Amazon’s ‘Secret’ Delivery Program Could Be Big News For Rural Illinois

Amazon Prime has changed the way a majority of the country has done its shopping.

Next, or 2-day delivery has become the standard for those that order items to their house.

It's a system that works very well in an urban environment. When so many people are that tightly packed, getting packages to people is considerably easier than when they are spread out in more rural areas.

It turns out that it's America's rural areas, like much of Illinois and the rest of the Midwest, that give Amazon the most headaches. Getting packages to houses that are miles apart can be a lot less inefficient than dropping off a stack in an apartment lobby.

So since at least last summer, the delivery giant has looked for help in getting these packages to their destination from the people that know the area best: Mom and Pop stores. 

If you've spent anytime traveling across the country in the back of a car, you're familiar with the local mom-and-pop convience stores that dot the corners of America's Heartland.

Some of them sell gas. Most of them sell cigarettes. Maybe you can also get some detergent or other essentials at the nicer ones. But they all have one thing in common, they know the area and they know the people.

Amazon's "Mom-and-Pop" test run has been limited to only Nebraska, Mississippi, and Alabama. Participants that opt into the program are paid roughly $2.50 per package delivered, with some stores delivering thousands of Amazon packages a month.

The program is set to expand to 10 more states later this year, with Iowa joining the test group.  Illinois hasn't been selected to participate yet, but if it works in Iowa, there's no reason it shouldn't work in Illinois. Iowa is basically just Illinois without Chicago and more Casey's.

Let's hope this plucky upstart Amazon company can figure something out to make ends meet.