Washington D.C. will serve as the test kitchen for Uber's Corner Store experiment, a new delivery service that will let residents in the U.S. capital order local products using the rideshare company's transportation network.
Corner Store will hire drivers to fulfill on-demand orders of more than 100 products from 20 categories. On Uber's blog, individual products and prices have been listed under each of the 20 headings that will populate the Corner Store site and app.
The 20 categories include Allergy relief, Baby, Bath & Body, Candy, Cold & Cough, Digestion & Nausea,Eye Care, Feminine Care, First Aid, Gift, Hair Care, Household, Men's Grooming, Office, Oral Care, Pain Reliever, Sexual Wellness, Sleeping & Snoring Aids, Vitamins & Supplements and Women's Beauty.
With the U.S.'s largest online retailer already established in the product delivery sector, Uber has to take a slightly different approach to offer any real competition to Amazon.
Grand Junction CEO and Founder Rob Howard, whose company creates software for shippers, compared Amazon's shipping service to buses and Uber's Corner Store to taxis.
"Amazon is going to have the low-cost delivery because of all those passengers on the bus, whereas Uber is going to have one package on the taxi, " said Howard.
Though Corner Store has yet to be released, the service's coverage area has already sparked a bit of controversy. Corner Store will only cover the part of the District of Columbia, as its reach won't extend into prominently black neighborhoods.
Though Uber said it only plans to test the program for a few weeks. The duration of Corner Store's existence will depend heavily on residents' need for such on-demand service. Individuals wishing to see Corner Store expand its category of products can visit Uber's blog to request an expansion.
"Just think about a mom who's at home with a sick kid and she doesn't want to leave the child alone. It's the perfect opportunity," said Paula Rosenblum, a managing partner at Retail Systems Research.
If Corner Store is successful, Uber's new application programming interface (API) could see the delivery program integrated into the apps and websites of other services.
Uber has opened up its API to the public and TripAdvisor has been one of the first companies to integrate the rideshare company's transportation network into its own app and website. TripAdvisor's Uber integration gives its users the ability to pull up fares and estimated wait times for cars to hotels, restaurants and attractions listed on the travel review site.
