Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping • Hacker News Board

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#41

Post by voltagex_ » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 12:11 AM UTC

thufry wrote: post #16

edw519 wrote: post #11

“The one thing that we got extremely right about the Webvan investment was that there would be huge consumer demand for home delivery of groceries," he says. "It’s just taken time for technology to finally catch up." I don't understand this at all and would really appreciate any enlightenment. What has changed in technology in the past 12 years to enable home grocery delivery? Broadband? Cloud storage? HTML5? AJAX? F…

All of these new services that enable poor or lower-income people to serve rich people (Uber, TaskRabbit, Instacart) have been enabled by two main things: an economic recession that permanently eliminated a lot of jobs and the recovery which drove economics gains to the 1%, and smartphones, which allow the customers or workers to send or receive requests at any time.

Here's another use case: I'm in a wheelchair and shopping is tricky. I'd LOVE this system to start up in Australia.

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#42

Post by visakanv » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 12:19 AM UTC

thufry wrote: post #26

jdminhbg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of these new services that enable poor or lower-income people to serve rich people (Uber, TaskRabbit, Instacart) have been enabled by two main things: an economic recession that permanently eliminated a lot of jobs and the recovery which drove economics gains to the 1% The 1% don't use Uber, TaskRabbit, or Instacart; they have actual personal drivers, servants, and chefs.

I'm using the word "1%" in the recently popularized figurative sense, the people who make enough money to outsource things like hailing a taxi or doing grocery shopping.

"the recently popularized figurative sense"

so how many % is the recently popularized figurative 1%?

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#43

Post by visakanv » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 12:20 AM UTC

rdouble wrote: post #40

yabbadabbadoo wrote: post #5

Mike Moritz doesn't get out of bed for less than a billion dollars - http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/28/mike-moritzs-midas-touch-gr... Looks like Instacart is on the right path to a massive IPO :) Good work guys!

Mike Moritz has invested in as many duds as successes.

A 1:1 dud-to-success ratio is to die for!

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#44

Post by rdouble » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 12:23 AM UTC

visakanv wrote: post #43

rdouble wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mike Moritz has invested in as many duds as successes.

A 1:1 dud-to-success ratio is to die for!

That's not really what I meant, but I guess that's what I said. Sadly, Sequoia funding is no guarantee of success as I know from personal experience.

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#45

Post by thufry » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 12:31 AM UTC

visakanv wrote: post #42

thufry wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using the word "1%" in the recently popularized figurative sense, the people who make enough money to outsource things like hailing a taxi or doing grocery shopping.

"the recently popularized figurative sense" so how many % is the recently popularized figurative 1%?

Probably around 2%.

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#46

Post by argumentum » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 12:47 AM UTC

Apoorva stop killing it, it's needless pressure on the rest of us ;)

Jk, congrats! Instacart rocks and aside from delivering groceries, is creating work and income to a lot of people who really need it.

The so called "99%" won't be saved by politicians, but rather companies like Instacart.

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#47

Post by pbreit » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 1:27 AM UTC

When I read "crowdsourcing" in the headline I was expecting more of a discussion about how Instacart was enlisting a broader base of "delivery" people but it sounds like its messengers are still a pretty tight circle. Which makes sense, since, as the article also notes, there's a quality level that probably needs to be attained to be viable.

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#48

Post by mayank » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 6:58 PM UTC

ajju wrote: post #34

mayank wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my attempt at a guess: -- For the user, it's easier than ever to place an order. Internet connection speeds are fast, smartphones have snappy native apps, 3G is everywhere -- so you can order groceries on the ride home. You can quickly download 100 images of products on the bus ride home and pick the ones you want (for example). -- For Instacart, processing those orders at scale is also easier than ever. EC2…

I am curious what InstaCart could do better at, since you said you are a former patron.

Too many deliveries had missed or swapped items, and although customer service was always excellent, it got a little tiring. Also, my perception (although I never actually checked) is that prices were slightly higher than driving down 2 blocks to Safeway and using my loyalty card there.

What might bring me back is a cost incentive on repeated purchases, say by offering 10% off if I sign up for regular monthly deliveries of common household items.

Re: Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping

#49

Post by zem » Thu, Jul 11, 2013, 9:27 PM UTC

HorizonXP wrote: post #31

michaelt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, there's a per-item markup as well? How big is that?

You can look at Safeway/Trader Joe/Whole Foods prices and compare it to Instacart's to figure that out. That being said, do you ask Safeway/Trader Joe's/Whole Foods what their markup is? The only reason you care is because it's not completely hidden from you.

that's a very good point.