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."
Online food (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Online food (Score:3, Insightful)
And it's the perfect formula for obesity. Food delivered to your door without having to move? At least going out to do the shopping burned a couple of calories.
Re:Online food (Score:2, Insightful)
From my understanding not all geeks are fat. In fact geeks most make stick figures look fat.
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
Re:Online food (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Online food (Score:3, Interesting)
If they had the flexibility of a 4 to 6 hour deli
Re:Online food (Score:4, Interesting)
I for one would really be pleased if grocery delivery took off again.
I miss WebVan (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that WebVan's problem had less to do with a poor business model, and everything to do with scaling the business way too fast. They burned through a tremendous amount of cash every time they entered a new market. As a result, they were left with very little operating funds. They always figured that they'd be able to get more funding. Unfortunately, you can always count on VC investors to go to extremes. They over funded during the boom, and they simply wouldn't fund at all during the bust.
Re:I miss WebVan (Score:3, Informative)
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, Insightful)
Plus the arguments about not leaving the house or obesity are just erroneous. Groceries are healthier than ordering pizza (which is a possibility in pretty much any urban/suburban setting), and for those of us with busy lifestyles, getting your groceries in a two-hour window on a Saturday or Sunday morning while you having your morning coffee and catching up on the news or whatever isn't exactly precluding you from going outdoors :P
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.
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2)
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 pri
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2, Offtopic)
The isles are narrow (and people here like to stand in the middle and look while making it impossible for you to pass, "excuse me" doesn't seem to register).
The brand selections are weak. Wegman's on the East Coast (PA, NY, others) is fantastic for selection. The vegetable isle is terrible. I swear that Cub thinks that fresh produce means stuff that looks like it is wilting.
T
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2)
I'm mainly concerned about not getting exactly what you want. I remember trying an online grocery ordering system at Farm Fresh where you could order online and pickup at the store. I thought I would give it a try until I found that that if the store is out of brand
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2)
If they quietly make a substitution or omision, on the other hand, that would probably turn me off of them, as well.
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2)
I always wondered how these places stay in business. Do you really think the vendor's actually put a lot of thought into finding the perfect tomatoes, freshest eggs and milk, and softest loaves of bread?
The biggest costs are probbably the warehouses, trucks, and employees to deliver the stuff. Cutting corners on quality of the product is only going to give you a terrible reputation and lose customers.
The market for this kind of business is people without cars, or people with more money than time to sho
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)
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:2)
Shrug. I honestly don't have a problem with it. I use Internet grocery shopping. I've never had a bad delivery; the veges and fruit are just fine. You just put your credit card into the site once a week and they deliver within a 2 hour window after work. Sure beats pushing a trolley around a store for
Re:Yeah, I'll pick you some NICE tomatoes ;-) (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Funny)
Do it at night. (Score:5, Insightful)
For one thing, who wants to pay for delivery? Second, my biggest gripe with grocery shopping was the crowds, which is why I love 24 hour grocery stores... I simply go at midnight.
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:Do it at night. (Score:3, Insightful)
For one thing, who wants to pay for delivery?
You do, if you ever sent out for pizza. (Unless you're a cheap no-tipping bastard.)
Second, my biggest gripe with grocery shopping was the crowds, which is why I love 24 hour grocery stores... I simply go at midnight.
Gee, pay someone a little extra to bring my food to me, or wait 'til MIDNIGHT to go shopping? Tough choice.
Now, if only I could get them to put the groceries away for me I'd be all set.
Re:Do it at night. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Do it at night. (Score:3, Insightful)
I think part of why so many of these services flopped in the late 90's was that they invested heavily in top-notch infrastructure, and couldn't stretch out their cash long enough to grow into their debt load (as Amazon appears to be doing).
Re:Do it at night. (Score:2)
If your view of mainstream America includes suburbs in the midwest, I'd say it's catching like wildfire. I don't have any hard stats (of course), but several younger families I know in greater metro Minneapolis/St. Paul have been signed up for this for several years. A couple of IRC pals in Aurora and other suburbs in Chicago swear by it. I'd love to use it, but they don't deliver to friggin apartments. But, in my neighborhood I don't blame 'em. Other than the risk of having them stolen, I'd hate to open up
Re:Do it at night. (Score:2)
It costs something to drive to the local supermarket. The way petroleum is going up in price, this may well be a cheaper way to go in the long run. (n.b. the delivery service can use electric vehicles and/or can preplan their route to go past each customer once and hence minimise the total distance).
Re:Do it at night. (Score:2)
Here in the exurbs of Minneapolis, most of the local grocery stores offer online ordering and frankly we use it a lot. It's a flat $10 delivery fee, which is WELL worth the money when you consider the time you save driving to the store, pushing a cart around, and driving home again, especially amortized against a $300 grocery bill. We can save $10 just in a little judicious coupon use.
Whether this is a short-lived experiment, or the last-gasp of local groceries tryin
Re:Do it at night. (Score:3, Insightful)
I would probably save more than $10 on impulse buys alone. I'm sure you spend less if you have to actually think about what you're putting in your cart, especially if you have little kids.
Hmm.. (Score:2)
Keep it to canned goods (Score:2, Insightful)
Otherwise, you are relying on someone else to select meat and produce for you.
Re:Keep it to canned goods (Score:2, Insightful)
Not to mention the lack of taste in most canned goods.
It's already taken ground in England (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's already taken ground in England (Score:5, Funny)
It's always a [DIDN'T I already said STOP IT ?] pleasure to take them with me. fkjaj giaj agij adfgi 1234567890 [ Don't f*#$ touch my laptop]
I -am- the parent you're talking about (Score:5, Insightful)
First off, they fall asleep on the way there. Marvellous. So now you have to wake them up before you can get out of the car - that really cheers them up, as you can imagine.
Next up, the trolley has to be perfection. Yesterday's favourite is today's screaming fit, so you must make sure Her Majesty will deign to actually sit in the bloody thing (the son currently gets no say...). You can force the issue, but your ears will suffer.
You then get the fun of said two year old reaching out to every shelf and grabbing what she wants. If you put it back, she grabs it again or screams. Meanwhile my son is just screaming anyway - no apparent reason, unless it's the same one I feel like screaming about as well.
Finally, we get people such as yourself. We know we're pissing you off. We just don't get a choice about it. Some people respond graciously, others stare as if you're utter scum.
Nope, it's online shopping from the parents' point of view too as far as I'm concerned. Chuck 'em a fiver, and let the delivery people handle it all. It's a good deal for both me and you, it would seem.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:I -am- the parent you're talking about (Score:4, Insightful)
It is amusing to me to see the different reactions people have to a bratty kid though. People at Wal-mart either just ignore you or are sympathetic. Now, try that at the local hippy foods store, Whole Foods or Wild Oats or whatever. People stare and roll their eyes like you have horns sprouting from your forehead.
Re:It's already taken ground in England (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Long Live Naked Grocery Shopping! (Score:5, Informative)
I loved the searchable selection, the ability to pre-build shopping lists, and coolest of all was the one-click recipe ingredient ordering. I especially miss not waiting in line during the 5:30p grocery rush.
I live in a smaller town now (100,000) so I'm not holding my breath until I can get access to this again, but I'd be quite willing to pay 10% more to have this service.
Overlooked demographic (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Overlooked demographic (Score:2)
My wife stays at at home with our son, and she doesn't drive. With all the coupons and such, it usually costs her $4 (Canadian) per delivery. Their time is worth more than that, and they can spend it at the playground instead of at the crocery store.
Online Grocery Marketing (Score:4, Interesting)
Not to mention at 10$ 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!
Nothing new here, move along now. (Score:3, Informative)
Here in the UK, the Tesco [tesco.com] and Waitrose [waitrose.com] supermarket chains have been taking orders over the net and delivering the goods by truck for several years. It's no longer remarked upon as being anything special.
Tesco were the first to realise that using their regular staff picking goods off the shelves of their regular supermarkets was a low-investment and very cost-effective way of linking orders to delivery trucks.
Paul
Re:Nothing new here, move along now. (Score:2, Informative)
We currently use Tesco's but would probably switch if the Asda store in our area was up and running.
Re:Nothing new here, move along now. (1992?) (Score:2)
Its nothing new on this side of the pond either. We used a pre-Web/pre-internet online grocery delivery service back in around 1992 (the online component was a BBS dial-up connection which let you enter your order via a TTY terminal app).
Tesco were the first to realise that using their regular staff p
Re:Nothing new here, move along now. (1992?) (Score:2)
If you have your exact list and know the store really well, it probably doesn't take a lot longer to pick the goods off shelves than to sit at a checkout and check them all through. Delivery usually is charged for.
Overall, they make a sizable profit on the operation, and have done for some time, see eg. here [theregister.co.uk].
I use this in the UK (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I use this in the UK (Score:2, Informative)
They allow to you specify whether you want an alternative item or not. If you do you then have a choice of specifying the alternative item yourself or leave it to the discretion of the picker (the latter option isn't particularly risky if you choose this for basic items such as sugar or toilet paper)
"In America" (Score:5, Interesting)
personal services (Score:3, Insightful)
This is sure to save time...fill out grocery list at work, submit it, the voila! Groceries arrive within a few hours of being home. And it might even limit impulse buying.
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.
Online Shopping - UK a world leader (Score:4, Informative)
Although the CNN article focuses on the US experience, the UK has had successful and profitable online grocery shopping for several years. UK chain Tesco [tesco.com] was one of the first - with an in-house developed software system - and now most of the UK major chains have followed suit with similar systems.
The Tesco system was initially thought to be un-economic as it simply comprised staff going round existing stores and loading carts that where then delivered using small vans to homes in the locality - but apparently its been profitable since the outset.
Tesco's approach is compared to that of WebVan (who feature in the CNN article) in this document [upenn.edu] written by a Prof at Wharton (free - but registration required)
More recently, a WebVan style UK Grocery operation called Occado [ocado.com] has started too - working with upmarket Grocer Waitrose [waitrose.com]. Their approach is to use central warehouses to fill orders and distribute.
All this competition has resulted in competition between providers both on price (several offer the service 'free' for spends over a threshold of about 75) and quality (for example, discounts if delivery times are missed, or the goods / brands you order are not in stock etc.)
Re:Online Shopping - UK a world leader (Score:2)
I'd be glad to use even Iceland's online service for bulky or heavy stuff (they do beer, toilet roll & wine, for example!) but they deliver during the day, which is no good to those of us with an all-working household. They've also got an absurdly long delivery window - something like between 11am and 4pm, so even if you were at home, you'd
Re:Online Shopping - UK a world leader (Score:2)
Better, but still not great. I work until 6.15 most days! And a 2 hour window means that I'd have to be home at 4pm to be sure not to miss it.
Having said that, other deliveries are left on our veranda anyway, even hundreds of s worth of gear. Ah, the bliss of living in a low crime community...
Re:Online Shopping - UK a world leader (Score:2)
Oooh, nice. Now that's what I'm after! Pity the nearest one's a good few hours away
online grocery shoping is amazing. (Score:2, Informative)
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
What do I mean by "terrible?" How about dirty, nasty, not stocking certain common items for days or weeks, bugs, whatever. An
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.
Re:Delivery is Everything (Score:3, Informative)
It was an impressive facility, with top-quality foo
the old Shoplink.com (Score:2)
I've seen people in this thread saying to 'keep it to canned goods' etc. Let me tell you - the meats I got were great, along with fresh veggies and fruits, etc. It was a great service.
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.
Internet Grocery In Western Canada (Score:4, Informative)
This service has been around for a few years. We're in a very sparsely populated area (35k people in my town). When it first started, we mocked it, saying that it would never work around here. Then we realized that it was still around, and aparently gets good use.
I think their secret is that it wasn't some kind of VC startup, but rather a grocer that decided to go online.
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: (Score:2)
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?
Can't live without it (Score:3, Informative)
My conversion was simple: my wife and I lived in an apartment and a typical shopping trip was capped off by parking in the basement garage and lugging countless bags (esp. those filled with cans) up a flight of steps, waiting for an elevator, walking to our door fumbling for keys, and then heading all the way back down for one or two more trips.
When we moved into our house, I figured the need for Peapod might diminish, but if anything we use it even more. We still an organic foods market for fresh vegetables, but for staples -- especially ordering cans in bulk for the pantry -- nothing beats paying just a little more for someone to deliver it to your door.
Now if only someone could resurrect Kozmo [disobey.com]! Ordering fresh bagels and milk on Saturday morning and having it delivered 30 minutes later -- and returning your DVDs rented the night before in kind -- amazing...
Re:Can't live without it (Score:2)
I spent half my life living on the 11th floor. Never have I carried groceries in the way you said. It's always the same plan:
Pull up.
Unpack everything.
Carry it next to the elevator. (multiple trips if needed)
Pack it all in.
Take the elevator up.
Hold the door and unpack.
Re:Can't live without it (Score:2)
No way to "pull up" -- no parking in front, and spaces are in the 2nd basement, one flight of steps below the basement proper. I suppose we could have left the bags in front of the elevator and made multiple trips at the basement level. But, the basement level was kind of nasty...
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.
Blind and visually impaired (Score:3, Insightful)
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...
The problem (for me anyway) (Score:2)
The problem was the 4-5 hour delivery window. The main attraction of such a service is for busy people to save time. I realized pretty quickly that I could just get off my ass and go get my grocieries in that time--no waiting around.
Now I'm sure many people have easily schedulable chores/work at home etc., but as a young guy I don't have 4 hours when I want to chain myself to my house ea
For the elderly (Score:5, Interesting)
-MDL
Two Words.. Baby Formula (Score:2, Interesting)
It works for me (Score:2)
Is it worth it? You bet. I hate grocery stores -- they are usually jam-packed with rude assholes, and even a modest shopping list will take an hour from your day. I'd happily pay $7 to avoid that frustration-filled hour of my life.
Twinkies! (Score:2)
S'pore has got a few online stores doing OK (Score:2, Informative)
The NTUC (gov't ran trade coop) Fairprice borg of small low selection stores has an online site for non-parishables. The thing was a .net partnership with the
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 goo
Automation? (Score:2)
Also, this would be a good way to hire more of the packaging engineers in this country, to figure out how to transpor
No surprise, really (Score:4, Informative)
Think about it for a second. Chances are that there's more than one grocery store in your town. Here, in my town of about 40,000 people, we have two Stop & Shop stores (both on the borders), a Shaw's, a Market Basket, both Wal-Mart and Target (selling a decent amount of groceries), and a smaller local store run by a guy who has four stores in the area. Plus a number of smaller specialty and convenience markets, and a couple more supermarkets right outside town - including a Trader Joe's.
My point is that all these stores have enormoous fixed costs. It's expensive to run a grocery store - for personnel you have deli staff, bakers, cashiers, baggers, management, stockers, butchers, etc. Depending on the store size, that's 10-30 people per shift. You also have high real estate costs, because your store needs to be in a nice, desirable shopping area, high advertising costs (though manufacturer co-op dollars help), and perishable merchandise that has to be disposed of if it doesn't sell. Not to mention high electrical costs, lots of water consumed, and high trash costs.
Now, take the same or better merchandise, stock it in a warehouse that's much cheaper to maintain, and pay delivery drivers instead of cashiers and baggers. You save on some of the fixed costs but make up some of that on the electronic infrastructure.
Altogether, it's a potentially viable business model that can work at least as well as the brick & mortar version. The catch is that the giant brick & mortar chains didn't spring fully formed from a venture capital infusion. They grew over time to become the giants - generally with one or two stores that did well enough to fuel expansion over a generation. Try and build big from the start, and you've got big costs. You don't have time to wait for the customers to find you. Start small, service a few markets well, and you won't run out of cash before the shoppers come. That kind of growth isn't good enough for either the VC market or Wall Street.
But it's good enough to build a company if done right.
Peapod (Score:4, Informative)
What I'm Waiting for (Score:2, Interesting)
spud (Score:2)
spud urban delivery [www.spud.ca]
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
Change Your Model (Score:3, Interesting)
They still have some kinks to work out (Score:3, Interesting)
We have used three online grocers (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway... Peapod was great, they did a wonderful job of selecting produce for you... always first rate stuff. But they pulled out of the area because they were competing with Webvan and were not interested in bleeding money in exchange for market share.
Webvan continued for a while, but let's face it... they were clucks. They had *no* control over their costs. Very stupid. In the grocery business the margins are thin and you *must* be on top of your costs. Webvan were completely brain-dead idiots in this regard, they did lots of things in expensive ways for no benefit at all over the cheaper ways. They deserved to die.
We have used Safeway.com a few times... but don't use them for anything other than food-in-a-box. Their produce is marginal to begin with, and what they select for web orders is the dregs of the bin. Both Webvan and Peapod delivered *great* produce... Safeway.com is a health hazard on wheels in that regard.
Re:Is Tesco in the US? (Score:2)
Re:Do you tip the driver? (Score:3, Informative)