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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

#41

Post by timjahn »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #29
nilkn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Grocery shopping has to be the worst inefficient process there is. Count how many times you handle a can of beans: Shelf-to-cart, cart-to-checkout, checkout-to-bag, bag-to-car, car-to-pantry, pantry-to-shelf, then later shelf-to-kitchen, kitchen-to-recycle.

Yes! Couldn't agree more. Touched on this in a comment a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418

So much time wasted.

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

#42

Post by timjahn »

UVB-76 wrote: post #32
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.

"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."

Couldn't agree more. Amazing how tunnel visioned they are.

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

#43

Post by ereckers »

pkteison wrote: post #31
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 capa…

I can see that thought process. However, I think there's a big difference between racks of servers and racks of people. People skip work, crash into things, ask for raises, unionize, sleep in, etc.. I don't know much about commoditizing things, but I'd much rather invest in a warehouse full of machines, then a low wage and potentially uninspired human workforce.

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

#44

Post by amalcon »

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…

There's also the "City people who don't have cars" market. When I was one of those people, I'd have happily paid a $10-ish delivery fee to not have to hand-carry 20lb of groceries about a mile.

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

#45

Post by doctorfoo »

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 would like to see the Ebay of local grocery delivery. Maybe with three components: Buyers, Sellers, and Delivery people (for stores that don't already deliver). Matching people in the local area. Rating delivery guys and automatically choosing based on these ratings. Heck, it doesn't even have to have hands on involvement of the store in question - maybe the delivery guy himself can post a list of items he'll buy for you at the store.

Sure, you can use a large supermarket, but I'd really love to go online, see my local store(s), and click to purchase a handful of items and have them delivered within the hour as conveniently as a pizza.

It's one of the many ideas I'd build if I weren't already building stuff ;)

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

#46

Post by mcintyre1994 »

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…

Most people have a grocery store within 5 minutes, sure - but with 10,000 products? I've been living in London for the summer and if I were here any longer I'd be using a supermarket's delivery service. Sure I can find stores nearby but nothing like a tesco extra. And when the shop shrinks the things that go are the value items - and I end up paying twice as much for something that tastes the same and has a different label.

I could easily save the £5 delivery charge or whatever by having access to them thousands of items.

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

#47

Post by sophacles »

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…

Regarding point 3:

I don't know that this is true. I consider going to the grocery store a creative endevor about half the time I go there. Sure I start with a list and some ideas. But then there are sales on items I like. Or they have some particularly good looking produce that I want to feature in a meal. Or they are out of some other key ingredient for a recipe.... not to mention I'll be updating the menu in my head as a wander the aisles - Seeing and being in the food is extremely distracting since I really like to cook.

Sometimes I just want to go in, grab some basic supplies and leave. I will be exploring delivery options for this case, because it will be harder for a 10 minute trip to the store to turn into a 40 minute menu binge for my impromptu dinner party tomorrow.

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

#48

Post by JoeAltmaier »

timjahn wrote: post #41
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grocery shopping has to be the worst inefficient process there is. Count how many times you handle a can of beans: Shelf-to-cart, cart-to-checkout, checkout-to-bag, bag-to-car, car-to-pantry, pantry-to-shelf, then later shelf-to-kitchen, kitchen-to-recycle.

Yes! Couldn't agree more. Touched on this in a comment a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418 So much time wasted.

...and I skipped bag-to-cart and cart-to-car

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

#49

Post by mikeash »

wallawe wrote: post #40
josephmosby wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 recent…

The grocery delivery service is only available in DC, though. Actually, just a portion of DC. Which takes us back to the question of why DC, since you could carve out a suitable portion of just about any city.
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