Editing 1599: Water Delivery

{{comic
| number    = 1599
| date      = November 4, 2015
| title     = Water Delivery
| image     = water_delivery.png
| titletext = When I was a kid, I asked my parents why our houses didn't have toothpaste pipes in addition to water ones. I'm strangely pleased to see Amazon thinking the same way.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Amazon.com|Amazon}} has added {{w|bottled water}} to its line of on-line home order goods, which they are calling [https://amazon.com/primenow Prime Now].  In served areas, which include {{w|New York City|Manhattan/Brooklyn}}, {{w|Baltimore}}, {{w|Atlanta}}, {{w|Miami}}, {{w|Dallas}}, {{w|Austin}}, {{w|Houston}}, {{w|Indianapolis}}, {{w|Chicago}}, {{w|Seattle}}, {{w|Portland}}, {{w|Los Angeles}}, {{w|Minneapolis}}, {{w|San Francisco}}, {{w|San_Jose,_California|San Jose}}, {{w|San Antonio}}, {{w|Las Vegas}}, {{w|Sacramento}}, and {{w|Phoenix,_Arizona|Phoenix}}, many products – including but not limited to bottled water – are available to be delivered within one hour. So we are faced with the prospect of water, contained within plastic bottles, contained within cardboard shipping boxes.

As increasing amounts of water are ordered, on-demand, more frequently than the stated delivery time of one hour, this would show increasing numbers of packages sequentially passing from {{w|Amazon.com#Headquarters|Amazon HQ}} (or its distribution hubs) to an arbitrary end-user as shown in the comic.  Beyond a certain (already impractical) point, it might be better to merge the packaging together into a single longitudinal structure through which one could first deliver back-to-back bottles of water, as shown in the second-to-bottom illustration, and then (as the requested water quantity increases beyond that model) eventually just merge the containers themselves to 'pipe' the water within what can then become one single length-of-delivery packaging/container, as shown in the final illustration.  (If kept stationary, only forcing the liquid within to move, this would also solve the problems of what happens with the layers of packaging at the destination, or how to potentially return containers to the suppliers for re-use.)

While this could apply to one degree or another to any merchandise, for the purposes of the comic and for the reasons described next, water was chosen for this example – because that's really what existing {{w|Water supply network|water-mains}} do. And hence [[Randall]]'s recommendation or vote that we start calling the regular municipal plumbing "on-demand hyperloop-style water delivery". In order to promote any 'new' technology, various buzz-words are used, and here it is ''hyperloop'', reminiscent of [[Elon Musk]]'s '{{w|hyperloop|piped transportation system}}', which (from the outside, at least) appears to be taking discrete passenger units (trains, cars, buses and planes) and replacing them with a stationary pipe within which the passengers 'flow.' (Albeit, in this case, still within discrete internal vehicles, not ''entirely'' like {{w|Futurama|Futurama's}} 'piped people', which might be a bit messier). The closest real life application of this concept is that of subways (the "tube") to replace individual people (the "product") in cars (the "packaging"). Randall suggests trying to get someone to buy into this idea, only to later realize that they have just bought the idea of tap water. It is important to note that, in all places where tap water is available, it is not ''necessarily'' safely drinkable. Water filters at the destination can solve some of these problems.

The comic also seems to jab at the [http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/why-buy-water-when-you-can-have-it-free unnecessary buying] of bottled water, when most places in the western world have perfectly drinkable water in the pipes. However, not all recipients ''like'' mains water ({{w|Hard water|hardness}}, {{w|Soft water|softness}} and various additional {{w|Water_purification#Water_chlorination|water-treatment chemicals}} can affect taste and the action of water with detergents, and in some cities it might even be unwise to drink tap water, at least for tourists), which is why there is still a healthy business for bottled water (of many brands with subtleties to taste) even in households and establishments with piped-water available. The other explanation, for cynics only, is that the marketing budget for bottled water creates the industry. See ''{{w|The Gruen Transfer}}'' episode on Bottled Water (season 2 episode 3 (#13)) where the marketing is considered.

In the title text Randall tells that when he was a kid he was asking his parents why there were not an additional pipe for toothpaste next to the water pipe.  Amazon thinking the "same way" is a sarcastic jab implying Amazon saw toothpaste tubes and wondered why ''water'' wasn't delivered the same way (in small bottles).  Both are implied to be examples of childish ideas, but Amazon is actually following through on theirs. The idea of a toothpaste pipe is revisited in [[1649: Pipelines]].

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a chart showing a rapid growth of water delivery. As the chart moves on, more water bottles are sent at a faster rate until it just turns into a stream of water.]

:Now that Amazon is advertising one-hour delivery of bottled water,
:I vote we start calling municipal plumbing "on-demand hyperloop-style water delivery" and see if we can sell anyone on the idea

==Trivia==
*In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/9/95/20151104183050!water_delivery.png original version] of this comic the word ''[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/advertising advertising]'' appeared as ''adverti'''z'''ing''. 

{{comic discussion}}

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