Amazon Testing NYC One-Hour Delivery With Bike Messengers

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

New York is a magical place, some people say. All the tall buildings, all of the lights—and all of the things you can have delivered to you with relative immediacy.

Pretty soon, that'll include one-hour delivery of several Amazon.com orders: The Wall Street Journal reports that the e-commerce giant is currently "holding time trials" with three bike messenger services from their West 34th Street headquarters.

Dubbed Amazon Prime Now, it's going one step further from their same-day delivery service, where Prime members pay $5.99 (and non-prime members pay $8.99) to receive an order placed by noon before 9pm. Prime membership costs $99 annually and includes unlimted. free two-day delivery.

An inside source tells the paper that messengers who aren't on a delivery run hang out in "the base", a ground-floor lounge that includes foosball and air hockey tables, arcade games, and more. It's at the same address where the mini-warehouse, where customers can pick up or exchange orders, is slated to open.

Meanwhile, for those who have the good intention of hitting up the gym after work but forget to pack the requisite gear, upscale activewear site Lace Up Style has just debuted same-day delivery in Manhattan for orders placed before 3pm, Well + Good reports. The site that sells trendy brands like Alala and Michi will deliver multiple sizes of what you're interested so you can find your best fit—then you send back what you won't keep within two business days.

And just in case you need a Christmas tree with your on-demand beauty treatment—because they go together like peanut butter and jelly, right?—use Priv to get a Tyler's Trees Frasier fir along with your manicure ($175), blowout ($185), or makeup application ($185) through this Sunday.

· Amazon Tests Bike Messengers for One-Hour Delivery in New York City [WSJ]
· Now You Can Get Trendy Workout Clothes as Easily as Takeout [Well + Good]