A better comparison would be with Fresh Direct, not Webvan.

It looks like Amazon is focusing on a large yet concentrated local market (Seattle).

As FD has demonstrated here in NYC, an efficient, local service can work.

I'm betting (and hoping) they'll expand to more cities if the Seattle operation succeeds.

I can't believe people thought WebVan would make money because computer scientists know how to solve a travelling salesman problem.

The asynchronous delivery is important -- cold storage for goods. I don't want to wait for a delivery.