New York is a busy place, filled with busy people. We live in tiny apartments with tiny kitchens, where washers and dryers are rare luxuries. Most of us don't have cars to carry around our possessions and yet you rarely see grocery bags on the subway. We don't cook, we don't do laundry, we don't take weekend trips to Costco, we don't walk our dogs and we certainly, never, ever, go to Walmart. Nope, we have apps for that. All of that.
Remember the old days when you thought it was cool that an Amazon Prime membership got you free two day delivery? Even without Amazon’s drone fleet up-and-running, residents of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn can enjoy free two hour delivery courtesy of Amazon Prime Now. For an extra $7.99 you can get your Amazon stuff delivered in under an hour. Seriously, waiting for stuff is like soooo 2015.
Someday in the not-too-distant future, Google is likely going to be using those self driving cars they’ve been testing to deliver you all of life’s necessities. In the meantime, they’ve set up Google Express, which gives users same-day delivery from places like Costco, Target, Fairway and a slew of others. For just $4.99, you can never waste a Saturday fighting your way through Costco again. Right now service is limited to Manhattan.
These guys have been around forever, and for good reason. If your only options for grocery shopping are the corner deli or the horror that is Gristedes, using Fresh Direct is a no-brainer. The food they deliver is fresh, reasonably priced and they have enough delivery windows to satisfy even the busiest schedule. I’ve scheduled deliveries to arrive late into the night, without issue.
Services like Blue Apron are making it possible for busy professionals to have home cooked meals again. They’ll send you all the ingredients you need to make dinner, and a recipe your average microwave chef can understand. The meals cost about $10 a person, but that’s not bad considering how much you’re paying to eat Chinese delivery. What’s more, the meals can be paired with wine that Blue Apron will also deliver — your date night Stir-Fridays just got a whole lot easier.
WashClub, FlyCleaners & Cleanly
The city has a ton of on-demand laundry schemes covering different parts of the city — though most cover only Manhattan below 125th and the bourgie parts of Brooklyn. Details vary depending on the company you go with, but for the most parts it’s pretty straight forward. Someone comes to your door, picks up your clothes, and returns them cleaned and pressed. Prices vary, but for me the on-demand services charged nearly 3x as much as the wash-and-fold across from my apartment.
If you live in New York, there's probably not much I can tell you about Grubub that you don't already know. It's great. You can get food from just about anywhere delivered to anywhere at the touch of the button. Long gone are days of having to pick up the phone to shout your order to someone in a deafening kitchen that speaks shaky English.
When you have to stay late at work, or, more realistically, you just would prefer to keep drinking at happy hour, Swifto and Wag will take care of your dog. Click a button on your phone and someone will show up at your door to take your dog for a walk. It’ll cost you around $20, but you’ll even get a map sent to your phone indicating the route your dog walked. Sure, your dog might hate you, but at least they’ll be exercised.
Speaking of Fido, InstaVet is an on-demand veterinarian service. Hit a button on your phone and InstaVet will dispatch a veterinarian to your doorstep. These vets serve animals living in all five boroughs, and should you have the misfortune of needing euthanasia services, they can take care of that in-home to limit your animal’s stress and discomfort. Ya, it sucks, but it happens — and at least now it can happen someplace your pet feels safe.
Boxed delivers bulk items to your door, without any membership fees. Think of them kind of like Amazon and Costco had a baby. Supposing you have room to store bulk items in your cramped apartment, you can have them show up at your door for insanely cheap prices. Delivery is free if you spend more than $75 — but you’ll have to buy 120 rolls of Charmin Extra Soft to get the bill that high.
Who’s got the time to walk to the deli for a six pack? If you had told my 21-year-old self that there was a button on my phone that I could push and any liquor I could imagine would magically show up an hour later, I’m pretty sure I’d be dead. Yes, you have to pay a delivery fee, but, even with that it’s usually about the same price or cheaper than paying for liquor at Manhattan’s incredibly expensive liquor stores.
Jet.com is brand new, headquartered in Hoboken and valued at over a billion dollars. The company was founded in mid-2015, and has been billed as the Amazon killer. It’s obviously a little too soon to tell, but Jet does have a wide variety of products for sale, and their Charmin Ultra Soft was actually considerably cheaper than the stuff on offer at Boxed.
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