Zaarly’s a website that launched earlier this year here in KCMO. www.zaarly.com
The basic concept is that you ask for something. Anything. And name your price.
Someone else that has what you need or can do what you need sends a reply saying they’re interested in providing you that item or service. You pay. They perform.
Today I logged in and asked if someone could go buy my wife a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and deliver it to her at work. Within half an hour I got a response and within an hour she had coffee in her hands.
OK, so Zaarly’s concept needs a bit of refinement, I think. People around here are calling it the next billion dollar idea and it’s nowhere near there yet. And their search engine could use a massive overhaul. Overall, I’m still a bit iffy about the whole concept from a money-making perspective.
But, c’mon. I just typed a few words into a computer and my wife got coffee. That’s kinda cool.
Seems like a cool idea. Basically like a “no X too small” version of parts of Craigslist? I’ll check it out!
This is really cool! Not much activity in my (huge) city yet, surprisingly, but I’m diggin’ the concept.
My first thought was that stoners will be able to branch out from pizza and Chinese food. 
This is really cool! Not much activity in my (huge) city yet, surprisingly, but I’m diggin’ the concept.
I read about this (or something similar) recently in either Wired or Rolling Stone.
Seems like a grand idea to me. There were people making decent money (not great, but better than minimum wage) on a flexible schedule, which let them work around school, other jobs, whatever.
And the people hiring got what they wanted at a price they were willing to pay. Wins all around.
OTOH, I don’t think this will replace regular employment (as was suggested in the article I read) until we’ve got the health insurance thing figured out.
Hmm, may not be the same website, but the same idea.
The article I read was about a website geared towards services. There were people who worked half-to-full-time running errands. And I think it was only in a couple of big cities (like NYC and SF).
This one (at least the tiny amount of stuff in my area) seems more geared towards selling stuff, although you can request services also.
How much did the coffee delivery cost?
It costs whatever you and your provider agree upon. You can put any price on there and a person who’s interested in delivering it can counter with another price.
I was originally going to be cute and offer $11.03 for the date, but knew time was of the essence so I just upped it to $15, which included the purchase of the coffee. It was snatched up pretty quickly. So effectively someone delivered it for around $10 (Zaarly takes a cut).