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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

#291

Post by vbezhenar »

monadic2 wrote: post #263
zitterbewegung wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've ordered items from Starbucks and when I walk in to get the order they state that the item is not in stock. The ability for grocers to know exactly what is in stock and what isn't in realtime isn't something they are designed to do and isn't a trivial ask.

Right, but they could pack the food and ask me to verify before delivering, same as at starbucks. In fact at starbucks I’m rather shocked this is an issue—you don’t have the weird issue of products being in someone’s cart while they appear in inventory, let alone blatant theft! You’d think they would be able to provide an accurate inventory in realtime. EDIT: also, to clarify, “by phone” in my previous post meant I c…

Another solution is to allow to made a purchase days before. I can plan my cart for a week and most of items are recurrent. So they know what they need and they can fill those orders in advance.

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

#292

Post by yellowapple »

For me, I just need to get out of the apartment every once in awhile, and grocery shopping's a reasonable excuse to do so. Plus I gotta run my car every few days to keep the battery from dying (I have a battery tender, but it'd involve either parking in a garage I'm currently using for storage or running an extension cord from said garage to wherever I ended up parking).

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

#293

Post by monadic2 »

lifthearth wrote: post #284

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 s…

Related article (cannot vouch for quality): https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-p...

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

#295

Post by wayoutthere »

mattl wrote: post #270
spaceisballer wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other options, we have Peapod in my area. It’s the same stuff in grocery stores but from the warehouse. This pandemic has them overburdened and I can’t seem to find a delivery time. I tried Instacart once and the shopper was great but with so many things being out of stock I end up having to go out anyway. That plus the markup on all the items (the receipt was $20 less than what Instacart charged me, not in…

Peapod seems to never have certain common items, for example: Funyuns, diet Dr. Pepper...

Maybe combine Peapod with GoPuff? They have never disappointed in the “I’m high as shit and just want some fucking Funyuns” segment of the market.

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

#296

Post by julianozen »

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…

I think the big thing to remember is that Instacart offers a no lift in model for grocery stores to compete against Amazon/Walmart without doing anything to improve aging system. These companies do not have the expertise to become full distribution centers build a website that their customers will enjoy using. They are in bed with Instacart out of fear

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

#297

Post by mcv »

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…

Sounds like instacart is independent from the shop it delivers from, and collects your groceries by hand. Is that correct? It sounds very inefficient to me.

In Netherland, the largest supermarket chains all deliver to your home. (Used to be to your kitchen, but Corona changed that.) We've had our groceries delivered by Albert Heijn for about a decade now, and it's generally pretty good. You pay about EUR 5-10 for delivery depending on the time of day you want it.

Two issues: when they don't have an item, you just don't get it. I'd prefer to get an alert a day in advance so I can select a replacement item, but that's apparently not an option for whatever reason. The other is of course perishables. Usually it's fine. Sometimes the bananas are a bit greener than I'd like, sometimes they're a bit yellower than my son likes (he likes them green for some reason). Sometimes the use-by date is in two days when we were planning to use it in 3 days. Never got anything moldy, though if something's moldy, broken or otherwise wrong, you get a discount on the next purchase, no questions asked.

Not having to lug groceries around is great. Sometimes we still need to go to the supermarket to get one or two items, but that's no big deal.

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

#298

Post by TeMPOraL »

ggggtez wrote: post #251
TeMPOraL wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Paying normal prices for bruised apples? No thanks. And because arranging different pricing for all the foodstuffs that look less than perfect costs more than profit on these items, into the bin goes perfectly good food.

It seems like you are making an unstated assumption that food being thrown away is a bad thing. I'm not convinced. Let's say a farmer wanted to reduce foodwaste. So they only sold perfect fruit that they knew would get bought. That would drive up the prices of those perfect fruit AND there would be less fruit for sale in total. Therefore, some amount of food waste should be acceptable to ensure the best outcome for e…

> Let's say a farmer wanted to reduce foodwaste. So they only sold perfect fruit that they knew would get bought.

Selling only perfect fruit is literally foodwaste right there. Fruits don't grow all perfect. If most of the fruit you see in store looks flawless, that literally means that most of the fruit harvested was either sold to another company or thrown away.

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

#299

Post by whiskyant »

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…

Yeah, if the experience was an automated warehouse in which you know you're getting exactly what you want (and if it's not listed, it means they don't have it), it would be a lot better.

The whole checkout experience can be automated, and the final items only need to be picked up and delivered.

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

#300

Post by wongarsu »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #218
wl wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bruised apples are perfectly edible. Maybe you just don't like them, and that's fine--there's no accounting for taste. But I don't think it's outlandish for someone to give you a bruised apple. If I'm making pie or apple sauce, I'll seek out bruised apples—and pay less for them. Paying normal prices for bruised apples? No thanks.

> Paying normal prices for bruised apples? No thanks. And because arranging different pricing for all the foodstuffs that look less than perfect costs more than profit on these items, into the bin goes perfectly good food.

Apple juice is made from bruised apples. They have to get damaged late enough in the supply chain to get put on a shelf at all.
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