Internet Grocery Shopping Slowly Gaining Ground 283
bakreule writes "Online grocery shopping, once the laughing stock of the internet, has quietly started gaining ground. It seemed that the idea had been killed shortly after the bust as being just another bomb. The article has some good interviews and details to show how this industry is developing and whether or not this surprising growth can continue. I'm interested in seeing how grocery product advertising will be affected in this highly competitive industry."
Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:5, Interesting)
Or do they sell whatever the oldest crap they can get away with selling?
Personally, unless I'm buying books or CD's, I'll stick to real-life visits to the local grocery store.
FreshDirect (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually enjoy grocery shopping sometimes (ok call me a freak) but I would to pull up a recipe and have the ingredients delivered.
Shopping (Score:1, Interesting)
Overlooked demographic (Score:4, Interesting)
Online Grocery Marketing (Score:4, Interesting)
Not to mention at 10$ per delivery people like me who spend maybe $40 a trip on the high end will be willing to spend another 25% for delivery. That's where competition needs to happen. Drive those delivery costs below $5 and I can eliminate my single social burden!
"In America" (Score:5, Interesting)
My buddy Simon delivers .. (Score:1, Interesting)
Throw in an occasional trip to Sams Club (non-free reg required) to stock up on bulk staples, or a trip to the local farmers market and co-op and the hateful trips to the "big grocery" chains are all but eliminated
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, there is just something to be said about buying PERISHABLES of a mundane nature online... I can see something a little more 'gourmet' that is much more difficult to get normally, like foie gras, Kobe beef, or fresh morels. You normally won't be able to find stuff like under most normal circumstances. I just can't seem to justify to myself to pay 20-30% markup for something I can just get myself at the store just down the road.
well, unless gas prices keep going up.
Schwans (Score:5, Interesting)
One thing I really like is my food arrives frozen. The nearest grocery store to where I live is 10-15 minutes away and frozen foods tend to defrost a bit by the time I get home due to the hot Texas sun. Melted/refrozen ice cream from the grocery store isn't very good.
Schwan's (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, the problem I have with this service is that the food (not counting the very high priced steaks, etc.) is, to my mind, almost totally snack food. Some of it very good snack food (ummm... Tacquitos) but snack food just the same. A steady diet of this stuff and you're probably not going to be doing yourself any good.
Also, of course, only a couple of (frozen, of course) vegetable and fruit items.
Re:Overlooked demographic (Score:3, Interesting)
The other solution used by many students is to go together and get a taxi back. If the distance is short enough ( and it usually is ) the cost is not too high, and it will certainly beat the cost of running a car.
Local supermarkets drove their customers away (Score:2, Interesting)
I can describe the two local supermarkets in my major city within "quick" walking distance as
- Outrageously expensive (Hint: suburban readers, double or triple what you usually pay)
- Terrible quality
What do I mean by "terrible?" How about dirty, nasty, not stocking certain common items for days or weeks, bugs, whatever. And I'm talking about major chains, not bodegas here!They simply relied on there being no competition. And now all of a sudden there is. People would flee to delivery services even if they weren't easier, better and cheaper. Not to mention that carrying groceries is a pain in "carless" environments, especially for older folks, especially if you live on the 3rd floor without an elevator.
I see the grocery delivery trucks everywhere now, and every day. Judging by the frequency, I'd say the local supermarkets where I am have already lost a significant amount of business. Bravo capitalism.
Delivery is Everything (Score:4, Interesting)
From the article:
The key struggle for grocers is to make their service convenient enough and the cost low enough -- most charge less than $10 for delivery -- to change decades of shopping habits. Online grocers also need to operate in cities with high population densities and heavy Internet use.
Delivery costs are probably what most limits this kind of service.
If delivery costs could be reduced, say by taking the human (driving a two ton gas guzzler 10 miles each way) out of the loop, then this service would really take off.
The technology is almost here for cost-effective robotic delivery vehicles. With liquid fuel costs increasing dramatically, automated delivery will be here even sooner.
There should be less and less reason to send someone in car on a Go Fetch Errand to pickup groceries, a new hard disk, etc.
Heavy, pre packed items. (Score:4, Interesting)
For fresh produce, meat and fish, I still go to the local market. But for name branded goods with freshness seals, it's online shopping all the way. Last weekend I ordered just beverages - 60l of juices, water and pop. That's about 70kg of weight (counting bottles + packaging), so I was more than happy to not have to carry it up.
There are some things I will never buy online - fruit, veggies, meat (they don't sell them anyway) - but for the other stuff, it's a great solution.
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:5, Interesting)
that's pretty much straight out of the article (so RTFA)
When I was using online groceries, they used restaurant quality produce. After restaurants get their pick, they go to groceries, so picking produce at the local grocery is picking the restaurant rejects!
If you want fresh groceries that you pick, you are going to have to go to a road side produce mart.
Re:It's already taken ground in England (Score:1, Interesting)
In London where most young professionals don't own a car, its a real pain trying to do even a week's worth of shopping. We've been using on line shopping for 2 years; service is good and there is lots of competition - Tescos, Sainsbury's and Ocado are the main ones. In fact I can't think of any of my friends in town who don't use online shopping!
There are lots of benefits; you can take advantage of special offers in bulk; you can select the temperture of some products - useful for drinks for parties!; don't put up with screaming kids; and you can reuse the same order as last time to speed up the process; you don't pay for delivery and you don't need to worry about transport costs.
Two main downsides:
i) buying fresh fruit & veg is a bit hit and miss
ii) if your product is not available they offer a subsitute product; again this is very hit and miss. However the subs are in a different bag / basket and can be sent back if they're not suitable.
Just my tuppence.
P.
I love it. (Score:5, Interesting)
The delivery times are really good and it is next-day service. I will never go back to regular shopping again. This is like when I got my Tivo; completely revolutionizes everyday tasks.
ideas for online grocery stores (Score:3, Interesting)
* type in your own recipe, or
* pick from an easy-to-use list of recipies
* how many people will be involved w/each meal
...and it gives you not only the list of ingredients and how much of each you will need, but also a map in the store to optimize your time?
You could do this from home, or from a computer kiosk at the grocery store itself. I always forget an ingredient, or spend too much time wandering around the store looking for a hard-to-find item.
Now THIS would be a useful application of technology to a very low-tech thing. (Remember, spray on usability is bad [daringfireball.net])
Most lowtech/hightech fusions that have gone down in publicly hilarious fireballs are due to the gross MISapplication of technology. Simply using a web page to pick out individual ingredients (separate from what the meal of which they are just a component) is just taking the existing paradigm and putting it on a web page. Won't work.
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want fresh groceries that you pick, you are going to have to go to a road side produce mart.
Already popular in the UK (Score:3, Interesting)
You specify a delivery slot (depending on the company this can be in one- or three-hour increments) place your order and wait.
They're delivered from the local store in small vans with refrigeration units. If something is out of stock they'll deliver a replacement item. Anything you don't want (ordered too much milk? pears overripe?) you can send back with the driver and the amount is deducted from your bill.
Tends to work very well.
My experience (Score:3, Interesting)
On the plus side, their site was well designed and easy to use. The prices were good. You could even choose to pick up the groceries yourself to avoid paying the delivery charge.
One the negative side:
(1) The service was unreliable. Many times, as I unpacked my order, I discovered missing products. They were charged on the bill, but nowhere in my delivery. The hassle involved in correcting this problem ("We'll deliver it to you, are you going to be home for the next little while? No... ummmmm") was not worth it.
(2) The selection was not complete. Often, especially with fresh herbs, the store would be "out of stock". This would force me to go elsewhere to make my order complete.
(3) They staff had a "couldn't care less" attitude. More than once I arrived to pick up my order to find it sitting by the front window in the full sun, with the meat browning and the herbs shrivilling nicely.
In the end, my wife and I found that it took just as much time to do the shopping ourselves as it did to do it online. So why bother?
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:5, Interesting)
Tesco charge 5 for deliveries (~$8), which works out pretty well IMO if you're doing a big shop. My only gripe is they don't put the stuff away for you (You need a maid/wife for that, and I hear they're expensive)
I use SimonDelivers - I'm not going back (Score:4, Interesting)
(We're a family of five, including three kids age 5. 5. and 4.)
I can't imagine going back to traditional grocery shopping. I've seen the light - and I'd gladly pay an additional 10% to keep buying my groceries online.
Grocery Gateway (Score:4, Interesting)
Essentially, they started out as, and still are, a shipping company. They don't just ship groceries, but pretty much anything that you would normally think to pack into a truck and ferry off somewhere. They partnered up with some grocery supply companies and basically inserted themselves as a delivery company and website. They don't really charge much for delivery, but they don't have to to stay profitable. Bulk buy directly from the wholesalers and distributers, mark up items so they're competitive with the grocery stores and charge a nominal fee for delivery and bang, you've made money.
As for the quality of the foods, they partner up with Sobey's for much of it, and the produce is about the same quality as what you'd get off the shelf in a good Sobey's. (For non Canadians, or people who don't live near a Sobey's - Sobey's is a grocery store that can definitely boast well above average quality produce.) I'm not a shill for these guys, and I don't work with them any more, but I can say that the quality isn't bad at all.
One of the other things I've done is try out Green Earth Organics [greenearthorganics.com] and Fresh Piks. (No link because their site is down. Fun fact: When it couldn't find the server, M$'s built in auto search suggested www.Fleshpics.com as an alternative. Not the best suggestion when looking for an organic fruit and veggie delivery company. Probably a fun site though.) Both provided better produce than anything I ever bought in a grocery store, it was delivered and since I didn't want to waste anything I ate more fruits and veggies, and cooked more than I ever did at any other point in my life. If I weren't living in Spain now (where restaurants prominently feature recognizable animal parts where they cut the meat from and many don't serve salads at all) I'd still be getting a weekly delivery from these guys.
Someone has to pick stuff out and ship it to the store, why the hell not have someone pick it out and ship it directly to me. They know that if they drop the ball on quality I'll take my business elsewhere so they do better than the grocery store does. Anyway... I think that this is something that was a long time coming...
For the elderly (Score:5, Interesting)
-MDL
Two Words.. Baby Formula (Score:2, Interesting)
I've used them (Score:2, Interesting)
The produce and meat cuts were better, consistently that what I could find myself in any of the four local stores close to my Kirkland Washington apartment.
My wife loves to cook, but had some health issues at the time so she couldn't stand or walk for more than a two to three minute stretch. According to her... I truly suck at finding a good tomato, or fresh bell pepper. I still don't know why the hell she thumps cantalopes.
These people impressed her, and she raved about the quality all the time.
Later, when they went out of business, we started looking at other home deliveries. Albertsons.com did not deliver quite the same quality at first, but got better later... We never tried cosmo, or webvan.
Now, my wife is far healthier, and we can grocery shop again... however I think I'll try some online grocers a few more times, and see what kind of quality I get now.
What I'm Waiting for (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Online food (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's a thought : affix a known order charge to the service, let people freeform their order or make a check list for them of known things with relatively known prices, when the order comes in print it out, drive to the grocery store, fill the basket, pay for it yourself, charge their credit card in the van on the way over (including the $10 or $15 or a % of the total) and drive them to their house. The lowest end grunts at the grocery store that have to run price checks and put returned merchandise back on the shelves know the store inside out so they could be hired as order fillers / delivery guys, you could pay them 50% more than what the grocery store pays and still make a profit. Perhaps work out a deal with the grocery store giving them ALL of your business in exchange for a 10% (or whatever) discount.
Need to scale up a little more, hire another grunt. The massive start-up costs in creating robotic facilities and food storage warehouses are completely avoided.
Kosher Food (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, the way you can tell if something is certified kosher is to examine the packaging for a "hecsher" - it's that little circle with a U inside, or the Star of David with a K in it, or any similar looking thing (obviously, different markings are from different kosher-cert orgs, so you've got to be careful to know which ones to trust).
However, it can be VERY difficult to ascertain what's kosher certified or not from online photos of the good. A lot of the time, the packaging shown online won't have the hecsher, or it'll be too small to see what it is, that sort of thing. Online shopping is therefore a bitch for the kosher consumer, and will continue to be until someone figures out how to exploit this problem for some commercial gain.
Seeing as kosher Jews (forgive me for stereotyping) tend to be pretty good eaters (ie, would order quite a bit), you'd think there would be _some way_ to make some money off this. Hmm.
But, anyways, there's one kind of person that an online supermarket just doesn't help too much these days.
-Erwos
Do you tip the driver? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2, Interesting)
It's working fine here in The Netherlands (albert [albert.nl]). The quality of fresh, cold and frozen products is excellent.
It is in fact better than doing your own delivery, because unlike your average car, the delivery trucks are equiped with freezers and coolers at the right temperatures.
Change Your Model (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:3, Interesting)
Undoubtably, it's an excellent system for someone who's trapped indoors (parent with kids and no car). But the disadvantage is you have to book 24 hours in advance, and be prepared to stay indoors for two hours for the booked delivery time. Delivery change is an extra five pounds, although that may be cheaper than driving or booking a taxi for the return journey.
Re:I miss WebVan (Score:4, Interesting)
I had a point when I started this message. Somthing about testing before putting something into a production environment.
Re:Online food (Score:4, Interesting)
I for one would really be pleased if grocery delivery took off again.
Re:Online food (Score:1, Interesting)
As a student at the time it was a fantastic service. Each of the guys in the house (there were 4 other engineers sharing the place I was living in) would log in and add what they wanted.
Over the years they changed the delivery schedule so that you pay more for peak hours.
Their customer service was outstanding. If they didn't have the item you wanted in stock you'd get the next size up for free. Failing that you wouldn't get it, but that was rare. If you had any problems with the quality of the product they would just credit your account (over the phone, no questions asked).
Overall a great service, especially for students who don't have a car, and would be willing to make an order with room mates.
They still have some kinks to work out (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2, Interesting)
The biggest problem I've had with FreshDirect (Other than the occasional rude/annoying gangsta delivery guy, has been that their portions for vegetables vary wildly. Sometimes their "Jumbo Carrots" are slender tiny things that I'd buy 15 of if I were at the grocery store, other times they're these humungous monsters that I only need two of. You don't really know until they show up in a box at your door.
FreshDirect has a reasonable charge of under $4. Gristedes which has gone into competition with them offers free delivery over a certain amount, but the quality of Gristedes in-store food has always been mediocre at best, so I'm reluctant to even try their online service.
Basically, it boils down to the service you use.
-Sara
Re:Online food (Score:3, Interesting)
If they had the flexibility of a 4 to 6 hour delivery window, several different orders could be rounded up and put onto the same delivery van for economies of scale during the delivery process.
If there was a way to encourage the customers to get their orders in at least 12 hours in advance and still have the flexibility of a 4 - 6 hour delivery windows, the scheduling process can scale even higher. Allow for 'immediate processing' at a premium, but give incentives to help the queue form in a smoother manner.
I agree that the margins could be much higher if it was the store running the service, but I wonder if it would be even marginally profitable as a third party service. A lot of unemployeed high school kids could be doing something like this if the front end was developed smooth enough.