Plus, Krasner cries poor, Annie McCormick bids farewell, and an Eagles house is egged after lousy loss.
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An Amazon delivery truck (Wikimedia Commons)
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Amazon Launches 30-Minute Delivery in Philadelphia
I have to admit it: We’re an Amazon household. As much as I tried to resist, once I realized that I could get an air raid siren (long story) delivered in two days, milk delivered the same day, and our English breakfast tea for $5 less than it was at the Ack-a-me, I just gave up trying. Now, the so-called “evil empire” has made its service even more convenient and expedient by debuting 30-minute delivery in just two cities: Philadelphia and Seattle, the latter being home to the company’s headquarters.
Amazon’s 30-minute service launched on Monday here, though it’s not citywide. (Where, exactly, are the service boundaries? My impression, based on plugging in various delivery addresses across the city, is that the geographic availability can change throughout the day.) And you can’t get just anything in 30 minutes. That air ride siren will still take two days. But if you want any of the other “tens of thousands” of items Amazon says are available for 30-minute delivery in Philly — say, milk or juice or diapers or pet treats, certain electronics, ibuprofen, tortilla chips, and/or a bag of carrots — you got it. For a fee, of course. That’s $3.99 for if you’re a Prime member, and $13.99 if you aren’t. Oh, and a $1.99 “small-basket fee” if your order is below $15.
Convenient and cool as this may be, it also makes you wonder if the city is going to be littered with even more delivery vans and trucks that insist on double parking during rush hour. Maybe worth walking to the neighborhood bodega, after all …
Bird Bombs
After the Eagles tanked in their game against the lousy Bears on Black Friday, somebody egged the Moorestown home of Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. Yikes. (But also: C’mon Birds, yer killin’ us.)
Bibliophile Alert
A Rittenhouse Square estate sale features more than 100,000 books from the collection of the late Philadelphia attorney Bill Roberts. Some of the books cost as little as $3. If you’re looking to spend bigger bucks, there’s an auction this Thursday of some of his more prized literary possessions.
More Michelin
Two weeks ago, we told you about the restaurants that received stars and other nods from the Michelin guide. Today, there’s still a lot of talk among the local food intelligentsia about the awards and how they might change Philadelphia’s dining landscape as we know it, and in this new Philly Mag Today podcast, Philly Mag food editor Kae Lani Palmisano and our longtime restaurant critic, Jason Sheehan, weigh in with their thoughts. (Meanwhile, the first available table at one-star winner Friday Saturday Sunday is currently in mid-January.)
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By the Numbers
$50: Maximum fee that Philadelphia landlords can charge for a rental application under a new law first proffered by Councilmember Rue Landau. Apparently, some landlords were charging upwards of $200 to simply apply for the privilege of renting an apartment.
$45: Roughly the cost of two pre-flight Bloody Marys OR what you’ll soon be spending at PHL (and other airports) to get screened by TSA agents if you don’t have a REAL ID or passport. (I know where I’d rather spend my money … )
$2.6 million: Additional funding that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is seeking from City Council to go after “big-time criminals” and to try to prevent law firms from poaching his best and brightest. In case you’re wondering, Krasner earns $226,411. His second-in-command gets $190,914. And the DA’s office pays new ADAs about $70,000. A first-year associate at Blank Rome, for instance, can pull in close to what Krasner makes.
Local Talent
A familiar face has bid adieu to 6ABC: Reporter Annie McCormick just left the station after 13 years, as she announced on social media on Monday. “For our viewers, I just wanted to do the job the [C]onstitution gave us the right to do in the most fair and respectful way,” she wrote. “I am most thankful for the everyday people who have let me into their lives on even their worst days. I’ve learned my greatest life lessons from our viewers. I will continue to tell the public’s stories in a variety of mediums, stay tuned.”
Unclear what’s next for McCormick, though she does have a book due out in 2026. Restless Ghosts is a true crime tome about the mysterious 1929 deaths of two South Jersey socialites. It’s not her first go at the genre: In 2020, she published The Doctor, the Hitman, and the Motorcycle Gang: The True Story of One of New Jersey’s Most Notorious Murder for Hire Plots. Who knew?