Tech

Google expands same-day delivery service to Manhattan, LA

The most heated technology race of 2014 is not about sending rockets into outer space or cloud storage — it’s all about which Silicon Valley giant can deliver diapers or other household non-perishables to your door faster and for less money.

Tech giant Google is jumping into that Earth-bound race by expanding its nascent same-day delivery business to Manhattan and LA starting on Monday.

The move is sure to cause concern for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and eBay’s John Donahoe, both of whom are expanding next-day delivery services of non-perishable groceries, household goods and other items to major cities throughout the country, including the Big Apple.

Google’s service, called Google Shopping Express, promises same-day delivery from Costco, Fairway, Target and Walgreens and other retail partners to anywhere in Manhattan for a flat fee of $4.99 per store.

Amazon charges $9.98 for the first item and 99 cents for each additional item — although  Amazon Prime members, who pay $99 a year, get discounted pricing of $5.99 per order. Ebay’s new service charges a flat fee of $5 per store, like Google, but it requires a minimum purchase of $25. Google Shopping Express has no minimum purchase requirement.

First launched in San Francisco last year, Google Shopping Express will expand to Brooklyn and Queens in the coming months, executives told The Post.

By “same day,” Google means within a few hours of your order. Folks can even place an order late in the day, say around 4:30 p.m., and expect their package to arrive no later than 9:30 p.m., sources said.

Say goodbye to the $15 cab ride home from Costco’s mega-store at 117th Street!

“We believe that same-day delivery should not be a luxury service, but rather should be an everyday experience that everyone can afford,” said Tom Fallows, head of Google Shopping Express.

Google plans to keep prices low by charging retailers in their delivery network. The stores have agreed to pay the tech company for bringing them business, Fallow said.

While Google is famous for its driverless cars and its unmanned rockets into space, its delivery service relies on a small army of humans across Manhattan (see story below).

“It’s a big team and a major multi-year commitment for Google,” Fallow told The Post.

While stepping up competition among rival tech titans, Google’s new service doesn’t appear to take aim — for now — at grocery delivery service FreshDirect because neither Google nor eBay delivers perishables like fruit, vegetables or milk. They don’t have store-to-door refrigeration.

Amazon is testing out fresh food deliveries in certain West Coast cities, but it comes with a whopping price tag: $299 a year.

Google is also gearing up to compete with Amazon in another important way: annual memberships. The tech company will soon introduce a yearly fee that will get subscribers lower-cost same-day delivery.


Rather than send a single courier to pick up, buy and deliver goods to its customers, Google is treating same-day deliveries like a high-tech assembly line — complete with specialized apps for nearly every person along the route.

Here’s an inside look at a typical delivery order:

  • A man in Hell’s Kitchen orders a box of Tide from Costco, requesting that it be delivered between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. He pays with Google Wallet, Google’s app for storing debit cards and credit cards, including the $5 delivery charge.
  • A Costco employee receives the order from a Google app specially built for its retail network. The employee picks the Tide off the shelf, along with a slew of other orders scheduled to be delivered in the same time period. It is then packaged for delivery.
  • A Google delivery truck driver picks up the Tide (along with other orders for the same time). The driver, using a different app that shows the best route, then connects with a second driver, in a smaller vehicle, like a Toyota Prius, one of Google’s preferred cars.
  • The Prius driver heads to Hell’s Kitchen to make the deliveries within a designated area — again, using an app to determine the most efficient route. Within the prescribed delivery window time period, the Tide is dropped off.

Google is also planning to use bikes and people on foot to get deliveries to locations where cars are cumbersome, said Shopping Express product-management director Tom Fallows.