I live on the other side of the pond and frankly I've never understood the appeal of services like this. I get almost everything I need in my local supermarket. And there are supermarkets at every corner of the city. On my way back from work, I can step into the supermarket, pick what I need, do a self-checkout and leave. Adds a total of only 10 minutes to how much time I'd have spent if I was coming straight to home. I think everyone around me does the same. So whenever I read an article about these services and the comments on HN, it leaves me very curious why local supermarkets don't work for them. Is prime somehow better than going to your local supermarket? Why? I'd like to be enlightened.

I know some people may not be in a position to walk down to the local supermarket and that's fair. An online service is life-saver then. But is the proportion of this demographic so large that offers like using prime becomes the default way of shopping? It must be because no doubt it is so popular. I'd just like to understand why.