There have been lots of media reports over the past several days saying that the beloved, iconic dotcom failure Kozmo.com is about to make a comeback. Such reports are false.
Allow me to explain.
Kozmo, you may recall, was the delivery service that held a special place in the hearts of late-'90s college students such as myself. Kozmo's sweaty and oft-underfed bike couriers would arrive in an hour with what you craved, whether a pint of Ben & Jerry's, a pack of gum or a CD. That is, until the spectacular failure of this business model played out. There was no delivery charge or minimum order. And back then, some people were still loathe to divulge credit card info online. The implosion of Kozmo was predictable.
Fast-forward 13 years, and the Kozmo.com website was suddenly live last week with the declaration: "Remember us? We're relaunching soon with the vision to fulfill your online order incredibly fast, and on-demand."
Bloggers jumped on the Kozmo rebirth story. I wanted to as well. So I emailed an address listed for the defunct darling, half-hoping I'd soon hear back from one of the cofounders, Joseph Park or Yong Kang.
What I got instead was a canned statement from a man named Barnaby Montgomery, the CEO of Yummy.com, a same-day grocery service based in Los Angeles. It delivered the disappointing truth: Basically, Yummy plans to assume the old brand and capitalize on the name recognition. They've purchased the URL, and, apparently, the rights to the name. I'm betting they'll launch a same-day delivery service called Kozmo in locations where people still get wistful when they hear the name — like right here in Boston. It's not the old Kozmo; it's just called Kozmo.
The truth is that same-day delivery of goods and groceries is the next, maybe final frontier of online commerce. Foreseeing this, large chain stores have begun pulling out all the stops to keep you coming back. Like the Walgreens in Downtown Crossing, where you can buy sushi or live lobster in addition to all the regular standbys such as paper towels and dish detergent. Having been reared on Amazon.com, Millennials want what they want, when they want it. The term "convenience store" is actually an oxymoron for them. The decades-old ritual of wheeling a giant cart up and down the aisles and leaving with a week's worth of groceries could therefore come to an end. It could be that eventually, the only reason to roam the aisles is to acquire specialty goods — the lobster you want to pick it out yourself (yes, at Walgreens!) or the rare bacon only found at Bees Knees Supply Co. in Fort Point (true story).
With Amazon and Walmart hoping to dominate the same-day delivery space, the time is right for Kozmo to make a comeback. It's too bad that's not exactly what's happening, but here's hoping Yummy.com — or someone — gets it right this time.
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