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Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#31

Post by pkteison »

ereckers wrote: post #9

Why are Silicon Valley startups continually trying to get into the food and grocery delivery business? Is there research somewhere that shows that this is a lucrative market? I'm old enough to remember Webvan, I'm seeing COSTCO cede their delivery service to Google, and I realize that most food delivery business is minimum wage work. I don't see the money in it.

I assume the idea is to give their drivers something useful to do with downtime. If all drivers could be closer to 100% utilized by taking a delivery when there are no passengers, they could have more drivers and happier/wealthier drivers.

Similar to AWS, really. Originally the AWS idea was that Amazon needed those extra servers and a way to manage them anyway, might as well do something valuable with the excess capacity.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#32

Post by UVB-76 »

ereckers wrote: post #9

Why are Silicon Valley startups continually trying to get into the food and grocery delivery business? Is there research somewhere that shows that this is a lucrative market? I'm old enough to remember Webvan, I'm seeing COSTCO cede their delivery service to Google, and I realize that most food delivery business is minimum wage work. I don't see the money in it.

I think a lot of Silicon Valley startups cannot see beyond their Bay Area bubble where everyone earns $150k, treats their time like gold dust, and will pay a premium for menial services.

There isn't much money in grocery delivery services at scale.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#33

Post by imjk »

josephschmoe wrote: post #10

It's hard to compete with grocery stores: 1. They're local. Most people have a grocery store within 5 minutes of their house. 2. They're well-stocked. You have ten thousand products to choose from. Who could ask for more? 3. They're timely. If you go to a grocery store, it will take you a certain maximum amount of time - the amount of time it takes to go down each aisle once. 4. They're accurate. You picked every ite…

I may live within 5 minutes of a super market, but it's still a time-consuming (up to one hour to shop) activity that I find inconvenient and have to do very regularly. I would gladly pay a premium (and I do, via Instacart) to have it taken care of for me.

Before I started getting my groceries delivered, I would find myself regularly ordering delivery food (also online via foodler) and spending way more money because I was too tired/lazy to run to the grocery store after work.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#34

Post by imjk »

Noelkd wrote: post #2

"But long-term this is most likely not going to be economically feasible unless Uber starts to figure out other ways to monetise this, through adding delivery fees or charging advertising fees to brands that take part in the programme." Really sums up the article.

They could use the same model as Instacart currently does and charge a premium on the individual products themselves. This is also the same model that online delivery food services (ie Foodler) have successfully employed.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#36

Post by walls »

MattGrommes wrote: post #21

I was just telling my wife that getting somebody to go to Costco for me would be a game changer. Somebody else takes my list and deals with all the people blocking the aisle to get their 5 cents of sample cheese or just because they rudely leave their cart in the middle? The stress reduction alone would be worth the money. I'm using Amazon Fresh and the savings from not eating out due to my laziness-based avoidance o…

Google Express has integrated Costco, although that doesn't help if you're outside the bay area.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#37

Post by viraptor »

nilkn wrote: post #27
josephschmoe wrote: post #10

It's hard to compete with grocery stores: 1. They're local. Most people have a grocery store within 5 minutes of their house. 2. They're well-stocked. You have ten thousand products to choose from. Who could ask for more? 3. They're timely. If you go to a grocery store, it will take you a certain maximum amount of time - the amount of time it takes to go down each aisle once. 4. They're accurate. You picked every ite…

Going to the grocery store is actually pretty time-consuming. That's true even though I live within a few blocks of one. I just did some back-of-the-envelope math and determined that the minimum time it could take for me to go to the grocery store and come back, from door to door, is about 40 minutes, and the maximum is about 2 hours. I took into account everything from walking to my car in the parking garage and get…

But you can go shopping only once a week if you have storage place at home. That's a pretty good amortised cost compared to your estimate of eating at Chipotle.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#38

Post by josephmosby »

mikeash wrote: post #23
josephmosby wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC is Uber's second largest market outside of San Francisco - and that includes Chicago, NYC, LA, etc. It's a test kitchen for a lot of consumer services because it's got a lot of different demographics under one roof. It's also relatively small, making it easy for Uber drivers to get around the area without incurring a bunch of extra costs for the company. Grocery delivery is also super popular in DC already. San Fr…

Is it really relatively small? DC proper is small, but it's just one jurisdiction out of many in the metro area, and not even the largest one. Uber covers a big chunk of the area. Looking at Google Maps (with the scales matched!) you could fit SF proper in about one quadrant of the the DC beltway, and of course there's plenty of city outside the beltway too.

True, but DC isn't a traditional metro area. The entire regulatory structure changes once you leave the borders of DC, because you've moved into a new state (Virginia or Maryland). Uber's coverage area for this service takes a hard stop at the DC borders to keep them from running into a new set of state laws and taxes they'd have to deal with.

Re: Uber starts same-day grocery delivery service in US

#40

Post by wallawe »

josephmosby wrote: post #38
mikeash wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really relatively small? DC proper is small, but it's just one jurisdiction out of many in the metro area, and not even the largest one. Uber covers a big chunk of the area. Looking at Google Maps (with the scales matched!) you could fit SF proper in about one quadrant of the the DC beltway, and of course there's plenty of city outside the beltway too.

True, but DC isn't a traditional metro area. The entire regulatory structure changes once you leave the borders of DC, because you've moved into a new state (Virginia or Maryland). Uber's coverage area for this service takes a hard stop at the DC borders to keep them from running into a new set of state laws and taxes they'd have to deal with.

Not quite. I live in Arlington, VA and they're currently facing hurtles but they still service the area. For a while there, cops were pulling suspected Uber drivers over and fining them between 500 and 2k (I even had drivers ask me to sit in the front seat so it didn't look like he was chauffeuring). Uber would pay all of the fines for the drivers. It's been an ongoing battle but from what drivers have told me recently, they've calmed down with the arrests.
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