by Zoë Pollock
Same-day delivery service from Amazon already is available in ten cities, and in July there was speculation that it would be rolled-out across the US. The innovation makes Ken Doctor wonder how our purchasing habits will evolve over the coming years:
In an ideal world, we may have less time for mundane shopping and more for more fruitful activity. Or we may have big empty buildings, fewer community jobs, and less socializing. And, maybe people will have more time to read. We’ll probably see all these things happening at once. Amazon, of course, just wants to make money. Yet, it has already, in part, disintermediated shopping itself. Expect it to be extend its Subscribe (interesting choice of words, right?) and Save program, wherein you get small discounts for getting regular deliveries of goods, like detergent, that you reorder over and over again. Expect it to try to change our mindsets from shopping to deciding and then letting it go, and getting it delivered without a second thought — changing the very notion of shopping.
Starting this fall, you'll be able to pay at Starbucks without pulling out your phone or wallet using the Pay With Square app. Matt Buchanan isn't suprised:
There are few things so obvious in technology that you're truly able to say it's a matter of when they will happen, not if. Paying for things with your phone seems to be one of those things, judging by the number of companies that are trying to make it happen. Google, Microsoft, Intuit, PayPal, Venmo, and Square, just to name a few, would like to replace your wallet with your phone. … There are perhaps people who might be wary of using their phones to pay for things, but it's ultimately just a matter of the right incentives to get people to switch. Namely, money. Shopping online was weird and scary once. Now half of Americans do it, spending on an average $1200 a year, with most shopping online to save money.
The Dish 