Introducing Amazon Fresh • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#31

Post by techsupporter » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:19 AM UTC

swampthing wrote: post #19

techsupporter wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someday a Trader Joes will come to Lake City (or any grocery store other than Fred Meyer) but until then, Lesser Seattle[0] appreciates Amazon Fresh. I didn't see where the $299/$220 comes from. When I go to the link, it just takes me to the "buy things and sign in" page after I click Seattle. It looks like the Amazon Fresh Prime offering is only available in Los Angeles. 0 - It's a joke. North of 85th and south of S…

Isn't there a QFC on Lake City Way? There's also a nice new Safeway on 125th and 15th (though not technically Lake City, I think). On another note... never thought I'd see talk about Lake City on HN :)

I saw an Amazon FTE badge in Lake City about two weeks ago, so I'd get ready for lots more Lake City talk on HN... :D

The only grocery store on LCW is Fred Meyer (part of the Kroger family of stores, which also includes QFC) and it's the only walkable one--outside of Grocery Outlet which barely counts as a grocery store--in the neighborhood. Amazon Fresh is the only way to get Whole Foods/Trader Joe's-style offerings without two buses. The new Safeway is at least on route 41 which is nice for quick runs.

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#32

Post by exogen » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:20 AM UTC

benesch wrote: post #8

jmduke wrote: post #3

Amazon Fresh isn't new -- it's been around in Seattle since 2007. What appears to be new is the Prime Fresh offering as a new gating mechanism for it: $299 per annum (effectively $220 if you're already a Prime customer), which also cuts away the delivery cost. At first blush, I'm not sure if the value proposition is attractive enough for me, even though I'm more or less the target demographic (upper-middle-class, 20'…

Back of the napkin calculations put the cost of Prime Fresh at less than the cost of Zipcar grocery shopping. Realistically, you can't drive to the grocery store, do your shopping, drive home, unload the car, and drive the Zipcar back to its parking spot in anything less than two hours. (And maybe fill it up with gas, if you're unlucky.) Even with a cheap Zipcar, that's $16 + tax per trip. $220/$17 puts the equivalen…

This assumes the groceries are the same price. Unfortunately, Amazon Fresh prices are likely higher (for now). I did some price comparison with Safeway after placing a Fresh order sometime in 2012. Amazon prices were higher on every item except one. In some cases, Amazon was nearly twice as expensive.

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#33

Post by bhauer » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:29 AM UTC

Has anything changed with Fresh recently? Looks about the same to me.

Incidentally, my review of the LA service from a few months ago: http://tiamat.tsotech.com/amazon-fresh

TLDR: It's a welcome and long-anticipated return of home grocery delivery but there is a lot of room for improvement.

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#34

Post by rb2k_ » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:30 AM UTC

benesch wrote: post #8

jmduke wrote: post #3

Amazon Fresh isn't new -- it's been around in Seattle since 2007. What appears to be new is the Prime Fresh offering as a new gating mechanism for it: $299 per annum (effectively $220 if you're already a Prime customer), which also cuts away the delivery cost. At first blush, I'm not sure if the value proposition is attractive enough for me, even though I'm more or less the target demographic (upper-middle-class, 20'…

Back of the napkin calculations put the cost of Prime Fresh at less than the cost of Zipcar grocery shopping. Realistically, you can't drive to the grocery store, do your shopping, drive home, unload the car, and drive the Zipcar back to its parking spot in anything less than two hours. (And maybe fill it up with gas, if you're unlucky.) Even with a cheap Zipcar, that's $16 + tax per trip. $220/$17 puts the equivalen…

I saw ads for stop & shop's "peapod" service on the T: http://www.peapod.com/ .

Haven't used them myself though.

(and the ad said that you can use T2013 as a coupon code and get ?15$? off your first order)

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#35

Post by zbruhnke » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:32 AM UTC

jmduke wrote: post #3

Amazon Fresh isn't new -- it's been around in Seattle since 2007. What appears to be new is the Prime Fresh offering as a new gating mechanism for it: $299 per annum (effectively $220 if you're already a Prime customer), which also cuts away the delivery cost. At first blush, I'm not sure if the value proposition is attractive enough for me, even though I'm more or less the target demographic (upper-middle-class, 20'…

I agree with this premise about pricing.

I'm also a target customer and in fact I tried out Amazon Fresh.

I am mid 20's, upper-middle-class, living in Santa Monica(Fresh delivers here) and I chose to not keep the membership at $220 because it was too steep.

The service itself is awesome and I thought maybe the best part is that when they delivered refrigerated food they used frozen water bottles and encouraged us to keep those waters even though we had not ordered them because it was less trouble for them to collect them every time.

Overall I was pleased with the service itself, however at $220/year its a bit more than I can justify for strictly a convenience fee.

I've been a prime member since 2010 and order almost everything off of Amazon, but I'm all to happy to walk/drive to the grocery store to pay the same prices or slightly less than Amazon Fresh.

Also even though I now live in Santa Monica I still have two cars which is probably abnormal, that said even if I did not have a vehicle (I RARELY drive here) I could not see myself finding the $220 per year "worth" it to me

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#36

Post by whichdan » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:36 AM UTC

benesch wrote: post #8

jmduke wrote: post #3

Amazon Fresh isn't new -- it's been around in Seattle since 2007. What appears to be new is the Prime Fresh offering as a new gating mechanism for it: $299 per annum (effectively $220 if you're already a Prime customer), which also cuts away the delivery cost. At first blush, I'm not sure if the value proposition is attractive enough for me, even though I'm more or less the target demographic (upper-middle-class, 20'…

Back of the napkin calculations put the cost of Prime Fresh at less than the cost of Zipcar grocery shopping. Realistically, you can't drive to the grocery store, do your shopping, drive home, unload the car, and drive the Zipcar back to its parking spot in anything less than two hours. (And maybe fill it up with gas, if you're unlucky.) Even with a cheap Zipcar, that's $16 + tax per trip. $220/$17 puts the equivalen…

I'd be really interested to see this in Boston as well. I can walk to grocery stores easily, but for heavy/bulk items like drinks and chips, I'd much rather pay to have them delivered. I already have iced tea delivered from Amazon, but the selection is just okay.

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#37

Post by nivals » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:37 AM UTC

I cannot wait for this to launch in San Francisco.

Depending on your location in the city, grocery shopping without a car can be a pain if you're buying enough food/organic produce/grass-fed meat for 21 meals/week x 2 people.

Add the cost of ~1.0-1.5 hours of a ZipCar on top of the 'organic premium' and a delivery service makes sense.

In NYC, FreshDirect was worth the delivery cost. They charged per delivery rather than a subscription. Their food quality, variety, consistency, time-savings, and organic options always exceeded my expectations and made it worthwhile.

I'll pay the fee on top of my Prime membership for this in San Francisco.

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#38

Post by DanielRibeiro » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:44 AM UTC

nivals wrote: post #37

I cannot wait for this to launch in San Francisco. Depending on your location in the city, grocery shopping without a car can be a pain if you're buying enough food/organic produce/grass-fed meat for 21 meals/week x 2 people. Add the cost of ~1.0-1.5 hours of a ZipCar on top of the 'organic premium' and a delivery service makes sense. In NYC, FreshDirect was worth the delivery cost. They charged per delivery rather t…

You may wanna try Good Eggs: http://www.goodeggs.com/welcome

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#39

Post by mdturnerphys » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:47 AM UTC

techsupporter wrote: post #31

swampthing wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there a QFC on Lake City Way? There's also a nice new Safeway on 125th and 15th (though not technically Lake City, I think). On another note... never thought I'd see talk about Lake City on HN :)

I saw an Amazon FTE badge in Lake City about two weeks ago, so I'd get ready for lots more Lake City talk on HN... :D The only grocery store on LCW is Fred Meyer (part of the Kroger family of stores, which also includes QFC) and it's the only walkable one--outside of Grocery Outlet which barely counts as a grocery store--in the neighborhood. Amazon Fresh is the only way to get Whole Foods/Trader Joe's-style offerings…

You can also get to the QFC on Northgate on the 75.

Re: Introducing Amazon Fresh

#40

Post by ultimoo » Fri, Dec 06, 2013, 1:47 AM UTC

xexers wrote: post #6

Grocery delivery in the UK is amazing! I wish it was like this everywhere. All the major chains have professional websites, nice trucks, cheap service. Delivery prices range from about £3.00 to £6.00 depending on the time of day. Sadly, I'm moving to Canada where grocery delivery is nearly non existent. I hope amazon solves my problems there.

Interesting. Does this have anything to do with the fact that distances are larger in the US and a large percentage of the population rely on their own cars rather than public transport?