Uber has been in the news a lot lately, mostly because of Lyft. But they find themselves in the news again today because of a new service they are announcing. Which is to compete with Google and Amazon’s same day shipping/delivery service. Right now they are launching the Corner Store in Washington DC on August 19th (that’s today) and will run from 9am to 9pm, but currently will not run on the weekends. Of course, that will probably change in the future.
So how does this work? Well according to Uber:
“Toggle to the CORNER STORE option. Set your delivery location within our coverage area and confirm your address. If a driver is available, we’ll shoot you a text message with a link to the items available for purchase. Be prepared! Your driver will give you a call and take your order a few minutes before arriving. Upon arrival, meet your driver outside & confirm your order.”
You will be able to request toothpaste, allergy medicine, and over 100 other items, which Uber has listed out here. Uber says that this is a limited time experiment and it may or may not stick around. It sounds like if enough people use it and appreciate it (as well as it running smoothly) that it’ll likely stick around. Which would be pretty amazing, if they brought this to all of their existing cities where Uber is already available.
Just think about it, you’ve just gotten home after a long day of work, only to find out there’s no milk. Instead of running out to the store to get it, just have Uber do it for you, using the Corner Store experiment. This could really become a popular service in my opinion. What do the rest of you think? Check out the blog post from Uber in the source links below.