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Costco is the anti-Amazon

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Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#401

Post by ssl-3 »

mattmaroon wrote: post #170

Costcos tech stack is frankly unconscionably bad. It’s the one way in which Sam’s Club crushes them. There’s no reason they couldn’t do basically all of the good things mentioned in this article plus have a functional website, let me scan and pay with my phone in store, have a handheld scanner at each register, etc.

> a functional website

It works for me. Am I holding it wrong?

> let me scan and pay with my phone in store

That's already beginning to happen: https://www.cheapism.com/costco-scan-and-go-technology/

> have a handheld scanner at each register

I've seen handheld scanners at each Costco register that I've ever paid attention to.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#402

Post by CrimsonRain »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #287
Loudergood wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this argument falls flat on it's face. Of course it's more complex than that. When I worked from the office, centralized retail was very convenient and hardly added any driving. If you work from home, the opposite is true. The next revolution would be to standardize reusable packaging, that same daily delivery truck could bring that back. But only government could make that happen.

The next revolution is zoning reform so it's legal to build shopping people want to do within walking distance of where they live.

[flagged]

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#403

Post by tstenner »

hx8 wrote: post #319
oatmeal1 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next revolution is zoning reform so it's legal to build shopping people want to do within walking distance of where they live.

As someone that has lived in a walkable neighborhood with a lot of shopping let me tell you, it doesn't solve the problem. Realistically you aren't going to reach more than 250k skus within a 20 minute walk of your home, and probably less. Even this is very heavily biased towards using retail space instead of space for anything else (homes, restaurants, parks, offices). You can only build up to add more space within…

I live in a walkable quarter and I can reach three full supermarkets and 2 specialty supermarkets within 5 minutes. Doesn't matter whether I need to stock up on milk, vegetables or hand peeled shrimp in garlic sauce, I can get it. Same with public schools (5 within a 2 mile radius), childcare (3), hospitals (2) and the park.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#404

Post by close04 »

goosejuice wrote: post #336
hx8 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that has lived in a walkable neighborhood with a lot of shopping let me tell you, it doesn't solve the problem. Realistically you aren't going to reach more than 250k skus within a 20 minute walk of your home, and probably less. Even this is very heavily biased towards using retail space instead of space for anything else (homes, restaurants, parks, offices). You can only build up to add more space within…

250k skus seems pretty arbitrary. What's the significance of this number? A bodega goes a long way for most people's daily needs.

It’s an unrealistic number to justify the argument. Unless you consume for the sake of consuming, there’s no way anyone needs an offer that rich for routine usage.

Aldi and Lidl carry ~2-3k SKUs. A regular grocery will carry maybe 20k. In places where enough of these are built close to where people actually live you don’t ever need to touch the car for shopping. Small shopping centers (those that also have a something like a small book store) will add a few more thousands. A requirement of 250k SKUs in a 20min walking distance is going in the territory of once in a year or more purchases.

I think I drove to do groceries a handful of times in the last 10 years. I have multiple chains close enough that I can always walk, I can buy smaller batches and always have fresh food rather than a truckload to last a whole week but be stale by the end. Self checkouts and the abundance of stores means I have almost 0 wait time.

It can work but it has to be designed properly, and people need to change their habits a bit. Like not expecting hundreds of thousands of SKUs 10 min away at all times (which implies a huge store, so far from where people live).

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#405

Post by monkey_monkey »

CrimsonRain wrote: post #402
oatmeal1 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next revolution is zoning reform so it's legal to build shopping people want to do within walking distance of where they live.

[flagged]

How would you be forced to do anything? Why would you be beholden?

Cam you elaborate on the strawman you seem to have constructed?

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#406

Post by acdha »

ekianjo wrote: post #343
oatmeal1 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next revolution is zoning reform so it's legal to build shopping people want to do within walking distance of where they live.

Much more expensive when you have stores in the city so much cheaper to buy in larger surfaces in the suburbs

This is complicated, though, by the question of how you get there: suburbs may have lower land prices but everyone buys more of it and needs the expense of having a private car (usually one per adult). In the region where I live, 20-35% of household income is spent on cars and that doesn’t include the expense of the land devoted to them or road maintenance.

If you live in a dense environment where you don’t need a car because walking and transit cover your normal life, recouping that much money often more than pays for the higher cost per square foot of building space.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#407

Post by adrianN »

drnick1 wrote: post #373
oatmeal1 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next revolution is zoning reform so it's legal to build shopping people want to do within walking distance of where they live.

I don't know about you, but I would rather not have stores near my home, for obvious reasons like noise, traffic, trash, etc.

There is less traffic and hence less noise when people have stores at a walkable distance.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#408

Post by mlrtime »

acdha wrote: post #406
ekianjo wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much more expensive when you have stores in the city so much cheaper to buy in larger surfaces in the suburbs

This is complicated, though, by the question of how you get there: suburbs may have lower land prices but everyone buys more of it and needs the expense of having a private car (usually one per adult). In the region where I live, 20-35% of household income is spent on cars and that doesn’t include the expense of the land devoted to them or road maintenance. If you live in a dense environment where you don’t need a ca…

Then you just transfer that money to the landlords, and then remove the flexibility and convenience of leaving that city anytime you want.

30% of New Yorkers spend > 50% of their income on rent.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#409

Post by card_zero »

tstenner wrote: post #403
hx8 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that has lived in a walkable neighborhood with a lot of shopping let me tell you, it doesn't solve the problem. Realistically you aren't going to reach more than 250k skus within a 20 minute walk of your home, and probably less. Even this is very heavily biased towards using retail space instead of space for anything else (homes, restaurants, parks, offices). You can only build up to add more space within…

I live in a walkable quarter and I can reach three full supermarkets and 2 specialty supermarkets within 5 minutes. Doesn't matter whether I need to stock up on milk, vegetables or hand peeled shrimp in garlic sauce, I can get it. Same with public schools (5 within a 2 mile radius), childcare (3), hospitals (2) and the park.

I don't get the argument either. Perhaps if you can't walk very far? If I put half an hour into walking I can easily buy all the essentials, such as a crash cymbal, oil of violets, steel nibs for my dip pen, a CD player, and a teapot.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#410

Post by messh »

gwbas1c wrote: post #33

> Even if you think it is preferable at an individual level, there are good reasons to question the social value of the logistical complexity that it necessitates. Home delivery of single-packaged items entails an entirely different cost structure than freight trucks driving to consumer-facing warehouses delivering entire pallets of goods to be driven home by customers themselves. Ok, so 100 people can all drive to t…

The argument is that people driving will each buy a lot though, not a single toothbrush. So 100 people driving will deliver as many trucks and would drive much less overall
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