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Costco is the anti-Amazon

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Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#341

Post by bluegatty »

Loudergood wrote: post #45
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…

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.

It's still probably more efficient for you to just drive to the centralized place.

The amount of optimization and process improvements required to 'beat that' will be enormous, like infrastructural change enormous.

Your car is very useful an generalized and adaptable.

So are you.

Only you know what you really want, the nuances of comparison, seeing things real, returning them.

Economies of scale work extremely well for Costco.

'Home Delivery' is the operational argument that does not work very well.

If there were a hyper standard for mailboxes and automated delivery for tons of things - and - everyone bought into the same delivery standard, aka robots to the same warehouses, bringing multiple items to people on the same street - then that starts to work out, but we're a long ways away from that.

Home Delivery - in most situations - is effectively a first world luxury.

FYI - meal delivery depends on loopholes on migration, healthcare, work permits, working conditions that if they were all closed and up to standard - would make it just to costly in many situations.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#342

Post by glpgeFwac »

bluegatty wrote: post #341
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.

It's still probably more efficient for you to just drive to the centralized place. The amount of optimization and process improvements required to 'beat that' will be enormous, like infrastructural change enormous. Your car is very useful an generalized and adaptable. So are you. Only you know what you really want, the nuances of comparison, seeing things real, returning them. Economies of scale work extremely well f…

Home delivery being a first world luxury is a joke. Delivery is a labor intensive low-skill activity. It's fifty times better in developing countries, at least in the cities, where the marginal cost of sending someone to your house is so much lower.

Unless you meant it's a luxury only in the first world, which I could get behind, especially food delivery.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#343

Post by ekianjo »

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.

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

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#344

Post by emtel »

brailsafe wrote: post #251

My impression of Costco's selection is that it's the retail distillation of car-centric suburbs, despite it not being exclusively those people who shop there. The happy suburbanite cares about convenience and quantity above all else, from what I can tell anyway. They don't really have a varied sense of taste, they just want stuff, and they want easy access to that stuff. They like a "haul" that they do once a month,…

I’m guessing you don’t have kids. My membership pays for itself just for the savings on string cheese alone. Same for eggs.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#345

Post by DrewADesign »

throwawaygod wrote: post #151
DrewADesign wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, Costco is great, but I think the purest expression of American capitalism is Buc-ee’s.

Can you explain why? Non-american here :)

It’s a chain of gas stations along interstate highways, either mostly or entirely in the south. Many are contenders for, and one of them is, the world’s largest gas station— not hyperbole. One has 120 gas pumps and they do so much volume, they have a team of attendants running around outside to deal with card/pump problems. They’re open 24/7/365 and constantly have dozens of fresh, made on-site BBQ items and sides ready to go for very reasonable prices, roasted nuts and other snacky confections being made fresh constantly, plus a huge line of high quality prepackaged snacks, a full clothing store worth of merch bearing Buc-ee the beaver, and a separate convenience store that itself would make an incredible American gas station.

In Florida, driving up through Georgia, the billboard advertisements start 200 miles away.

Truly shocking thing is that it’s genuinely high quality (considering the venue) and reasonably priced. It’s exactly the sort of product American capitalism is supposed to produce, but almost never does.

There are lots of videos on YouTube.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#346

Post by no-name-here »

throwaway041207 wrote: post #267
claw-el wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is more like 1 truck delivering 100 single items to 100 homes.

Multiple times a week.

For the aforementioned 100 homes, if the 100-items-in-1-truck are needed multiple times per week, then the 100-items-in-100-cars are likely also needed multiple times per week, so the extra CO2 etc would be even worse.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#347

Post by eurleif »

DrewADesign wrote: post #345
throwawaygod wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain why? Non-american here :)

It’s a chain of gas stations along interstate highways, either mostly or entirely in the south. Many are contenders for, and one of them is, the world’s largest gas station— not hyperbole. One has 120 gas pumps and they do so much volume, they have a team of attendants running around outside to deal with card/pump problems. They’re open 24/7/365 and constantly have dozens of fresh, made on-site BBQ items and sides re…

>In Florida, driving up through Georgia, the billboard advertisements start 200 miles away.

There's even a billboard 979 miles away in Arizona: https://stock.adobe.com/images/eloy-az-nov-23-2024-buc-ee-s-...

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#348

Post by light_hue_1 »

bluegatty wrote: post #341
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.

It's still probably more efficient for you to just drive to the centralized place. The amount of optimization and process improvements required to 'beat that' will be enormous, like infrastructural change enormous. Your car is very useful an generalized and adaptable. So are you. Only you know what you really want, the nuances of comparison, seeing things real, returning them. Economies of scale work extremely well f…

> Home Delivery - in most situations - is effectively a first world luxury.

The comments here always blow me away by how totally out of touch with the rest of the world many posters are. No, home delivery is not a luxury, it just works really poorly in your country.

India is going through a 15 minute or less delivery boom right now. It's gotten so popular that the government is asking companies to not promise 10 minutes because that would endanger drivers.

The standard is China is 30 minutes home delivery.

It has nothing to do with loopholes on anything. Just someone managed to convince you that what you've got is better than what exists out there already.

Re: Costco is the anti-Amazon

#350

Post by no-name-here »

claw-el wrote: post #174
alanbernstein wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, 100 trucks delivering 100 single items to 100 homes, or 100 consumers each making 1 trip to buy 100 things. It really depends on the details too much to simplify it so far.

It is more like 1 truck delivering 100 single items to 100 homes.

With there typically being a free shipping minimum (or a relatively fixed shipping cost for daily goods), it seems like the benefits of the 1 truck model are likely even greater as customers are explicitly encouraged to group purchases together.
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