Google and Barnes & Noble take on Amazon’s same-day delivery

Customers who want to order books online and get them delivered that very same day now have two choices: Amazon or Google, which has teamed with Barnes & Noble.

“Starting on Thursday, book buyers in Manhattan, West Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area will be able to get same-day deliveries from local Barnes & Noble stores through Google Shopping Express, Google’s fledgling online shopping and delivery service,” the New York Times reports.

Amazon is a leader in same-day delivery, with warehouses of goods of all types situated near select urban delivery areas. Google is trying another strategy, partnering with major retailers to supply the goods and sending out local couriers to collect and deliver them.

Barnes & Noble joins Target, Whole Foods, Costco, Staples, Fry’s, Walgreens, Toys R Us, Smart & Final, L’Occitane and Guitar Center as a Google Shopping Express supplier.

Google Shopping Express is available in Santa Monica and other parts of West Los Angeles. For book delivery, it is using Barnes & Noble’s store in Marina Del Rey. Another westside Barnes & Noble, in the Westside Pavilion, closed in 2011.

Amazon’s same-day delivery is $5.99 per shipment for members of its Prime program; for nonmembers, the cost is $9.98 for the first item and 99 cents for each additional item.

The Google Shopping Express price is lower; currently subscribers to its delivery program get a six-month free trial, which includes free delivery. Nonsubscribers pay $4.99 per delivery.

Of course, there is another way to get books on the day you purchase them: call and then visit your local independent bookstore.
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