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

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

#281

Post by marcinzm »

dsjoerg wrote: post #221
marcinzm wrote: post #213

I use freshdirect and I can see why people prefer their own shopping. With the pandemic a lot of products are perpetually sold out and there's a week long wait for delivery slots. More importantly, the produce and meat they deliver will often be a day from going bad. I've gotten mushrooms that had more black spots than not on them. So I don't even bother anymore to order perishables.

Came here to say how good freshdirect is. Been a happy customer since 2008 if not longer.

I was happy pre pandemic. With the constant out of stock, delivery waits and us cooking more (thus needing fresh produce) it's actually become used less by us rather than more.

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

#282

Post by richardbrevig »

treis wrote: post #164
Animats wrote: post #91

The current big problem with online food shopping is that it's being done by sending low-wage people into ordinary supermarkets. This is inefficient, but until recently this was a niche market. The trouble with doing it that way is that the ordering system doesn't know the inventory. You get some subset of your order. That's no good. Webvan tried to do it right 20 years go, with local fulfillment centers and automati…

>The current big problem with online food shopping is that it's being done by sending low-wage people into ordinary supermarkets. This is inefficient, but until recently this was a niche market. I agree. People definitely want online/delivery grocery shopping. The problem thus far has been product misses on giving the customer what they want. Ordering online today is too much of a crap shoot. You'll get 80% of what y…

Today I received my first grocery delivery from Walmart. I'm extremely excited. I chose no substitutions so only one item wasn't available. What I love about it is that the person picking up the food actually knows the store. Walmart launched pick-up service over 2 years ago and now they're extending that with DoorDash for delivery. Granted, the delivery people still have problems finding my home, but access to Walmart's inventory is a huge improvement for me. Previously I was using Shipt and half of the time they'd just drop products like bananas or frozen blueberries or something else because they couldn't keep up with whether it was in the store or not, or if the store changed brands. The past 4+ orders from Shipt all had mistakes, usually multiple. Either incorrect product or just flat didn't deliver product but charged me for it (in that case I'd get a refund, didn't mess with wrong products).

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

#283

Post by joshgachnang »

ghaff wrote: post #231
treis wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The current big problem with online food shopping is that it's being done by sending low-wage people into ordinary supermarkets. This is inefficient, but until recently this was a niche market. I agree. People definitely want online/delivery grocery shopping. The problem thus far has been product misses on giving the customer what they want. Ordering online today is too much of a crap shoot. You'll get 80% of what y…

If I could have "near-perfect" online shopping for a $5-10 delivery charge... Sure. The one time I've really tried it was when I had a broken foot and doing a full grocery shopping was a PITA. So I used delivery. I'd get most of what I needed with some questionable substitutions. But that was mostly OK because driving to the store and picking up a few things in a shoulder bag wasn't a big deal. Just a full grocery sh…

That's basically what Amazon Fresh is. $5 or $7 delivery tip (I leave what they suggest), no extra fees assuming you've got Amazon Prime, and comparable prices to in-store at Ralph's. I very rarely have things out of stock once I order, produce is generally good, meat has been great. I think the warehouse-direct-to-consumer style is the way to go, rather than shopper-goes-to-store-for-me style. Peapod, in the sibling comment, is another similar option.

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

#284

Post by lifthearth »

H-E-B Groceries In Texas has been doing an incredible job with their cubside service. It costs about $5 and takes less than 15 minutes to drive up and get all your groceries put in your trunk. This article was surprising to me because my impression has been the opposite and curbside service is an awesome luxury that's come out of this. Only downsides are having to schedule a pickup time usually for the next day and sometimes they have to substitute items that are out of stock. I wish I could link items so if they don't have bread don't get me peanut butter and jelly too.

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

#287

Post by siruncledrew »

monadic2 wrote: post #235

I have had so many bad experiences with instacart: * shopper buying yams rather than potatoes (note: this was not a replacement, they seemed to genuinely believe they had bought potatoes.) * shopper going to checkout before I can suggest a better replacement for an item. * shopper buys obviously moldy fruit. * shopper buys five roaster chickens as a replacement for five cornish hens. * shopper gives up really easily…

Interacting with instacart sums up the expression: ”if you want something done right, do it yourself”.

At least for me, having to go a store is not a big deal, it’s just overcoming “inertia to leave home”. I would much rather: order directly from the store, have the store pack everything up, express pick it up from the store, and have a confirmation expected=actual for the order.

The abstraction to having a third-party like instacart do all the - for lack of a better word - “order management” just seems to create an extra layer of bullshit to deal with.

Going to the store, picking everything normally, and going through checkout myself, while not as convenient, has still consistently yielded the best results - so there is still a lot of catching up to do for store/third-party services to reach that level of performance(?).

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

#288

Post by yuliyp »

kaikai wrote: post #201
seibelj wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe supermarkets then sell it to the next group, which are restaurants or wholesale purchasers that send to factories. Highly unlikely that non-rotten food of supermarket quality is wasted.

I live in the US and 10 years ago ate almost entirely out of dumpsters. Grocery stores throw out perfectly good food every day. If you ask in front they'll say they donate it, but in back there's a dumpster full of cartons of eggs with one egg cracked, and packaged food that's a day past its sell-by date. We waste an absurd amount of food.

A good grocery store will waste less. They'll have someone merge multiple cartons of eggs to refill ones that have one cracked (assuming the carton isn't soaked). They'll see they have a bunch of inventory about to go past sell-by and will toss up a sale to get rid of as much of the near-expiration items. They'll be careful about rotating stock so that the older items are up front so people who are less date-sensitive will buy them.

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

#289

Post by [deleted] »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #159
moosey wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Effectively, there is no difference between an apple and one with a bruise. I still get the same nutrition and taste, most other differences being unimportant. A jacket with a hole has massive loss of effectiveness, and I don't receive a new jacket to wear each day. A car with a dent has significant loss of value, not that it's something I'm terribly concerned with, I run all cars until they die.

>Effectively, there is no difference between an apple and one with a bruise. I still get the same nutrition and taste, most other differences being unimportant. That's simply not true. The bruises become rot spots and before getting there they introduce oxidation which affects taste. The shelf life is then also diminished not only for the bruised apple, but for any that are nearby. Relatively speaking, I think the br…

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