Can you see them out on the porch?

Extra points for you if you can tell me where that lyric comes from. I was actually going to use a different one from the same song until I found out that what I thought he was saying (hint!) was actually something completely different.

So I am *totally* in love with Amazon Fresh, the grocery delivery service from Amazon.com. It's been running for a while, but they only recently expanded to Redmond. The catch is that I had to sign up for Amazon Prime membership, which gets me free two-day shipping on Amazon purchases. That's why I didn't sign up immediately, because the $79 annual fee annoyed me, and we don't really buy *that* much stuff on Amazon.

But then I thought about it. For <$7 per month, I can order groceries as many times as I want (as long as the order is at least $25) and get free delivery *the next day* and I don't even have to be home. Not to mention on the rare times I do order other stuff from Amazon, I get superfast shipping. I'm definitely an instant gratification kind of girl, so that works for me.

So I signed up for the trial membership of Amazon Prime and started my shopping at Amazon Fresh last night. And it was so quick and easy. No recopying my shopping list from whiteboard to paper, no driving, no wandering through the aisles picking up random stuff I'll never eat, and not having to deal with screaming children running through the store.

I just placed the order for the 14 items I needed, and selected a delivery window of 7-10am. (Since it was after midnight, I missed the cutoff for pre-dawn delivery, but on a Sunday, it's not like I'm going to be up before 7 anyway.)

And like magic, the pretty red and green truck showed up at 9am today, and the driver unloaded 5 plastic totes on our porch. I didn't need to answer the door - I just hauled the totes inside after he left and put the stuff away. Total process, about 25 minutes, rather than the hour+ to go to the store and back.

So you'd think this service would come at a premium. Yeah, there's the forced Prime Membership, but the prices of the items themselves are totally reasonable. The canned sardines and salmon I buy for the pups' weekly treat are actually cheaper at Amazon than Trader Joe's. Everything else seemed about on par with any grocery store.

Oh, and customer service? Unbelievable. My bread and rolls got squished because they were packed under the heavy cans of salmon for Peanut (kind of disappointing). But Amazon has an easy email contact form for issues with your order, so I emailed them this morning at 9:30. By 9:45, I had a refund issued, and they offered to redeliver two new items! You just don't see that anymore. So double-extra-super thumbs up from me.

Because the totes are packed with styrofoam coolers, ice packs, and dry ice, you can get refrigerated and frozen items, which makes this exactly identical to going to the store in person. Except without the screaming children and the hassle of finding parking.

So if you come to visit us, you might get to behold the sheer amazingness that is Amazon Fresh. Want bacon and OJ for breakfast? Ordered at night, shows up at the door in the morning. You can't beat that.