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Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

curb.run

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Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#91

Post by goatinaboat »

dubcanada wrote: post #8
seltzered_ wrote: post #5

Have you stopped to think about the ethical implications of this? Could you put a warning to be mindful and only consider the service if you're high-risk or in a situation where curbside is the only safe option? I love the fact that my high-risk parents are using curbside pickup, but I find myself better fitted to wear a mask and do the groceries myself during off-peak hours. The last thing I think the world wants is…

I don't get your question. Curb-side pickup is better as having a ton of people inside small grocery stores considering all of them are not meant to handle large amounts of people attempting to keep a set distance from each-other. If curb-side pickup becomes more popular they would increase available slots by allocating more resources. What is happening right now is you have one or two managing curb-side and a ton in…

they would increase available slots by allocating more resources

This isn’t AWS where you click a button to scale. Real world scaling has lead times such as “acquiring a new building”, “buying more vehicles” (which need to be manufactured) and “hiring and training more people”.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#92

Post by freepor »

abootstrapper wrote: post #88
freepor wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rich are hiring serfs to do their shopping and not needing online delivery. Coders like me are writing our own bots to get deliveries. The tall are reaching items on high shelves that others can't. Life isn't fair and you should expect people to avail themselves of any tools to help themselves that are not wantonly destructive to the society at large.

Kind of glum. How about: the rich are donating to those in need, the coders are creating tools to help others, the tall are handing items to others that can’t reach. Life isn’t fair and we should help others when it is not self destructive.

Well that's a beautiful comment and might change my perspective on things. Thanks.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#93

Post by jlokier »

kylecordes wrote: post #27

The fundamental problem here is grocery stores and others needlessly limiting when they make pickups available. Lots of people are sitting at home with extreme schedule flexibility, and would be happy to choose a slot 10 days out or whatever. Instead there is the silliness (and third-party app workarounds like this) of only releasing slots much closer. In other conversation I have seen the following explanation: thos…

> only releasing slots much close

Unfortunately, not really. Releasing later slots barely helps but it makes delays longer.

I recommend reading up a little queuing theory.

When there's more demand than supply, the queue will grow unboundedly, and so will the average waiting time.

What this means for online shopping is the same as what it means for web sites:

Latency gets continually longer for almost everyone at the same time, while throughput doesn't noticably change.

I saw an online grocery store open up slots for more months in advance recently. Now all the delivery slots are fully booked for the next 4 months. That's up to the limit of their calendar. It is still not possible to book a slot. If they open up further into the future, those slots will be fully booked too.

I said you can't book. Actually you can sometimes book a slot by waiting until they add new slots at the end, which rolls over at midnight. That's a little silly of them: The site becomes unresponsive for 20 minutes at midnight as everyone tries to catch the new slots. Most people will find that when the site finally responds, the slots are gone. If you were unlucky enough to be placing an order before midnight whose slot expires just after, you may be disappointed to find you can't complete checkout during the critical 20 minutes, and lose your slot.

The effect for nearly everyone is now they can book with 4 months of delay instead of 1 month.

Actually getting one at 1 month was a lottery. But that hasn't changed, it's still a lottery at 4 months.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#94

Post by james_s_tayler »

kylecordes wrote: post #27

The fundamental problem here is grocery stores and others needlessly limiting when they make pickups available. Lots of people are sitting at home with extreme schedule flexibility, and would be happy to choose a slot 10 days out or whatever. Instead there is the silliness (and third-party app workarounds like this) of only releasing slots much closer. In other conversation I have seen the following explanation: thos…

Release slots ahead of time and people will just pre-book the slots in advance right? Meaning if you want a slot now you wait a lot longer.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#95

Post by CalRobert »

abootstrapper wrote: post #88
freepor wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rich are hiring serfs to do their shopping and not needing online delivery. Coders like me are writing our own bots to get deliveries. The tall are reaching items on high shelves that others can't. Life isn't fair and you should expect people to avail themselves of any tools to help themselves that are not wantonly destructive to the society at large.

Kind of glum. How about: the rich are donating to those in need, the coders are creating tools to help others, the tall are handing items to others that can’t reach. Life isn’t fair and we should help others when it is not self destructive.

Sure, but

"Life isn't fair and you should expect people to avail themselves of any tools to help themselves that are not wantonly destructive to the society at large."

You have to expect the worst, because if 99% of people are sound and generous and kind the other 1% will still screw things up and force others to compete on their level.

I didn't WANT to write a scraper to try to get an immigration appointment so I could stay in my country, but other people did (and then started selling the appointments), so I did too because otherwise I'd have to give a scalper money.

Sooner or later someone was going to write this. I suspect many others already have.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#96

Post by virvar »

gorgoiler wrote: post #65

This looks like a neat bit of tech but it doesn’t sit quite right with me. In particular it doesn’t feel very fair to our fellow shoppers. We wait in line for the ATM or the checkout or anything else because a scrabble is unfair. Using a tool like this when others almost certainly are not doesn’t really feel fair on those other people. Having to check manually for a slot sucks, but so does waiting in line, and that’s…

We’ve used online shopping for a few years now, not exactly the same as they deliver, but close enough since there is only a certain amount of delivery slots.

There was never a problem with getting a slot until the recent pandemic. My wife sat there pressing F5 but it wouldn’t be enough, new slots were taken exactly when they opened.

Turns out someone had a piece of software set up new accounts, registered slots and then sell them. The store chain fixed it after a few weeks, but those are certainly interesting problems we face with online “Queuing”.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#97

Post by agent008t »

kylecordes wrote: post #27

The fundamental problem here is grocery stores and others needlessly limiting when they make pickups available. Lots of people are sitting at home with extreme schedule flexibility, and would be happy to choose a slot 10 days out or whatever. Instead there is the silliness (and third-party app workarounds like this) of only releasing slots much closer. In other conversation I have seen the following explanation: thos…

Why not just deal with this in the same way as we deal with other goods and services that are in short supply - increase the price until there is an equilibrium?

Ideally, one should be able to bid on delivery slots. If that is technically difficult, the delivery company should just increase the price.

They could then increase the pay of the staff involved in making deliveries to attract more workers, especially those that are now out of work. More deliveries made overall!

Or, if it is infeasible to increase the number of deliveries, they could donate the surplus profits locally.

Not increasing the prices seems like just pointless virtue-signalling that helps absolutely nobody.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#98

Post by nicoburns »

agent008t wrote: post #97
kylecordes wrote: post #27

The fundamental problem here is grocery stores and others needlessly limiting when they make pickups available. Lots of people are sitting at home with extreme schedule flexibility, and would be happy to choose a slot 10 days out or whatever. Instead there is the silliness (and third-party app workarounds like this) of only releasing slots much closer. In other conversation I have seen the following explanation: thos…

Why not just deal with this in the same way as we deal with other goods and services that are in short supply - increase the price until there is an equilibrium? Ideally, one should be able to bid on delivery slots. If that is technically difficult, the delivery company should just increase the price. They could then increase the pay of the staff involved in making deliveries to attract more workers, especially those…

Because pricing people out of necessities like food is really bad idea.

Re: Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

#100

Post by agent008t »

nicoburns wrote: post #98
agent008t wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just deal with this in the same way as we deal with other goods and services that are in short supply - increase the price until there is an equilibrium? Ideally, one should be able to bid on delivery slots. If that is technically difficult, the delivery company should just increase the price. They could then increase the pay of the staff involved in making deliveries to attract more workers, especially those…

Because pricing people out of necessities like food is really bad idea.

I do not see much of a difference between something being affordable in theory, but unavailable in practice, and unaffordable but available.

The latter offers some advantages:

1. Increased prices on scarce goods discourage frivolous consumption.

2. Vulnerable people, if they can be identified, can be subsidized or have their fees waived.

3. Those that find they really need a delivery can still book it - something that is currently impossible.

4. Funds can be raised for good causes.

5. People do not have to waste time queuing/trying to get a slot.

If you like, you could operate both systems at the same time - allocate some slots on a first-come-first-served basis, and some slots on a market supply-and-demand basis.

And of course, delivery is not a necessity for many: a lot of those booking slots at the moment could just go to a shop and buy the groceries in person. A market system would discourage them booking delivery slots.

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