Amazon taught us to rely on fast delivery. In coronavirus era, it can't keep up

Jesse Rodriguez just wanted his weekly batch of groceries. And because his asthma makes the coronavirus pandemic especially dangerous for him, he didn't want to mix with the crowds at a supermarket.

No big deal, the 59-year-old West L.A. legal assistant thought last Thursday - he'd use Amazon Prime.

But the service was swamped. It had no delivery times available for days, he recalled. So he tried shopping service Instacart, only to find that most items he wanted were out of stock. He ended up going to a market after all, gobsmacked by the unavailability of systems that have become so ingrained in everyday life.

"As Americans, we do get used to certain things," Rodriguez said. "When it's just nonexistent, it's alarming."