Americans, it turns out, would rather visit a store than buy food online • Hacker News Board

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

#471

Post by delfinom » Thu, May 28, 2020, 3:54 PM UTC

richardbrevig wrote: post #282

treis wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The current big problem with online food shopping is that it's being done by sending low-wage people into ordinary supermarkets. This is inefficient, but until recently this was a niche market. I agree. People definitely want online/delivery grocery shopping. The problem thus far has been product misses on giving the customer what they want. Ordering online today is too much of a crap shoot. You'll get 80% of what y…

Today I received my first grocery delivery from Walmart. I'm extremely excited. I chose no substitutions so only one item wasn't available. What I love about it is that the person picking up the food actually knows the store. Walmart launched pick-up service over 2 years ago and now they're extending that with DoorDash for delivery. Granted, the delivery people still have problems finding my home, but access to Walma…

Theyve been trying to extend it with DoorDash for awhile. If you ever read /r/DoorDash...well, DoorDash drivers fucking hate it because Walmart's clienete is the least likely to tip, the most likely to order 20 packs of water, and the pay is complete garbage and no different then restaurant deliveries. It's basically an insta decline for most.

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

#472

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 28, 2020, 3:58 PM UTC

code_duck wrote: post #311

ping_pong wrote: post #19

I've been using Whole Foods delivery about 3 times a week, and it's been fantastic, I may never go back. Sometimes the fruits aren't the greatest, but the rate of that is low. Compared to the amount of time I save, it's totally worth the risk.

I was puzzled when this article mentioned Amazon and Walmart, saying Amazon had a disadvantage in providing fresh foods, and then said nothing about Whole Foods. I have gotten about five orders delivered from Whole Foods. I definitely like that they operate their own service versus using instacart. While there have been some issues with the website, such as losing cart contents (and one would think that Amazon, of al…

[deleted]

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

#473

Post by hinkley » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:12 PM UTC

perl4ever wrote: post #387

duncanawoods wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't stand sugar alcohols, and got a ton of crap full of sucralose I don't think Sucralose is a sugar alchohol. You can spot those because they end with "ol" - Mannitol, Sorbitol etc. I find it pallatable myself.

Something I've noticed recently is they are getting quite fast and loose with the "natural flavoring" terminology. At first, I thought that something with Sucralose was considered to be naturally flavored because sweetener isn't a flavoring according to some legal definition. But then I saw something with artificial flavor listed in the ingredients, so my revised hypothesis is it must be legal now to say something co…

Sucralose is lab made, but stevia is not, so there’s that.

And is lab made vanilla or mint considered natural flavoring?

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

#474

Post by hinkley » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:27 PM UTC

kaitai wrote: post #178

hinkley wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not justifying it, but try dewatering the yogurt and see if that does anything for your savory dishes. I don't think I have the right gauge of strainer and end up using leftover coffee filters.

Dewatering won't take out the nasty vanilla flavor or the added 12 g of sugar. Moreover, some flavored types of yogurt contain cornstarch to add body, rather than the milk content one would like from a milk product. Plain yogurt truly is a different beast that American sugar-yogurt.

True enough, but at least in my shopping cart, the brands that have plain yogurt also have vanilla yogurt that.

When I think ‘American “yogurt”’ I think Dannon or Yoplait, and I can’t recall the last time I saw plain yogurt from them. Google tells me Dannon has plain yogurt in pint containers, but I’ve just never seen them on the West coast. It’s Nancy’s, Stonyfield, etc here. And the problem with those is because they have a small shelf presence, the vanilla and plain yogurt are invariably next to each other. I have brought the wrong thing home several times, and now double check. But I’ve been doing that since before Greek yogurt was a thing here (and only recently discovered the dewatering trick for making Indian food, which I only make a few times a year anyway) so I’ve not had the need to experiment.

I will note as an aside, neither Dannon nor Yoplait are strictly American companies. I don’t think “we” should get the blame for fucking up yogurt, when French and Spanish citizens were, at the very least, accessories to the murder. Thank you very much.

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

#475

Post by ahallock » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC

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…

I agree that choosing in-person is better, but I find the experience good enough while keeping out of harm's way of the pandemic. A bruised apple is not going to ruin my day.

Most delivery services I've used have a "don't substitute" option as well if you need that for sensitive items.

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

#476

Post by hinkley » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

mattkrause wrote: post #313

hinkley wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory being that drained yogurt has a sharper flavor, it may or may not mask the unwelcome flavors. I had to double-check. The carb content of the 'water' you drive off (whey) is pretty high. I couldn't say one way or the other how much of the added sugar comes out with the whey, but I suspect a taste test will tell you. If you're stuck at home anyway it's worth a go. It's good to have an arsenal of substitutions…

For what it's worth, "hung" vanilla yogurt makes absolutely revolting chicken tikka.

Good to know. Patak’s has an impressive distribution chain out here and I like that it’s shelf stable so I tend to keep one jar of something (usually the tikka) around just in case I get a yearning and we already have rice.

I made some with hung soy yogurt recently, it was ok. Cumin and coriander can cover some tastes but I guess vanilla ain’t one of them.

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

#477

Post by irrational » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:53 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #333

irrational wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic, but do you really view that "we're in the middle of a disaster of epic proportions"? I can think of a huge number of actual disasters of epic proportions (full-scale nuclear war, 100 kilometer asteroid impact, yellowstone super caldera explodes, an actual pandemic that has 99% effective death rate arises, etc.) The current situation seems pretty low-key compared to a real disaster.

None of your "actual disasters" have actually happened. For most living Americans, I think you can make a fair argument that this is the biggest disaster in their lifetime. Though I'm open to give other candidates a fair hearing. Keep in mind that this one is far from over yet!

If I had mentioned the current scenario as a possibility back in January, I would have been mocked. The other disasters I mentioned are within the realm of possibility in the next 5 months. What would we call them if we’ve already used epic disaster for the current crisis? A super epic disaster?

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

#478

Post by philwelch » Thu, May 28, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

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…

Doing home grocery delivery by hiring people to shop at the grocery store for you is like doing e-commerce by hiring people to go to the mall for you. Grocery stores are deliberately designed in the exact opposite way that fulfillment centers are; even “warehouse stores” like Costco are adapted to exploit consumer psychology rather than optimize picking throughput.

I have never had substitution problems with Amazon Fresh because “substitute one ASIN for another” is an absurd use case if you can reliably track your inventory and allow people to choose products based on availability. I’ve also been pleased with meat and produce quality; maybe I’m lucky, or maybe grocers have been getting away with stocking shoddy produce for years on the expectation that the customer can do the QC work for them.

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

#479

Post by philwelch » Thu, May 28, 2020, 5:20 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #32

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…

I would hope that grocery stores become warehouses and the only people allowed in are delivery. You could redesign the entire stores to optimize for this which could reduce the likeliness of damaged goods. Amazon would be in a good position to do this (the Whole Foods near me already has part of it set aside for something like this).

Amazon Fresh works this way already.

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

#480

Post by kerkeslager » Thu, May 28, 2020, 7:55 PM UTC

joeyjojo wrote: post #370

crazygringo wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Playing devil's advocate: an enormous amount of food waste is caused by people simply refusing to buy ugly food. Playing double-devil's advocate: 1) Most people have no problem buying ugly food. Much of the standardization of produce comes from packaging and packing requirements. Non-standard produce is still consumed in other forms: juice, frozen, soup, etc. 2) The vast majority of food waste comes from unsold res…

I've always had an issue with the "people should buy ugly food" argument. It strikes me as being somewhat elitist, and I have my doubts that the people making this argument actually follow through themselves and pick the ugly food at the supermarket, or really know if actually makes any difference. I feel like I am doing the right thing by buying fruit and vegetables instead of processed food. Do I now need to make f…

> I've always had an issue with the "people should buy ugly food" argument. It strikes me as being somewhat elitist, and I have my doubts that the people making this argument actually follow through themselves and pick the ugly food at the supermarket, or really know if actually makes any difference.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "people should buy ugly food"--I'm merely observing that there's nothing inherently better about pretty food. But if you want to take my comment as a personal attack on you, I can't stop ya.

I get my fruit and veggies mostly from a CSA, so your accusation of hypocrisy based on "having your doubts" doesn't land.

> Do I now need to make further consideration and question the impact of my choices because I am ignoring the ugly apples?

I don't think so. There's only so much micro-optimization an individual can do in their life, and the impact here is pretty low.

The impact of delivery services as a whole, however, is a lot higher.

> Humans developed a highly sophisticated discernment of fruit quality for a reason.

Really? And what reason is that?

Your entire post is basically, "I think this is wrong because if it were right I'd have to feel bad about my actions", when in fact nobody is trying to make you feel bad, and if they were, your logic would make no sense.