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Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

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Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#241

Post by knowaveragejoe »

I'm blown away nobody has mentioned Amazon Fresh yet. There was a few weeks early in the pandemic when delivery times were a crapshoot, but it's worked flawlessly for me ever since. Produce and meat have all been good quality. Meat is obviously in high demand so availability of certain cuts or types of meat(mainly chicken) is variable.

If I had to give a criticism, it's that some items are shown as in stock, but on the day of delivery when they pick your order(which is evidently in a warehouse) it turns out it's not available. They automatically refund you the price in this case.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#242

Post by sigjuice »

RaRaMama wrote: post #137

I like to pick my own avocado.

Picking my own avocados is my favorite thing. OTOH, I have had 7 Whole Foods orders in the past few weeks with avocados and they were all great. So I am not going back to the store any time soon.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#243

Post by yellowapple »

ping_pong wrote: post #22
kerkeslager wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing devil's advocate: an enormous amount of food waste is caused by people simply refusing to buy ugly food. It's literally less wasteful to shave off most of a carrot so that it's a baby carrot, than to try to sell the same carrots as-is. There's nothing wrong with the ugly carrots--but they'll rot on the shelves. Bruised apples are perfectly edible. Maybe you just don't like them, and that's fine--there's no ac…

That's a great marketing gimmick that some companies have made, but it's largely false. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/26/18240399/food-waste-...

There's a fundamental question that the article doesn't seem to answer: if "ugly produce" is a myth, then where are these companies getting their ugly produce, and how are they able to sell it at a discount?

I'm fully prepared to accept "it's a marketing gimmick and they're selling at a loss" as the actual answer here, but it seems to go unasked and therefore unanswered.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#244

Post by shawabawa3 »

monadic2 wrote: post #235

I have had so many bad experiences with instacart: * shopper buying yams rather than potatoes (note: this was not a replacement, they seemed to genuinely believe they had bought potatoes.) * shopper going to checkout before I can suggest a better replacement for an item. * shopper buys obviously moldy fruit. * shopper buys five roaster chickens as a replacement for five cornish hens. * shopper gives up really easily…

I find it hard to believe instacarts model is still the best way of doing online grocery shopping in America... In the UK there's Ocado that has their own warehouses and most of the selection and packing is automated. If there are replacements you're told in advance and can accept or reject the replacement

Most of the main supermarket chains have followed suit and have similar services

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#245

Post by ghaff »

fma wrote: post #204
bane wrote: post #48

We decided to order a bunch of things from Costco a few weeks ago through instacart. Actually we decided to do it before then, but the site was broken for a bit. It was crazy expensive. Not only the delivery fee, the tip, etc. But every item was marked up significantly over the in-store price, with no indication that was the case. We even pulled out some old receipts to verify this price difference. Apparently part o…

Yeah I used Costco for a bit, than realized is about 20% more for us. Since Costco requires everyone to have masks I feel confident going there. It would be better if they were more transparent about it... FWIW you should "powerwash" all the groceries at home anyways. Also last I checked, Walmart has free delivery and same price as in store. But I've heard their employees just grab anything for you...so quality of pr…

In my experience, Walmart produce is YMMV under the best of circumstances. Meat options are pretty variable too. It's the closest grocery store to me but I can't really depend on them for a full grocery shopping.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#247

Post by TeMPOraL »

wanderr wrote: post #237
TeMPOraL wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On a phone, you've only got a couple inches to view at a time. Even more reason to ensure the more expensive items are viewed first. > And I still don't understand difference between featured and store pick btw. Cynic it me would say: there might be no difference, and this may be just intended to confuse people who would otherwise just ignore "store pick".

> Even more reason to ensure the more expensive items are viewed first. Not if you want your customers to have a not-miserable enough experience that they will actually buy from you, and continue buying from you in the future.

Marketers rarely care about you having a not-miserable experience. In fact, the key insight behind many of the common dark patterns is that you can inflict a lot of annoyance on your customers before they start to bounce, and meanwhile at each step a fraction of those customers will fall prey to the sales technique and spend more money than they should.

(Consider: if your choice is between ordering on-line and going to the store in the middle of a pandemic, and you're leaning towards ordering on-line, will you really give up and go to the store just because someone sorted a bunch of overpriced products to the top of the list in your app?)

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#248

Post by sethhochberg »

tonetheman wrote: post #171
elmerfud wrote: post #2

It's not that I want to visit the store it's that I can't trust the store people to properly pick out fresh produce or good meat. When the stock person just takes a bucket of apples and dumps them in without care so most of them are bruised, why would I want that same person selecting which apples to send me? Often times to find 3 apples I have to examine 10+. Most of the produce selection is this way. Meat selection…

This this this. In our area you cannot get good pickers. I am sure they are tired or bored or something... but it is most of the time not worth the hassle. So I get it... but it is not a good experience at all.

Tired, bored, or perhaps the reality is that the business model simply wouldn't work if the wages paid to Instacart shoppers were high enough that they could reliably get labor who cared. As-is it feels like a desperation gig and the results match.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#249

Post by danans »

bpodgursky wrote: post #5

I know it's pandemic-anathema, irresponsible, whatever... but I find myself going to the grocery store more often than I did before the lockdown, just because I'm so bored (mostly subconscious at the time I do it, but clear in retrospect). If going out to the grocery store is my only non-family human contact during the day, I find myself finding pettier and pettier reasons to go out and buy things. "Oh, I guess I'm r…

> pettier and pettier reasons

Doesn't seem petty to me, but if you feel that, there are other things you could do to get other human contact, like taking a walk and chatting with (socially distanced) neighbors.

Re: Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online

#250

Post by walshemj »

monadic2 wrote: post #235

I have had so many bad experiences with instacart: * shopper buying yams rather than potatoes (note: this was not a replacement, they seemed to genuinely believe they had bought potatoes.) * shopper going to checkout before I can suggest a better replacement for an item. * shopper buys obviously moldy fruit. * shopper buys five roaster chickens as a replacement for five cornish hens. * shopper gives up really easily…

And also substituting generic brand for brand gives higher ROI
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