YouTuber 'Hijacks' Amazon Prime Now To Help Homeless People [Watch]

Amazon Prime services may a be a good way for holiday shoppers to get their items faster, but a YouTuber showed this week that it can also be used for a greater good.

Amazon Prime includes two-day shipping, but Amazon Prime Now gets orders delivered on the same day in about one or two hours. Amazon Prime Now, which only works in some cities and areas, allows customers to get their items faster and put them to use quicker.

That’s what YouTuber Rob Bliss did in his video “How to Hijack Amazon Prime Now for Good.” The video is centered on the issue of homelessness. The clip shows footage of homeless people without socks or shoes on cold December days. To help those in need, Bliss used Amazon Prime Now to quickly get items homeless people needed.

The video starts with Bliss showing how Amazon Prime Now works by ordering items and getting them shortly afterwards. He then turned it around by asking if he could “hijack” the service to help homeless people instead.

“What if we could repurpose the same apps we use to bring ourselves ice cream and iPhone chargers to finally bring that guy a pair of socks?” Bliss said in the viral clip. “Would Amazon really deliver it? We don’t have a real address. I had to go find out.”

Bliss then set out to talk to homeless people and asked what they needed. The first person said he needed socks and shoes. Bliss then opened up the Amazon app and ordered the items, but changed it up during the delivery stage. He instructed Amazon to deliver the items to where the person in need was located by plugging in the address. Under the delivery instructions section he told Amazon to “Give the package to Jack. The guy sitting outside with the grey beard and brown jacket.”

Shortly afterwards an Amazon Prime Now delivery person arrived with the items for Jack. The video then showed Bliss ordering items for other people. They also receiving the things they needed through the service. Many of the delivery workers were courteous to the homeless people, giving them handshakes and wishing them a happy holiday. Those who received the items were shocked and happy about getting what they needed.

The video can be viewed here:

“I simply wanted to demonstrate how easy and convenient it can be to bring a person in need, what they need, and to encourage that behavior,” Bliss said in the video’s description.

Bliss clarified the video was not sponsored by Amazon. The clip was trending on YouTube and had more than one million views as of Thursday afternoon.

YouTube users appreciated his good deeds in the comments section. One user called it “heart warming video,” while pointing out that the Amazon delivery employees were “nice and polite.”

“What a great guy and what a way to showcase technology we use daily can be used for something so great,” said another user.