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Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

erniesgrocery.com

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Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#31

Post by dmix »

edw519 wrote: post #29

I love that you're going after a market so ripe for disruption, appreciate your coming to Hacker News for feedback/community, and I wish you the best. But I think you have it backwards... The real problem is not the time spent in the supermarket, it's getting there and back. You're addressing the wrong issue. Many people want their groceries delivered for all kind of reasons: - They have small children they don't wan…

Completely agree. I never had a problem with rude checkout staff and I found that this site stressed that very heavily.

The reason I use Grocery Gateway (our local online grocery store w/ delivery) is because I live in a city and don't need a car. So I get all of my non-produce stuff delivered.

It's $8 for delivery vs a $15 taxi + the time it would take for me to get there and back.

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#32

Post by ghotli »

eggbrain wrote: post #27

I'll be honest, I'm skeptical. And I'm sure investors are skeptical too after spectacular failures like WebVan and Kozmo. Sure these sites were different than what you are trying to accomplish (Online --> Deliver to your door vs Online-->Pickup at local store), but they still have similar problems. Groceries operate at razor-thin margins, and being a warehouse of food will only take you so far (just ask WebVan). How…

The competitive advantage I see is rooted in the background of the individual corporations. The user interface involved is the dealbreaker and I generally have little faith in large, culturally non-software companies getting user experience right.

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#33

Post by rsbrown »

edw519 wrote: post #29

I love that you're going after a market so ripe for disruption, appreciate your coming to Hacker News for feedback/community, and I wish you the best. But I think you have it backwards... The real problem is not the time spent in the supermarket, it's getting there and back. You're addressing the wrong issue. Many people want their groceries delivered for all kind of reasons: - They have small children they don't wan…

Great thoughts. Thanks for providing them.

I contend that, outside of a few high-population density areas, grocery delivery will never be a mass-market solution in the United States. It's simply too expensive. While others in the industry continue to beat their heads against that wall, I propose a very simple alternative:

Ernie's reduces the chore of grocery shopping dramatically, while at the same time operating at a fraction of the cost of a traditional grocery.

I'm not trying to compete with a hypothetical grocery store, I'm competing with the supermarket down the street from me (the one so many people complain about).

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#34

Post by rsbrown »

dmix wrote: post #31
edw519 wrote: post #29

I love that you're going after a market so ripe for disruption, appreciate your coming to Hacker News for feedback/community, and I wish you the best. But I think you have it backwards... The real problem is not the time spent in the supermarket, it's getting there and back. You're addressing the wrong issue. Many people want their groceries delivered for all kind of reasons: - They have small children they don't wan…

Completely agree. I never had a problem with rude checkout staff and I found that this site stressed that very heavily. The reason I use Grocery Gateway (our local online grocery store w/ delivery) is because I live in a city and don't need a car. So I get all of my non-produce stuff delivered. It's $8 for delivery vs a $15 taxi + the time it would take for me to get there and back.

Keep in mind that you are a patron of a niche offering. I'm happy that it works well for you, but grocery shopping still sucks for the vast majority of shoppers in the United States. Ernie's aims to address that need.

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#35

Post by rsbrown »

eggbrain wrote: post #27

I'll be honest, I'm skeptical. And I'm sure investors are skeptical too after spectacular failures like WebVan and Kozmo. Sure these sites were different than what you are trying to accomplish (Online --> Deliver to your door vs Online-->Pickup at local store), but they still have similar problems. Groceries operate at razor-thin margins, and being a warehouse of food will only take you so far (just ask WebVan). How…

"Groceries operate at razor-thin margins"

Groceries operate at razor-thin net margins. Ernie's will operate at double-digit net margins.

If you take a look at the books for any supermarket chain, you will see that the vast majority of gross profits gets eaten up by running those large storefronts. Webvan (and other home delivery attempts) simply replaced the large storefront cost with a large logistics cost.

Ernie's eliminates those costs, all while reducing the chore of shopping for the consumer. It's a win-win.

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#36

Post by bkmontgomery »

edw519 wrote: post #29

I love that you're going after a market so ripe for disruption, appreciate your coming to Hacker News for feedback/community, and I wish you the best. But I think you have it backwards... The real problem is not the time spent in the supermarket, it's getting there and back. You're addressing the wrong issue. Many people want their groceries delivered for all kind of reasons: - They have small children they don't wan…

I find it really interesting that people who live in different areas will have wildly different thoughts on "driving to the store".

In Memphis, TN (and much of the US), most people drive to and from work. There's just no alternative for commuting, and I think Ernie's has a great opportunity to allow these people to fit a "stop at the grocery store" into their daily commute.

I'll admit that I often need to do a grocery run on the way home, and it almost always takes an extra 30-60 minutes. I'd love the opportunity to do that shopping online before I leave the office, and just stop to pick up my order on the way home. I can imagine this cutting my "grocery stop" time in half.

Full Disclosure: I know the founder, and I had a chance to "beta test" the idea. I drove a couple of miles out of the way and still got home 30 minutes earlier that I would have, had I stopped at my local grocer.

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#37

Post by rsbrown »

yock wrote: post #30

I think this works well for processed foods and non-perishible items, but I see a real problem with meat and produce. Shoppers are accustomed to doing their own quality control when shopping for fresh items. In a real grocery store it takes real effort to choose the best meat and produce from what's available, and that decision might just be to not purchase something. Do you intend to provide this as part of your ser…

Granted, not everyone will want to shop at Ernie's. Our plan is to stay focused on our target market: anyone who values the time-savings, convenience and quality above everything else.

(also, anyone who doesn't relish picking veggies that have been handled, sneezed on and who knows what else by the hundreds of other shoppers that came through the supermarket before you)

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#38

Post by retube »

rsbrown wrote: post #18
retube wrote: post #11

This is an interesting concept. But I see a couple of issues: - You need physical stores. These take a lot of money and expertise to set up and run. And to expand/scale in any meaningful way will take a LOT of money. Plus of course you've got the added expense of having to actually do the shopping on behalf of your customers (ie walk round your inventory and fill the basket). Kind of the opposite to the Ikea model. A…

Good feedback, I appreciate it. "You need physical stores" : Sort of. We need physical warehouses . The core of the Ernie's business model is that these locations will be much cheaper to operate than the traditional grocery storefront, therefore increasing net margins. They will take expertise to operate; luckily, this expertise is well-established and readily available. "Your stores are going to have to be as big as…

Thoughtful responses. I am looking at this from a very UK perspective, so much of what I've said maybe (and indeed sounds like it is) not relevant to the US. Over here UK supermarkets have matured their online businesses very well. It's no more expensive than in-store and delivery is free to cheap depending on how narrow a delievry window you can handle. Plus of course the US is much larger geographically and much more car-focused, so it might be a much more viable business model.

Either way - it's a big project. Good luck!

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#39

Post by jgoewert »

retube wrote: post #11

This is an interesting concept. But I see a couple of issues: - You need physical stores. These take a lot of money and expertise to set up and run. And to expand/scale in any meaningful way will take a LOT of money. Plus of course you've got the added expense of having to actually do the shopping on behalf of your customers (ie walk round your inventory and fill the basket). Kind of the opposite to the Ikea model. A…

[quote]- 40 minutes in a grocery store? You can easily spend this much time online filling up your basket. Personally I've never felt that online ordering has saved me much time. [/quote]

Actually, there is something that I have been saving time with and if Ernie's does this, it would be wonderful.

Amazon started creating the ability to have subscriptions for food items. Basically, stuff that I will go through every month and would have to fight my way through CostCo or Sams to get otherwise. For stuff with comparable prices, I may as well just have it shipped in free under Prime instead.

My grocery list is 90% the same every week/two weeks so if I had a saved template to reorder from, that saves me the half hour of pacing the store to get the same exact stuff for the same price, I'd be all for it.

Re: Show HN: Ernie's, Click & Collect Groceries

#40

Post by rsbrown »

retube wrote: post #38
rsbrown wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good feedback, I appreciate it. "You need physical stores" : Sort of. We need physical warehouses . The core of the Ernie's business model is that these locations will be much cheaper to operate than the traditional grocery storefront, therefore increasing net margins. They will take expertise to operate; luckily, this expertise is well-established and readily available. "Your stores are going to have to be as big as…

Thoughtful responses. I am looking at this from a very UK perspective, so much of what I've said maybe (and indeed sounds like it is) not relevant to the US. Over here UK supermarkets have matured their online businesses very well. It's no more expensive than in-store and delivery is free to cheap depending on how narrow a delievry window you can handle. Plus of course the US is much larger geographically and much mo…

As I've done research for Ernie's, I have been extremely impressed with what the UK grocers have accomplished (led by Tesco). If I had to pick a single grocery supply chain as our "gold standard" to emulate, it would definitely be Tesco.
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