Google is reportedly planning a major change in the way its Google Express delivery service works.
The company will close the two delivery hubs it opened with the launch of Google Express in 2013, Re/code reports, citing unnamed sources. The hubs are both in California — one in Mountain View, and one in San Francisco.
In the seven cities in which Google Express is available, Google picks up items from shipping and retail partners and delivers them to customers. In Mountain View and San Francisco, however, Google delivered products from the hubs directly to consumers, speeding delivery times.
Google originally got into the product delivery game as a defensive move against Amazon, which set up “local pickup” locations to expedite order delivery.
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Re/code also points out that two key executives have left Google Express in the last year. The man who masterminded Google Express, Tom Fallows, left in November. Then in May, Fallows’s boss Sameer Samat left Google Express to become president at the health tracker maker Jawbone.
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