Uber isn't just a car service for transporting people. It also now transports diapers, toothpaste and other perishable goods to customers who have no time to pick them up at a neighborhood convenience store.
Corner Store is Uber's experimental delivery service launched in Washington D.C.'s most affluent areas, where customers can toggle over to the Uber app's Corner Store feature and enter their location. A driver, if one is available, will then call the customer to take the order before delivering the items to the customer's doorstep at no delivery charge. The payment for the items is charged to the customer's existing Uber account. The items range anywhere from gift bags to a pack of tampons and over a hundred other items on the Corner Store list.
"Starting August 19th, Corner Store will be available Monday - Friday, 9am - 9pm EDT, to a select number of Uber DC riders within a limited area," says Uber in its blog post. "We're working to build supply, and will be sure to update you as we extend hours of operation to cover late night and weekend requests."
Uber is quick to emphasize that Corner Store is in the experimental stages and will run only for an unspecified amount of time. The company, however, says that "the more you love it, the more likely it will last." The experimental feature makes sense for a company that delivers people to their destinations. While standalone delivery services may not make a viable business venture in the long run, Corner Store may provide Uber a possible channel to acquire more customers.
"[Delivery] didn't work then, and it won't work now, unless you're a tech giant who doesn't mind losing money to win over customers," says technology investor Rick Heitzmann of FirtMark Capital. "But for them it's not about making money on the delivery service. It's about getting people's payment info into their system so that shopping with them will be seamless in the future."
Corner Store is akin to other delivery services, such as the declining eBay Now and start-ups WunWun and Postmates. Technology kings Amazon and Google have also jumped into the speedy delivery market, with millions of Amazon Prime members enjoying same-day shipping for their purchases and Google's Shopping Express delivering to a few California cities and select neighborhoods in Manhattan.
The difference between Corner Store and other delivery services, however, is that Uber drivers will deliver these convenience store items in style, ranging from Uber's low-cost taxis to the original Uber black sedan. Other delivery services offer to transport products through bicycle deliveries.
