41–48 of 48 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are the costco prices based on their warehouse pricing or their online pricing? I've seen lots of items that are up to 50% cheaper in the store than what they advertise online.
We've done it exactly once (a month ago), and my wife noted that the products we often get were 25-30% more expensive via delivery.
Last time this happened I said Instacart is a middleman and I didn't see their opportunity to break out and be a market maker. But I just realized a potential endgame: Instacart will be Amazon Prime (the subscription delivery business) without the need to be Amazon (the retail, global-scale logistics, and marketing company). Do I want to pay 30% extra on every individual order from local stores to have Instacart hand…
> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store... Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum. Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct in…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store... Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum. Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct in…
Right now I wouldn't say prime now's inventory integration is any better, but I'm sure it eventually will be. Both instacart and prime now seem to have trouble determining if an item is actually in stock.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store... Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum. Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct in…
>Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum. It's worth noting that Instacart has been doing this for years now, and has massive amounts of operational experience in this area which Amazon lacks. They also have lower or no minimums and a greater…
Amazon’s minimum is $35 for free 2hr delivery.
Not too worried about Amazon’s operational experience with deliveries.
Last time this happened I said Instacart is a middleman and I didn't see their opportunity to break out and be a market maker. But I just realized a potential endgame: Instacart will be Amazon Prime (the subscription delivery business) without the need to be Amazon (the retail, global-scale logistics, and marketing company). Do I want to pay 30% extra on every individual order from local stores to have Instacart hand…
> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store... Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum. Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct in…
this is a big pool, with not only deep pockets but millions of customers who are not ever going to shop at Whole Foods. Think Target and Costco customers, and think of every other local retail experience they have that can be delivered.
Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store... Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum. Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct in…
> all the other retailers this is a big pool, with not only deep pockets but millions of customers who are not ever going to shop at Whole Foods. Think Target and Costco customers, and think of every other local retail experience they have that can be delivered. Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.
- equivalent sentiment 20 years ago.
> Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.
Great, so there's an unprofitable opportunity for Instacart. Fantastic.
In all seriousness that's why I said short vs long term.. I probably agree Instacart can exploit some of the retailer panic here in the short term. But in the long term large scale vertically integrated players have massive cost and customer experience advantages.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> all the other retailers this is a big pool, with not only deep pockets but millions of customers who are not ever going to shop at Whole Foods. Think Target and Costco customers, and think of every other local retail experience they have that can be delivered. Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.
"Think Sears customers. Think Macys. Think JC Penny." - equivalent sentiment 20 years ago. > Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity. Great, so there's an unprofitable opportunity for Instacart. Fantastic. In all seriousness that's why I said short vs long term.. I probably agree Instacart can exploit some of the retailer panic here in the short term. But in the long term l…
I am interested in other peoples experience with Instacart as a provider. Their model is interesting but in NYC my anecdotal experience with them has been really poor. In this market their are several viable alternatives and I would rank them near at the bottom. I don't intend this as a flame, I really want to know if they run a tighter ship in other markets that don't have some of the challenges that NYC presents. T…
Prior to the change we'd get a call to confirm all substitutions, the produce was higher quality, and they call to let me know they were on their way.
After the change substitutions happened with no warning till it was delivered if they even marked it as a substitution. Anything large or not quick to get would be marked as "not available", such as soda or specific cuts of meat that required talking to the butcher. That one isn't even a speculation as I'd have to go down to the store and get the items myself if I wanted to prepare my meal I had planned.
The shoppers would also knock on my door and drop the bags on the floor at best. I had several occasions where they just left the bags without knocking or calling and I had frozen items dethawing outside.
All in all I felt like I was paying extra for a product that was inferior to the results of me purchasing the items myself, and was no longer convienant as the substitutions, low quality produce, and wrong cuts of meat were leading to me having to go to the store myself after every order.
If they could get the quality back to where it was the first two years I would have been willing to pay 50% more because it saved so much time, but I don't think they are headed in that direction