So Amazon is buying Ring (they make video doorbells, among other things) for north of $1 billion. Supposedly, it is the second largest acquisition that Amazon has ever made – the first was Whole Foods.

If you consider that Amazon is also looking to enter the delivery business, it should be obvious that they want to control everything related to the home delivery process.

For one, it likely enhances Amazon Key and helps with the “porch pirate” problem. Apparently Amazon has had to restrict same-day delivery from some high crime neighborhoods because of this exact problem.

And there’s already speculation about what this could mean for grocery deliveries. Amazon needs to find a frictionless way to get your food orders into your refrigerator. 

There are also many possible tie-ins to Alexa/Echo. It’s probably safe to assume that Jeff Bezos sees a lot more than just a doorbell with a camera in it.

Yesterday I ordered something from Amazon Prime. The guaranteed delivery time was today before 9pm, but within an hour of ordering the delivery estimate was updated and it ended up arriving on the same day about 5 hours after my order. I thought this was pretty amazing, particularly because the package was a bit time sensitive.

Delivering to individual residences is more expensive than delivering to more centralized businesses and stores. And with the rise of online shopping, UPS now delivers as many as 31 million packages every day. Because of this, every little detail counts. 

Last year the company started installing Bluetooth receivers on the inside of its delivery trucks. If a driver incorrectly loads a package that isn’t on their route, it pushes out a loud beep. (This is one of the many tech and data-driven projects that UPS is working on to ensure it stays competitive.)

Previously there was no final check. If there was a rogue package on the truck, it meant the driver would have to stray from their route, coordinate a handoff, or delay the package for another day. These mishaps can really add up when you’re delivering 31 million packages in a single day.

With Amazon squeezing delivery times and with the rumors that it’s going to start its own delivery business (to compete directly with UPS and FedEx), one has to wonder about the impact that these volumes will have on our cities. Perhaps autonomous vehicles will really become the new roaming retail outlet – ready to deliver as soon as we click buy.

Dan Gilbert – billionaire Detroit promoter and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers – penned this statement in response to the city’s failed Amazon HQ2 bid. He chalked up the loss to reputational hangover:

We are still dealing with the unique radioactive-like reputational fallout of 50-60 years of economic decline, disinvestment, municipal bankruptcy, and all of the other associated negative consequences of that extraordinarily long period of time.

This was the “elephant in the room”, though his statement is primarily centered around both talent and transportation – the two critical and lacking ingredients that allegedly disqualified Detroit.

He ends by stressing the importance of physically visiting Detroit 2018. That is the only way, he says, people will fully appreciate the change and momentum that has taken hold in the city. (I experienced Detroit 2016 so I guess I’m overdue.)

In response to this, Aaron Renn wrote this follow-up post suggesting that Dan take a page out of Tony Hsieh’s playbook. Tony is the founder of Zappos and the Downtown Project in Las Vegas. 

To bring people to downtown Las Vegas, Tony – somewhat famously – rented 50 apartments in one of the only high-rises, called them “crash pads”, and offered them out for free to people who wanted to come and check out what was happening in downtown Vegas and with the Downtown Project.

That’s certainly one way to lower the friction. 

Equally interesting to me about this strategy, though, is that it was presumably necessary (he did it, right?) just to bring people to another part of Vegas, let alone another city altogether. 

Full disclosure, I’ve never been to Vegas. But I understand that many people visit the place. So for me it speaks to the kinds of inducements that may be necessary just to revive or kickstart a place.

Photo by Matthew Brzozowski on Unsplash