Amazon has seen the future — and it is a pushcart¹ on the New York subway. The online retail² giant has started delivering parcels to its Manhattan customers using the city’s underground train network, having discovered what New Yorkers have known for years: it can be much quicker than driving.

亚马逊(Amazon)从纽约地铁上的手推车看到了未来。这家在线零售巨头发现了纽约人多年来就已熟知的一个道理：乘地铁可能比开车快得多，已开始通过遍布纽约地下的地铁网络向曼哈顿的客户递送包裹。

In December, Amazon started piloting an ultra-fast service, Prime Now, which promises to deliver popular items such as phone chargers, soap and pet food in as little as an hour for $7.99, or within two hours for free. The scheme was launched in New York, but has since been rolled out in a handful of other US cities, including Miami and Dallas.

去年12月，亚马逊试行了一种超快捷服务Prime Now。这种服务承诺最快在1小时内，以7.99美元的价格递送手机充电器、肥皂和宠物口粮之类急需用品，或在两个小时内免费递送这类商品。这项服务首先在纽约启动，自那以来已在包括迈阿密和达拉斯在内的其他几个美国城市推出。

Two delivery workers pushing large trolleys³ of Amazon parcels on the subway said the company was using underground trains for most Prime Now deliveries because traffic on Manhattan’s gridlocked streets made it impossible to honour a 60-minute guarantee. Both asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

在纽约地铁上，两名用手推车递送大量亚马逊包裹的员工表示，多数Prime Now货物都用地铁递送，原因是曼哈顿拥堵的路面交通让60分钟送达的可能性几乎为零。由于公司未批准他们与媒体打交道，这两名员工都要求不要公开他们的姓名。

Amazon confirmed it was using the subway for Prime Now orders: “In Manhattan, our folks bike, walk or use public transportation⁴. They only drive if the item is large like a flat screen TV.”

亚马逊确认了该公司正在使用地铁投递Prime Now订单：“在曼哈顿，我们的员工会使用自行车、徒步或使用公共交通方式递送包裹。他们只有在商品像平板电视那么大的情况下，才会采用驾车的方式送货。”

Amazon’s Prime Now service is part of a push to capture the instantaneous purchases that have so far proven elusive⁵ to online retailers⁶, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, an ecommerce analyst⁷ at Forrester Research.

福里斯特调查公司(Forrester Research)电子商务分析师苏乍利达•墨普鲁(Sucharita Mulpuru)表示，亚马逊的Prime Now服务是该公司实现“即时购物”体验举措的一部分。迄今“即时购物”仍被证明是在线零售商的一大短板。

“With online retail, one of the fundamental weaknesses is that you cannot get products immediately. This is an attempt to address that,” said Ms Mulpuru.

墨普鲁表示：“对在线零售而言，一个根本缺陷就是你无法在购物时立刻获得商品。这项服务正是试图解决这个问题。”

However, she warned the service could struggle to gain traction⁸ with customers, especially in New York where there are drug stores on nearly every street corner selling many of the same items as Amazon’s Prime Now service.

不过，她警告说该服务可能很难吸引客户——尤其是在差不多每个街道拐角都设有便利店的纽约。这些便利店出售的许多商品都与亚马逊Prime Now服务提供的商品雷同。

Ms Mulpuru also suggested some customers might feel uneasy about having their deliveries transported on a mass public transport system. “I wouldn’t want my packages sitting on the smelly New York subway for long,” she said.

墨普鲁还暗示，对于通过人流密集的公共交通投递他们的包裹，部分客户可能会感到不适应。她说：“我不希望我的包裹长期停留在气味难闻的纽约地铁中。”