I enjoy going to the store to get food.
Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
21–30 of 161 posts
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#22What's Google's USP here? This service sounds like everything Google that Google goes at great lengths to avoid (physical products, customer service, etc).
From the article they're simply entering the "delivery" market...picking up items from retail stores and transporting them to willing buyers...obviously a markup is implied...the cost of convenience...
There's no holding of inventory...thus no storage-related overhead...
When I was in college one of the jobs I had was at a combination "feed" mill/agri-center...the boss was 85 years old and made a speech each year when he distributed Christmas bonuses....
He bought the business as a young man back in the late 30s...
He never failed to mention that people relied on what we produced in their everyday lives...he was proud of the fact that he had never laid an employee off...
He told us, "People will always want good food when they sit down at the table, and we're part of making that possible..."
A truth in the last century...a truth now...
Investing in providing one of the basics of life...hard to question the logic...
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#23As Wal-Mart rolls back, Google rolls in.
Sounds a bit "me too" wrt Amazon
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#24What does Google see that WebVan did not and Peapod and the USPS do not? Groceries tend to be low margin and relatively heavy goods. [And, it takes me half hour to an hour to do my shopping, and that's knowing what I want to buy in advance, knowing the store. There is not much room for profit in this scenario, except charging value added rather than flat fee. I mean they are partnering with local grocers rather than…
It seems to make sense for having a fleet of self-driving cars. I think they're gonna go head to head with Uber within a decade.
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#25What's Google's USP here? This service sounds like everything Google that Google goes at great lengths to avoid (physical products, customer service, etc).
From the article they're simply entering the "delivery" market...picking up items from retail stores and transporting them to willing buyers...obviously a markup is implied...the cost of convenience... There's no holding of inventory...thus no storage-related overhead... When I was in college one of the jobs I had was at a combination "feed" mill/agri-center...the boss was 85 years old and made a speech each year whe…
There have been many players in this market, old and new. And when you don't have warehouses to automate and extract efficiency, you need people to do the picking. It takes me quite some time to do my own shopping, knowing my store's layout, knowing what I want in advance. I only see low, low margins.
I mean, this is the opposite of self-checkout efficiency. They're putting more people into to the cost of the product/service.
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#26What's Google's USP here? This service sounds like everything Google that Google goes at great lengths to avoid (physical products, customer service, etc).
From the article they're simply entering the "delivery" market...picking up items from retail stores and transporting them to willing buyers...obviously a markup is implied...the cost of convenience... There's no holding of inventory...thus no storage-related overhead... When I was in college one of the jobs I had was at a combination "feed" mill/agri-center...the boss was 85 years old and made a speech each year whe…
Interestingly Uber say they're in the logistics market too
I wonder if grocery delivery is the MVP for an automated delivery market
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#27Google usually operates in high-margin industries. This is the opposite. I've had the "privilege" of working in this one. You're talking all kinds of players working against each other for perceived self-gain with individual companies constantly pushing costs down to the point their staff can barely break even. And Google intends to compete with that using something with higher cost?
Pretty crazy. I was unsurprised they'd use Costco and Whole Foods while targeting two areas that already pay too much for stuff. Love to see them try that in my area where people go for whatever costs the least most of the time. Lots of true premium services have gone out of business with what's left being those that approximate premium with right compromises to keep cost down. That's probably true across most of the States.
The biggest flaw in all this is what these companies keep ignoring: impulse buying. The big stores put what you need as far away from you as possible. Then, you have to exert physical effort to get to good deals while seeing, at arms reach, all kinds of profitable items. This is a hard to quantify, but big, chunk of grocery revenues. So, these companies doing online deliveries or personal shoppers have to make more money than the competition while leaving out one of most powerful techniques for making money.
Always operating at a disadvantage, there. So, we're not going to see such things proliferate. Those with the most capital, negotiating power with manufacturers, and proven techniques win here. Almost always.
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#28What's Google's USP here? This service sounds like everything Google that Google goes at great lengths to avoid (physical products, customer service, etc).
They want your purchase data.
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#29What's Google's USP here? This service sounds like everything Google that Google goes at great lengths to avoid (physical products, customer service, etc).
From the article they're simply entering the "delivery" market...picking up items from retail stores and transporting them to willing buyers...obviously a markup is implied...the cost of convenience... There's no holding of inventory...thus no storage-related overhead... When I was in college one of the jobs I had was at a combination "feed" mill/agri-center...the boss was 85 years old and made a speech each year whe…
> they're simply entering the "delivery" market...picking up items from retail stores and transporting them to willing buyers
Thus gaining the ability to track a lot more about what people buy/eat, in addition to their their current tracking what people read (google-analytics), where they go (android), etc.
> the cost of convenience...
...plus the long-term cost of giving Google more details about your life.
Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries
#30What does Google see that WebVan did not and Peapod and the USPS do not? Groceries tend to be low margin and relatively heavy goods. [And, it takes me half hour to an hour to do my shopping, and that's knowing what I want to buy in advance, knowing the store. There is not much room for profit in this scenario, except charging value added rather than flat fee. I mean they are partnering with local grocers rather than…
It seems to make sense for having a fleet of self-driving cars. I think they're gonna go head to head with Uber within a decade.
That would make sense if the grocery bags were waiting to be picked up for delivery without that adding any additional cost (as I mentioned, it takes me (quite some) time to do my own shopping, imagine shopping from a list in a store you might be unfamiliar with)
Let's say $300 shopping list (and cost of transport is 0):
Grocery store profit: $6.00
Time to shop for $300 of groceries: 40 mins.
Dollars/hour/40mins: ?
Where is the profit here? $10/mo subscription does not cover it. Ads, coupons?