I already save the 30 minute trip to the store by ordering online. So all the drone would offer me is to save a few days shipping time (or, back when I lived in the UK, one day. Oh and supermarket delivery is common there too.), which frankly isn't something I'm going to pay much for most of the time. I only drive to the store if I don't know what I'm going to buy and I want to browse in person.

"all the drone would offer me is to save a few days shipping time"

That's exactly what some (many?) of us want!

> which frankly isn't something I'm going to pay much for most of the time

The drones are going to be cheaper than the UPS guy, not more expensive.

I would honestly be surprised if this was the case, at least for the end customer.

At best we'll see immediate drone delivery as an incremental surcharge or a value-add for a subscription service (Prime).

drones can only get cheaper over time.

employees need to eat in 2015, and 2016 and 2017, etc.

So we get our new gadgets on a few hours for less cost to the company, more dollar-cost to us, and in return we have more unemployed people so pay more taxes.

I'm really not a Luddite; we need to find ways to put the tech development focus on things that benefit society as a whole.

/rant

The cost savings will get passed on to the consumer; retail is a very competitive low-margin industry.

We get our gadgets for less cost and the people that used to deliver them get paid by the government to retrain to do something else that's actually fulfilling and productive.

Win-win.

Amazon are already offering 1 hour delivery [1] in certain locations. I think just London and a few cities in the US. Argos have also rolled out same day delivery [2] for £3.95, if you order before 6pm. This seems to be available for quite a bit of their inventory across the UK. It's not one hour delivery but getting close and the price is pretty good.

1. http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=pn_uk_surl_lp?node=6584642031 2. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/ArgosPromo3/includeName/fast-t...