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Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

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Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#81

Post by tfgg »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #76
michaelt wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Google intends to compete with that using something with higher cost? The UK already has at least one mass-market grocery delivery company that is profitable (albeit barely - a pre-tax profit of £11.9m on sales of £1,202.9m). The CEO, Tim Steiner, believes in the long term they can be more efficient than bricks-and-mortar retailers by having a few large, automated warehouses fulfilling orders for the entire count…

It certainly does make sense if you're looking at places with expensive property, like London. A supermarket takes up a huge area, and usually in areas where land tends to be expensive. Nobody wants to go to a supermarket in the middle of nowhere. I think that's where online supermarkets are going to win out over conventional supermarkets. Personally, I prefer to go to supermarkets than shop online, even if it was ch…

> A supermarket takes up a huge area, and usually in areas where land tends to be expensive

I think this is a particularly good point about their success, especially in London. In London, there aren't really many huge supermarkets (the closest one to me is about 5km away through dense built-up areas), and most people don't own cars. Hence, if you want to do a big shop, online delivery is pretty much the only way.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#82

Post by feintruled »

roel_v wrote: post #70
michaelt wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you buy some products delivery is free; this week it was 8 bottles of coke or so I'd be interested to learn more about that - could you provide some links?

Only in Dutch, but here is the page: http://www.ah.nl/gratis-bezorgen/wk7/coca-cola?ah_campaign=i... . At the top it says 'free delivery when buying 2 4-packs of coca cola, for deliveries on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Also valid at pickup points.' The 'pickup points' are where you can go to collect groceries yourself; you order online, it's bagged for you, you drive into a location where they put the bags into…

I know what you mean. It does feel strangely uncomfortable to the liberal mind, like having servants.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#83

Post by dzhiurgis »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #27

Google 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 t…

It works for Amazon though. They are obviously paving the way for self-driving cars and they start with self driving deliveries.

Yes, impulse buying is big, but that is one of the reasons I do not like going shopping. It is a huge time waste to go thru all isles.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#84

Post by Latty »

mmgutz wrote: post #15

I'm skeptical this will be successful. I just can't see these kind of operations selecting ripe and fresh produce like my mother taught me from the grocery store. They're concerned about their bottom line and will send whatever is available. Good for the stores, not good for wise consumers.

Here in the UK, every big supermarket does online delivery, and it's popular - all the ones I have used have the same process - they tell their pickers to pick like they were buying for themselves (try to get long dates, try to pick good fruit/veg), allow you to ask for specific things (less/more ripe, bigger/smaller), allow you to reject anything for any reason at the door, replace items they don't have for alternatives (including bigger sizes/premium alternatives) without charging you more, and tell you about anything on the order sheet (this item is replaced, this item is short dated, etc...) and put them into marked 'check this before accepting' bags.

I was intially sceptical like you, but I've found the quality is the same as if I'd picked it out myself. Obviously, there is no guarentee that is how another company would do it, but it does seem to be accepted here as the norm.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#85

Post by dzhiurgis »

Symbiote wrote: post #58
nikolay wrote: post #52

I'm pretty happy with the free and near real-time Amazon Now. Amazon Fresh is one of the rare Amazon failures. Well, it's still around, but at $299/year (well, minus $99 for Prime) plus tips for delivery - it's expensive! I got the Express trial and was happy that I'll be able to save trips to Costco, but, no, I won't as they possibly offer less than 1% of Costco's inventory, so, it's a totally useless service for me…

The UK has a very competitive market for grocery delivery. It's existed using the Internet since 1997 - it's one of the first services I remember people being attracted to. Everything is available, and after almost 20 years they've obviously worked out how to deliver what people want (fresh / unripe / whatever). Delivery is still £1-5 or so, depending on time, and the supermarkets often have a minimum spend (or addit…

Their web experience haven't improved much since then.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#86

Post by roel_v »

feintruled wrote: post #82
roel_v wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only in Dutch, but here is the page: http://www.ah.nl/gratis-bezorgen/wk7/coca-cola?ah_campaign=i... . At the top it says 'free delivery when buying 2 4-packs of coca cola, for deliveries on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Also valid at pickup points.' The 'pickup points' are where you can go to collect groceries yourself; you order online, it's bagged for you, you drive into a location where they put the bags into…

I know what you mean. It does feel strangely uncomfortable to the liberal mind, like having servants.

Yeah. I mean, we also have somebody who cleans our house, she loves working for us (her words) and we really do not have time to do it ourselves (I went looking for someone after I found myself vacuuming the kitchen floor at 11pm and thinking 'hmm should I iron my shirt after this, or get up 15 minutes earlier tomorrow to do it then...), and yet it feels somewhat 'wrong' - both from the side of having someone else do what you're 'supposed' to do yourself, and the idea that you pay someone else (much) less than what you make for it. Some with the groceries, having people deliver stuff into your kitchen using a service they cannot afford themselves. And yet I didn't feel bad buying a house from a real estate agent that was more expensive than his. It's a strange phenomenon, it must be common among people from a lower-middle class background like myself who socially have moved up into a territory that was considered 'high brow' by my 'old' environment.

Anyway, to tie this back into the grocery deliveries - I think this is a major issue for marketing people in these supermarkets working on these new offerings. Their target market must be (at least initially) working professionals with two incomes, probably with (young) children, and many (most?) of those must have similar apprehensions to what I experience(d). I tried to pry some info on that away from a marketer once when I was interviewed as part of a focus group study on something similar, but either she didn't want to let up or she genuinely didn't know what I was talking about...

If anyone knows of literature on this topic, I'd be very interested. It's not something I ever hear about, it's somewhat taboo (or at least considered bad taste) to talk about this in real life (in my experience). Which I understand, it is after all almost a 'poor me, I have so much money I have buy another wallet' style problem.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#88

Post by pbhjpbhj »

skewart wrote: post #34
nickpsecurity wrote: post #27

Google 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 t…

I suspect there's another reason they're doing this, and they don't actually think this will be a profitable business opportunity. Delivering groceries in 2016 is probably a strategic move in support of a larger effort that will pay off in 2019. Perhaps it's about gathering richer data on consumer preferences and behavior. Or maybe it will help them develop autonomous vehicles in some way (having already been operati…

Yeah it seems reasonable to me that they take on the whole job in order to find where/if they might fit in to generate long-term profits.

One might even conceive that they'd do it just to stir up the market and, like you say, see if anything sticks.

Re: Google Launches Fresh-Grocery Deliveries

#90

Post by [deleted] »

tfgg wrote: post #81
toomanybeersies wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly does make sense if you're looking at places with expensive property, like London. A supermarket takes up a huge area, and usually in areas where land tends to be expensive. Nobody wants to go to a supermarket in the middle of nowhere. I think that's where online supermarkets are going to win out over conventional supermarkets. Personally, I prefer to go to supermarkets than shop online, even if it was ch…

> A supermarket takes up a huge area, and usually in areas where land tends to be expensive I think this is a particularly good point about their success, especially in London. In London, there aren't really many huge supermarkets (the closest one to me is about 5km away through dense built-up areas), and most people don't own cars. Hence, if you want to do a big shop, online delivery is pretty much the only way.

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