Amazon Same-Day Is Finally Expanding To The Bronx

Amazon’s same-day delivery program is coming to the Bronx. The move comes after community representatives complained that the service’s geographic limitations had some racial disparities.

Same-day delivery has been available in  the other four boroughs of New York for some time.

According to reports in Bloomberg, this is the second big geographical area to go online with Prime following some reporting in Bloomberg Businessweek that indicated some potentially disturbing disparities in where the service is (and is not) available in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Washington.

Amazon had last week pledged to serve the predominantly black Boston neighborhood of Roxbury.

“We are actively working to enable service to the Bronx in the coming weeks,” Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, said in letters obtained by Bloomberg News. “Once completed, Prime members in every zip code in New York City, including the Bronx, will receive Prime free same-day delivery.”

That letter was sent to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and New York State Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, whose district includes the Bronx.  Both officials complained about the borough’s exclusion with Dinowitz called for an investigations of how the delivery boundaries were determined.

Amazon notes that race is not a factor in drawing the boundaries of delivery areas. Service boundaries are determined (according to the firm) by the concentration of Prime members in a given location, proximity to warehouses where goods are stored and the firm’s ability to work cooperatively in an area with other players. The firm also pointed to cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia where there is no disparity reported.

Of course, San Francisco is only 5.4 percent black, so it may be the case that Amazon is not failing to exclude minority neighborhoods in San Francisco, so much as there are no minority neighborhoods to exclude.

As for the Bronx – both Diaz and Dinowitz said they were pleased  with the forthcoming expansion.

“The over 1.4 million residents of The Bronx deserve the same level of service and amenities as their neighbors,” Diaz said. “I will continue to hold businesses and entities of all kinds accountable when they slight my constituents.”

Dinowitz said, “I am hopeful that this decision means Amazon will take a second look at the several other cities with excluded neighborhoods.”