Amazon has patented something they call “anticipatory package shipping“. This is a method that aims to predict consumer interest, and ship products to home addresses, or to “fulfillment centers” near customers, even before the products have been ordered. The idea sounds crazy, and futuristic. Just as we’ll be thinking, in the near future, that a new book sounds like something for us, there will be a knock on the door. The book is already being delivered, because Amazon predicted our interest.
But, when you think of it, doesn’t it sound like Amazon is reinventing that old idea of stores and warehouses? Of course it would be easier for me if the books I want were held in a building just up my street, and I could go there and, crazy thought, buy them when I wanted them. Delivery times would be cut super short, around ten minutes. Like when there was a Borders bookstore just up my street. But Borders went out of business, because, wait, what was it again? Oh, Amazon put them out of business. That’s what happened.