Newest Amazon patent shows plans to ship your purchase before you even know you'll be buying it.

Amazon has filed a patent called "Method and System For Anticipatory Package Shipping."
The essence is this: Amazon believes it has a good idea which item of clothing, electronics or beauty product you will covet next.

As with so many retailers, it has come to deduce from your buying patterns and other data what sort of person you are. Because we're all, you know, one sort of person or another.

So with this system, it intends to ship those products to the vast warehouse nearest you, in anticipation of your predictable behavior.

There's even a suggestion in the patent that it might be more cost effective to give the customer the product for free, even if they haven't clicked to buy it, rather than ship it back where it came from.

With this system, Amazon is laying down a challenge not merely to other retailers, but to those closest to you.

Source: CNET