry Shlachter
barry@star-telegram.com

Need to get that DVD of Divergent in your hands before nightfall? A tin of Burt’s Bees bruise ointment or Mina Harissa brand Moroccan hot sauce? A phone charger before that flight the next morning, or something to read on board, like the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832?

Order by noon seven days a week, and goods will arrive by 9 p.m., promises Amazon.com, which announced Wednesday that it has extended same-day deliveries to 80 ZIP codes in North Texas, from Frisco to parts of north and east Fort Worth.

The fast service will likely give the intermittently profitable retailer a competitive advantage with many online and brick-and-mortar rivals.

Amazon, which also says it’s developing a delivery drone, said its Get It Today service costs $9.99 for the first item, then 99 cents for each additional one.

Members of its $99-a-year Amazon Prime program pay a flat $5.99 regardless of how big the purchase. Before Wednesday, Prime members had been charged $3.99 per item, spokeswoman Julie Law said.

Actually, the service has been available to the 80 North Texas ZIP codes since May, but Law said the Amazon website didn’t make it easily accessible until Wednesday to ensure that the system was running smoothly. Law could not say when all of Fort Worth would be covered but stressed that efforts are being made to broaden and quicken the service.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/08/06 ... rylink=cpy

[bodine]

Color me skeptical. If I want it now, I'll go out and get it.