"I want my Maypo!" And I want it now.
And your child shall have it now - or very soon - plus toys, clothes and other items you simply have to have but can't bear the thought of competing for in the holiday season's madding crowds.
For example, you've had your eye on a jacket at Bloomingdale's and are treating yourself to a big-screen TV from Best Buy. Go to eBay Now, click on the desired items, purchase, and assuming the goods are in stock, an eBay "valet" delivers them to your door in about an hour.
Or you've braved the crowds and ventured into Macy's at Stonestown Galleria where you spot sheets and towels, cosmetics, shoes, dinnerware and other stuff you didn't know you needed. Pay at the cash register, note that you want them sent to your home that day, and a driver from a Palo Alto startup called Deliv will deliver them at a time of your choosing.
It's what retailers have traditionally called the "last mile." These days, it's known as "same-day delivery" and everyone's getting into it - brick-and-mortar chains, Internet giants, your neighborhood store, Uber-style startups and millions of dollars in venture capital.
"It's driving everything, although no one has yet come up with a provable model," said Garrick Brown, research director of Cassidy Turley, a national real estate consultancy with offices in Northern California.
EBay, which rolled out its same-day delivery service in San Francisco last year, has ramped up efforts this holiday season, with free delivery (standard fee: $5) and extended hours through Christmas Eve. In addition to big-box retail partners like Macy's, Toys R Us, Home Depot and Best Buy, "artisanal treats" from local merchants at San Francisco's Ferry Building are available this year.
The company, 75 percent of whose sales are derived from new merchandise, also has same-day delivery in the Peninsula and South Bay and New York. Chicago, Dallas and London are "coming soon." This month, eBay acquired a London company, Shutl, an online courier platform, which will be deployed initially in Chicago for same-day delivery. Price not disclosed, although the 5-year-old company raised $8.7 million in venture capital from European and U.S. investors, including UPS' venture arm.
EBay would not disclose financial details of its year-old service, but said working professionals are its top customers, buying "everything from toasters to iPads," with home and garden and electronics being the strongest categories.
Other players in the Bay Area include Google's Shopping Express, which this month snagged Costco as a partner, and Instacart, a grocery delivery startup that has raised $11 million in venture capital and includes groceries from Safeway (which offers its own same-day service), Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Costco among its offerings. In September, Instacart launched in Chicago and it plans to expand to other urban centers in 2014. Postmates, a "same day urban logistics and delivery platform" focused on restaurants, added Brooklyn to its San Francisco and Manhattan coverage, along with a lengthening list of institutional and private investors.
"This is really a land grab. No one wants to be left out," said Daphne Carmeli, CEO of Deliv, which recently received an injection of $7 million from Chicago's General Growth Properties, the second-biggest owner of shopping malls in the country, including Stonestown Galleria and Eastridge Mall in San Jose. Which is why you might see Deliv's Uber-style crowdsourced drivers at the two Bay Area shopping centers and at the Glendale Galleria in Los Angeles and Oakbrook Center in Chicago.
"Enabling retailers to use our stores to fulfill online orders the same day is fundamental in creating an omni-channel experience. Our intent is to partner with retailers to create new consumer services, such as same-day local delivery and pickup," said GGP senior vice president Scott Morey in announcing the investment in August.
"Omni-channel" means brick-and-mortar retail, e-commerce, mobile shopping apps and other technological paraphernalia that are changing pretty much everything. But instead of the Amazon model, which is building dozens of giant warehouses aimed at same-day delivery, "malls, shopping centers, stores are the distribution points of the future. And we're crowdsourcing the labor to deliver," said Carmeli.
Retail analysts are not so sure. "To what extent do people want instant gratification, and how much do they want to pay for it?" wondered Helen Bulwik, a partner at Newport Board Group, a retail consultancy. "It can be great value when you need something right away, but how often?"
The added costs of same-day delivery remain "a serious challenge to retailers," as they did with earlier experiments, like Webvan and others, said Brown. "We've seen it before. It's too much." Second-day delivery, an Amazon specialty, is the sweet spot, he believes. "Costs for next day are doable."
However, all seem to agree that brick-and-mortar companies are central to the omni-channel retail future. "At the end of the day, brick and mortar will win because you have to have a physical place for people to go," Bulwik said.
As for the future of same-day delivery, "it's too early to call; everything is being disrupted," Carmeli said. "But I think by next shopping season, same day will be the de facto standard."
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
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