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Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

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21–30 of 333 posts

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#21
post #8

I know it is a simple way to look at it, but Walmart on whole has been a game changer when it came to handling the lockdown. Where Amazon was taking weeks to get "non-critical" items shipped, Walmart had on average a 3 day wait for drive up pick up. They've introduced a yearly fee for delivery and we signed up. It's been top notch. In my area, they outsource the delivery to doordash. Order, pick a time for delivery a…

I don't understand why Walmart doesn't have a customer supplied delivery program. Using the app, you would sign in when you enter the store. It would inform you of any deliveries within X miles of your home. It tells you how much you would be paid in store credit to do those deliveries. So you start shopping with say $33.50 already in your pocket. Then you just drop off a couple of bags at a few houses on your way home. Seems more efficient and cheaper than outsourcing to DoorDash or others.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#22
post #2

I remember when Jet launched, it had a somewhat mysterious marketing campaign and a referral system that made it seem like it was going to be life changing. Once I got access I never ended up actually ordering anything.

They had some interesting experiments around pricing. Things like, you'd pay less if you didn't want to be able to return it for free, and gimmicks like that - but while those may be unique out of the gate, longer-term I feel very few have time to strategize around those aspects of most of their purchases, and speed-of-delivery has become paramount for most buyers.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#24
post #21
post #8

I know it is a simple way to look at it, but Walmart on whole has been a game changer when it came to handling the lockdown. Where Amazon was taking weeks to get "non-critical" items shipped, Walmart had on average a 3 day wait for drive up pick up. They've introduced a yearly fee for delivery and we signed up. It's been top notch. In my area, they outsource the delivery to doordash. Order, pick a time for delivery a…

I don't understand why Walmart doesn't have a customer supplied delivery program. Using the app, you would sign in when you enter the store. It would inform you of any deliveries within X miles of your home. It tells you how much you would be paid in store credit to do those deliveries. So you start shopping with say $33.50 already in your pocket. Then you just drop off a couple of bags at a few houses on your way ho…

Because you cannot rely on non-employees to do the job correctly.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#25
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. Additionally, he HATES Amazon after what happened with his previous start-up diapers.com. Jet was another at bat against Amazon. Wal-Mart wanted his expertise and his drive to make them a true competitor to Amazon in the online space. It seems like it is working. The biggest problem is probably that the rest of Wal-Mart is not super agile and changes aren't going as fast as desired.

Walmart could have a huge competitive advantage if they advertised that they don’t commingle stock and made it easy to only order shipped and sold by Walmart.com. Although, Walmart also is known for accepting lower quality goods from brands in order to sell them at lower price, which isn’t much different from counterfeits, so I still wouldn’t buy from them.

Do you have an example of an item being sold at Walmart which is a cheaper version packaged as the more expensive version?

Genuinely curious, I'm unaware of this...

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#26
post #24
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why Walmart doesn't have a customer supplied delivery program. Using the app, you would sign in when you enter the store. It would inform you of any deliveries within X miles of your home. It tells you how much you would be paid in store credit to do those deliveries. So you start shopping with say $33.50 already in your pocket. Then you just drop off a couple of bags at a few houses on your way ho…

Because you cannot rely on non-employees to do the job correctly.

It's already non-employees (there's little to no entry barrier for DoorDash, Postmates, etc). They just don't want to have to deal with delivery logistics, easier and cheaper to outsource it to the existing companies.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#27
post #21
post #8

I know it is a simple way to look at it, but Walmart on whole has been a game changer when it came to handling the lockdown. Where Amazon was taking weeks to get "non-critical" items shipped, Walmart had on average a 3 day wait for drive up pick up. They've introduced a yearly fee for delivery and we signed up. It's been top notch. In my area, they outsource the delivery to doordash. Order, pick a time for delivery a…

I don't understand why Walmart doesn't have a customer supplied delivery program. Using the app, you would sign in when you enter the store. It would inform you of any deliveries within X miles of your home. It tells you how much you would be paid in store credit to do those deliveries. So you start shopping with say $33.50 already in your pocket. Then you just drop off a couple of bags at a few houses on your way ho…

That does sound like a decent idea if it could be incentivized strongly enough. It also sounds like a fun problem to work on, on the coding side of things.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#28
post #21
post #8

I know it is a simple way to look at it, but Walmart on whole has been a game changer when it came to handling the lockdown. Where Amazon was taking weeks to get "non-critical" items shipped, Walmart had on average a 3 day wait for drive up pick up. They've introduced a yearly fee for delivery and we signed up. It's been top notch. In my area, they outsource the delivery to doordash. Order, pick a time for delivery a…

I don't understand why Walmart doesn't have a customer supplied delivery program. Using the app, you would sign in when you enter the store. It would inform you of any deliveries within X miles of your home. It tells you how much you would be paid in store credit to do those deliveries. So you start shopping with say $33.50 already in your pocket. Then you just drop off a couple of bags at a few houses on your way ho…

huhuhu, what happens when I tell Walmart I've completed the deliveries, but I haven't?

what happens when I make the delivery, but someone gets injured in the process? DoorDash has insurance for this most likely.

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#29
post #21
post #8

I know it is a simple way to look at it, but Walmart on whole has been a game changer when it came to handling the lockdown. Where Amazon was taking weeks to get "non-critical" items shipped, Walmart had on average a 3 day wait for drive up pick up. They've introduced a yearly fee for delivery and we signed up. It's been top notch. In my area, they outsource the delivery to doordash. Order, pick a time for delivery a…

I don't understand why Walmart doesn't have a customer supplied delivery program. Using the app, you would sign in when you enter the store. It would inform you of any deliveries within X miles of your home. It tells you how much you would be paid in store credit to do those deliveries. So you start shopping with say $33.50 already in your pocket. Then you just drop off a couple of bags at a few houses on your way ho…

They floated the idea a few years ago. Doesn't look like it panned out.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-retail-walmart-delivery/e...

Re: Walmart says it will discontinue Jet

#30
post #19

Here's another article if you don't want to visit Techcrunch because of its redirection to advertising.com: https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/walmart-shuts-down-jet-4-y...

what happened to Techcrunch to make it so shit? Like i'm sure even the people who work at Techcrunch hate how bad it has become. Did the company change hands or something?

AOL bought it.
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