Waterstones trolls Amazon with O.W.L.S delivery

Following on from the interesting, but certainly attention grabbing news yesterday that Amazon was currently in discussion with the FAA about unmanned drone delivery, book retailer Waterstones has released a trolling video discussing a new way of delivering books, via owl.

In the very tongue in cheek video, press manager at Waterstones, Jon Owls, talks about the Ornithological Waterstones Landing Service, or O.W.L.S project, that will see trained owls fly with your books and drop them off within half an hour (a reference to Amazon's own claims of drone delivery times). However, it won't be implemented for some years, because it takes a long time to train an owl, “and we just thought of it this morning.” [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LtoSsE_4qU']

Heading over to the Waterstones website, there's a little more information about the faux-project, including a quick FAQ. It asks whether this is just a rip off of Harry Potter, to which Waterstones responds: “yes, this is exactly what they did in Harry Potter.”

As long as they don't stare into my soul after delivery, it's fine.

The follow up is, “won't this be expensive?,” with the response: “No, it’ll only cost you £2.75 per parcel. (Price subject to inflation between now and the as yet undisclosed point in the future when we will launch the service.)”

KitGuru Says: A nice lampooning goes down well on a Tuesday morning I find. Well played Waterstones. 

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