America’s red carpet
To continue the match initiated last week, I have no choice but to bring upfront the innovations I’ve had the chance to experience since being in the US.
Sorry, my dear old France, but something’s telling me that you’re not going to win this one…
Deliveries
Basically here, e-ve-ry-thing can be delivered.
Any types of goods and food obviously, but also clean laundry thanks to a pick-up and delivery system (see link here), and soon, America will be able to enjoy direct-to-fridge delivery (people bringing your food directly to your refrigerator while you are away).
I won’t pretend I’ve tried each and everyone of them but I was definitely interested by the grocery delivery. So I did. And I was immediately amazed.
I know what you might be telling you “- Grocery Delivery ?? Mehhh - we all have that around the world!”. I would agree with you on a principle basis but they definitely know how to make it rock in here.
Let’s start with the timings: when you start your online purchases, you might be only one-hour-away from your actual delivery! One hour, really?!
Once you have finished shopping, the items that are the most likely to be missing are highlighted and you can chose to add specific instruction or even replacement option upfront.
Then, you are informed as soon as your personal shopper has started preparing your order. You can follow the preparation in real time and check which items are already packed and which are still waiting. At any moment, you can press the chat button to text your “shopper” if you have anything to mention.
In my case, Juan was the first to reach out to inform me about some product replacement choices he had made and, of course, asked for my consent.
I loved the logistical efforts and the human way of informing me about everything. Nothing really special to mention about the delivery on itself so I’ll skip this part and jump into a next experience (but yes, if you’re asking, I received my groceries at the exact time I picked).
Movie Theaters
Have you ever traveled economy class? See the very-too-tiny-space you have for your legs and the hundreds of people sitting right next to you? This is more or less the way we are used to watch a movie in french theaters. Not exactly what you wish to have in exchange for a €15 ticket.
So imagine my surprise when I first went to a US movie theater here… For the same price as a french ticket ($20 bucks) I had an assigned seat, which relieved me of the pressure of finding a proper seat to basically just be able to see the screen. And when I went to the room, I was shocked by the few seats: approximately 30 people max could fit in the room. Much more appreciable (also, let’s be honest, 30 American people are as noisy as hundreds of French — sorry guys, but you are absolutely not the most discrete ones)!
While I was looking for my seat, a waiter introduced himself, explaining that he would be taking care of me… Wait. What ?! A waiter ?? A quick look in the room and I realized that people are having drinks and dinner… Basically, I was in the middle of a restaurant, that also happened to be playing a movie. But the best surprise was definitely my seat. Remember the flight analogie? Well, I was sitting in business class! The seat can be completely inclined and to be honest, there’s just soooo much space… Amazing!! On the food part, I’ll be honest. I’m too French to be into snacks and while my neighbors were all eating around me, I didn’t get anything. For this time; ’cause now I know, I’ll definitely plan to have a proper dinner during my movie!
Oh you might actually be interested in the film I watched. It was Ocean’s 8 and I actually loved it but cannot tell if it was because of the movie itself or the overall place…
Well, well. As I felt at the beginning of this article, the USA wins this one!
Onto the next post ;)
