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Investors are banking on the fact that grocery stores are historically bad at innovation. Some may role out delivery products, and some of those products may b

by jartelt 10y ago

Investors are banking on the fact that grocery stores are historically bad at innovation. Some may role out delivery products, and some of those products may be good, but most grocery stores are not going to be good at developing their own ordering/delivery service. It's similar to why self-checkout still doesn't work well at many stores and why Walmart hasn't created a wonderful online shopping product. Whether or not the margins for instacart make the business model work, I don't know. But, I doubt competition from grocery store innovation is going to put them out of business.

ghaff 10y ago
>not going to be good at developing their own ordering/delivery service How hard is this? Online ordering and grocery delivery is an existing thing and was before Instacart. >It's similar to why self-checkout still doesn't work well at many stores Self-checkout is a pain in the butt for things like produce. When you do a large grocery shopping, it is much easier and more efficient to have a clerk quickly scan everything (and there's usually a bagger too). There are some experiments with shoppers self-scanning as they shop. Maybe something like that can still eventually work and you deal with produce somehow. (And figure out ways to minimize losses.)
- tyldum 10y ago
  Scan as you shop is common in certain chains in Norway, but I always observe people wondering how to scan certain things. Especially produce and special promotions. And when I tried it, no less than three scales were out of labels so had a hard time with the produce... Self checkout works better.
- vertex-four 10y ago
  > There are some experiments with shoppers self-scanning as they shop. This was done several years ago in the UK. American grocery stores are way, way behind the times.
  - compuguy 10y ago
    Giant in the Washington DC area has had this for years.
gtirloni 10y ago
It seems the situation around online grocery ordering and taxis is particularly bad in the US, this might explain the excitement for these companies. I remember ordering groceries online in Brazil (of all places!!) as early as 2006 from a major chain and things just worked (and continue to work). EDIT: relying on anecdata from HN comments, I have never tried online grocery shopping in the US.

by jartelt 10y ago

ghaff 10y ago

>not going to be good at developing their own ordering/delivery service How hard is this? Online ordering and grocery delivery is an existing thing and was before Instacart. >It's similar to why self-checkout still doesn't work well at many stores Self-checkout is a pain in the butt for things like produce. When you do a large grocery shopping, it is much easier and more efficient to have a clerk quickly scan everything (and there's usually a bagger too). There are some experiments with shoppers self-scanning as they shop. Maybe something like that can still eventually work and you deal with produce somehow. (And figure out ways to minimize losses.)

tyldum 10y ago
Scan as you shop is common in certain chains in Norway, but I always observe people wondering how to scan certain things. Especially produce and special promotions. And when I tried it, no less than three scales were out of labels so had a hard time with the produce... Self checkout works better.
vertex-four 10y ago
> There are some experiments with shoppers self-scanning as they shop. This was done several years ago in the UK. American grocery stores are way, way behind the times.
- compuguy 10y ago
  Giant in the Washington DC area has had this for years.

gtirloni 10y ago

It seems the situation around online grocery ordering and taxis is particularly bad in the US, this might explain the excitement for these companies. I remember ordering groceries online in Brazil (of all places!!) as early as 2006 from a major chain and things just worked (and continue to work). EDIT: relying on anecdata from HN comments, I have never tried online grocery shopping in the US.