In Episode 29 of Localogy’s This Week in Local podcast, our analysts take on Amazon’s latest last-mile experiment and KKR’s $40 billion interest in PayPal’s buy now, pay later debt portfolio.

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In this episode, Senior Analyst Mike Boland leads off with Amazon’s latest experimentation with last-mile delivery. This one involves having small businesses use remnant time and space in their cars and vans to deliver packages along the last mile.

“It’s on brand for Amazon to do this type of experiment,” Mike says on the podcast. Listen to the episode to understand why.

Amazon Taps SMBs for Last-Mile Delivery

Then Co-host Charles Laughlin wonders why the OG of digital payments, PayPal, also a leader in buy now, pay later, recently sold off more than $40 billion in BNPL loans to private equity giant KKR. What does this move say about the state of BNPL?

“I’ve been tough on buy now pay later for a number of reasons,” Charles says on the episode. “Default rates have been rising and [BNPL has been] contributing to a debt bubble and attracting regulatory attention. And doing weird things like gas now, pay later.”

Can BNPL Affirm’s 2023 Ascent Continue?

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