Evan ThomasThe farm-to-table market tends to call to mind bushels of hand-picked vegetables, or maybe high-end coffees.
Amazon is getting into the start-to-finish product market, too — but you're not going to want to eat these. The first — and currently the only — products for sale as part of Amazon's new Elements program are diapers and baby wipes.
Amazon makes a point of meticulously tracking the production cycle of these diapers and giving its customers access to the same information.
Scan a code and you can see where a product was sourced, packaged and shipped from.
To enjoy the new paradigm in diapers, you'll have to be a member of Amazon Prime. The company says Amazon Elements is an exclusive perk for its members. (Video via Amazon)
The Wall Street Journal suggests this is Amazon's attempt at cornering its own share of a highly reliable market. Consumable goods, or those frequently exhausted household goods like diapers and paper towels, are a good fit for hassle-free online shopping.
It's worth noting Amazon is therefore directly competing with all the Huggies and Pampers that sell their products on its site. And, critically, it can be more aggressive with its margins. (Video via Procter & Gamble)
Re/code found Amazon's prices came out to "about 19 cents a diaper, compared to competitor prices that mostly range from 24 cents to 34 cents."
For daily diaper changes that can approach the double digits, you can see how the savings start to stack up.
Amazon says it plans to expand Elements beyond diapers and baby wipes. Prime members can start buying those now on Amazon's Elements website.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
