3 ms·

UK experience suggests there's a decent market for delivered groceries: these stats (http://www.igd.com/Research/Shopper-Insight/Pushing-online-shopping-growth-

by pm215 10y ago

UK experience suggests there's a decent market for delivered groceries: these stats (http://www.igd.com/Research/Shopper-Insight/Pushing-online-shopping-growth-further/ http://www.igd.com/Research/Shopper-Insight/Pushing-online-s...) from 2015 say that 11% of shoppers used online-shopping-with-delivery for their main shop, and 26% had used it at least once in the past month. So there is a decent demand there willing to pay delivery charges that can sustain a with-human-driver style delivery service.

goatforce5 10y ago
I worked with a guy who used to work at the head office of a Canadian grocery chain. Apparently the grocery shopping habits of UK/European consumers is considerably different than North Americans and so something that works in one market doesn't necessarily translate across the Atlantic. In the UK, my old supermarket had a couple of aisles of prepared chilled meals. Lots of variety, and a lot of it was pretty good quality. You just don't get that in North America, and apparently it's because NA consumers tend to go to the grocery store once per week, where in the UK it's multiple times per week. So over here the convenience meals are frozen and icky. Blurgh! Similarly, I could imagine the economics of delivery would be vastly different. The UK has tightly packed cities with high population density, meaning your delivery vehicles don't have far to go between stops. NA has large spread out suburbs with lots of driving to get anywhere...
- colmvp 10y ago
  Huh. That might explain why the Canadian online grocery experience is so far behind the UK, let alone the U.S.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  I imagine the availability of fresh prepared stuff is also somewhat driven by population density. I've certainly seen more fresh chopped vegetables in stores that serve more people.

3 ms·

UK experience suggests there's a decent market for delivered groceries: these stats (http://www.igd.com/Research/Shopper-Insight/Pushing-online-shopping-growth-

by pm215 10y ago

goatforce5 10y ago
I worked with a guy who used to work at the head office of a Canadian grocery chain. Apparently the grocery shopping habits of UK/European consumers is considerably different than North Americans and so something that works in one market doesn't necessarily translate across the Atlantic. In the UK, my old supermarket had a couple of aisles of prepared chilled meals. Lots of variety, and a lot of it was pretty good quality. You just don't get that in North America, and apparently it's because NA consumers tend to go to the grocery store once per week, where in the UK it's multiple times per week. So over here the convenience meals are frozen and icky. Blurgh! Similarly, I could imagine the economics of delivery would be vastly different. The UK has tightly packed cities with high population density, meaning your delivery vehicles don't have far to go between stops. NA has large spread out suburbs with lots of driving to get anywhere...
- colmvp 10y ago
  Huh. That might explain why the Canadian online grocery experience is so far behind the UK, let alone the U.S.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  I imagine the availability of fresh prepared stuff is also somewhat driven by population density. I've certainly seen more fresh chopped vegetables in stores that serve more people.