Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 488 posts

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#31

Post by ISL »

elmerfud wrote: post #2

It's not that I want to visit the store it's that I can't trust the store people to properly pick out fresh produce or good meat. When the stock person just takes a bucket of apples and dumps them in without care so most of them are bruised, why would I want that same person selecting which apples to send me? Often times to find 3 apples I have to examine 10+. Most of the produce selection is this way. Meat selection…

Our local store, QFC in Seattle, has been doing a great job of selecting produce for our curbside delivery. Quality has matched or beaten what I normally select myself.

I don't know where they're finding such huge broccoli crowns, but they're consistently doing so (we're ordering per crown, and paying per-pound, so the incentives are aligned there).

On substitutions -- they require customer review of every substitution.

(We take the errors in stride -- a global pandemic is a time that we can be glad to have such reliable high-quality food at all. The best fail was the day that Anjou pears got substituted in for garlic, but somebody found the garlic, so we got garlic too :).)

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#32

Post by gonehome »

elmerfud wrote: post #2

It's not that I want to visit the store it's that I can't trust the store people to properly pick out fresh produce or good meat. When the stock person just takes a bucket of apples and dumps them in without care so most of them are bruised, why would I want that same person selecting which apples to send me? Often times to find 3 apples I have to examine 10+. Most of the produce selection is this way. Meat selection…

I would hope that grocery stores become warehouses and the only people allowed in are delivery.

You could redesign the entire stores to optimize for this which could reduce the likeliness of damaged goods.

Amazon would be in a good position to do this (the Whole Foods near me already has part of it set aside for something like this).

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#33

Post by ping_pong »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #15
bpodgursky wrote: post #5

I know it's pandemic-anathema, irresponsible, whatever... but I find myself going to the grocery store more often than I did before the lockdown, just because I'm so bored (mostly subconscious at the time I do it, but clear in retrospect). If going out to the grocery store is my only non-family human contact during the day, I find myself finding pettier and pettier reasons to go out and buy things. "Oh, I guess I'm r…

I mean, are you wearing a mask? There's nothing particularly wrong with going to a grocery store if you're keeping social distancing and wearing a mask.

Social distancing is another myth. In a place like a supermarket, microdroplets with SARS-CoV-2 will linger in the air for 10 minutes. Social distancing is meaningless.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#34

Post by dx87 »

My problem is that if I order online, there may be a few ingredients out of stock for a few different meals, and I end up having to go shopping anyway because I have 3-4 meals without all the ingredients. If I went shopping in the first place, I could see that some ingredients for a meal aren't in stock, and get ingredients for a different meal.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#35

Post by zoomablemind »

kerkeslager wrote: post #14
elmerfud wrote: post #2

It's not that I want to visit the store it's that I can't trust the store people to properly pick out fresh produce or good meat. When the stock person just takes a bucket of apples and dumps them in without care so most of them are bruised, why would I want that same person selecting which apples to send me? Often times to find 3 apples I have to examine 10+. Most of the produce selection is this way. Meat selection…

Playing devil's advocate: an enormous amount of food waste is caused by people simply refusing to buy ugly food. It's literally less wasteful to shave off most of a carrot so that it's a baby carrot, than to try to sell the same carrots as-is. There's nothing wrong with the ugly carrots--but they'll rot on the shelves. Bruised apples are perfectly edible. Maybe you just don't like them, and that's fine--there's no ac…

> Playing devil's advocate: an enormous amount of food waste is caused by people simply refusing to buy ugly food.

Price them down, ppl would consider the deal. It's a market, isn't it?

Or, well, it's a supermarket being part of super-chains... Potatoes by pound priced like fruits.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#36

Post by ISL »

basseq wrote: post #23
elmerfud wrote: post #2

It's not that I want to visit the store it's that I can't trust the store people to properly pick out fresh produce or good meat. When the stock person just takes a bucket of apples and dumps them in without care so most of them are bruised, why would I want that same person selecting which apples to send me? Often times to find 3 apples I have to examine 10+. Most of the produce selection is this way. Meat selection…

Even if quality is there, how ripe do you want? Are you going to use those avocados tonight, or later in the week? Do you like green bananas or ones that are turning brown? Let alone the "what looks good today?" or "what's on sale today?" method of shopping! Even packaged goods are tough. When I'm in a store, I know quickly which product I want. I may not remember the brand name, but I can scan the shelf and find it.…

For me, the wish is for scripting. Most of my buying is algorithmic, but the filters don't match my algorithms.

It is difficult to express, "Please give me the cereal that I like the most that is under $X/lb. If there is an exceptional deal, buy more." without an API or scripting.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#37

Post by stickfigure »

kerkeslager wrote: post #14
elmerfud wrote: post #2

It's not that I want to visit the store it's that I can't trust the store people to properly pick out fresh produce or good meat. When the stock person just takes a bucket of apples and dumps them in without care so most of them are bruised, why would I want that same person selecting which apples to send me? Often times to find 3 apples I have to examine 10+. Most of the produce selection is this way. Meat selection…

Playing devil's advocate: an enormous amount of food waste is caused by people simply refusing to buy ugly food. It's literally less wasteful to shave off most of a carrot so that it's a baby carrot, than to try to sell the same carrots as-is. There's nothing wrong with the ugly carrots--but they'll rot on the shelves. Bruised apples are perfectly edible. Maybe you just don't like them, and that's fine--there's no ac…

On the other-other hand, Instacart et al are all shopping in stores that already have this filter. So you're getting the expense, questionable selection, and all the waste.

I love my local CSA box, dirty root veggies and all. I know that our CSA has seen a huge business increase (to the point that they had to refuse new customers for a while) so I hope this change persists.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#38

Post by analog31 »

My experience with online food shopping has been mixed. They actually did a good job of picking veggies for me. My family doesn't eat a lot of meat, so that's not super important. The headaches are in ordering and delivery.

The ordering systems have the look and feel of having been bought from one vendor, while their inventory system is from another, and never the twain shall meet. Bar codes were invented for inventory control, and it's a highly refined science. Even produce has a code. But you can't enter a bar code number into the ordering system.

Time slots for picking up your order, that fill up and are unavailable. For many of us who are working from home, our time is flexible. Just tell me an estimated lead time and text me when it's ready. I'll hop in my car or bike and pick up my order in a jiffy.

Now, depending on how the covid pans out in the next year or so, food delivery might have to mature a bit. I could even imagine delivery-only stores, which could have much better inventory control.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#40

Post by hkmurakami »

ping_pong wrote: post #19

I've been using Whole Foods delivery about 3 times a week, and it's been fantastic, I may never go back. Sometimes the fruits aren't the greatest, but the rate of that is low. Compared to the amount of time I save, it's totally worth the risk.

This is how I feel as well. I don’t even mind the shopping part but for a mass grocer, the checkout experience has become unbearable.
Post reply on HN