I am well and truly embedded in the Amazon shopping ecosystem. Having things shipped to my door, often within 36 hours of having placed the order, is something I use several times a week nowadays. It's useful for regular day-to-day items, but incredible for last minute birthday and Christmas stuff. When Amazon announced Prime Now, an extension of their shipping service that allowed for same-day — even same-hour — delivery, I was plenty excited. Since I live in the suburbs, just about 35 minutes without traffic from Amazon's Baltimore facility, it seemed unlikely I'd be able to participate in the service anytime soon. Last week, however, the Prime Now app lit up and claimed I could order things and have them delivered to my house within an hour. It turns out Prime Now and Prime offer wildly different experiences, and choosing between the two for orders in the future is going to be its own unique little first world problem. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines

Amazon Prime Now is an entirely separate app from Amazon Shopping, and this is the only way you can participate in the service. If you head to the Amazon website to order something for immediate delivery, you're directed to this app instead. For the most part, the shopping experience is the same. You're offered essentially whatever products Amazon is able to keep in stock at the local warehouse, so while selection is limited the product categories and brands you're used to seeing are there to choose from. The disconnect between Prime Now and Amazon Shopping is a little odd, but likely has more to do with Amazon figuring out how to offer both solutions without confusion than anything else. Once you've filled your shopping cart, Prime Now asks you to pick a delivery window. For this area, if you're ordering between 8AM and 10PM you're options are to pay an extra $7.99 to have your order delivered in under an hour, or select a series of two hour windows to have your products delivered for free. You'll also be prompted to select a dollar amount to tip your driver, with a default of $5 selected for you at checkout. Once you've completed checkout, the app processes your order and you get an email just like regular Amazon purchases letting you know your package is on the way.