> provided by the supermarkets themselves? What service do supermarkets provide themselves? I think it's debatable. Safeway in CA had delivery, and using it w

> provided by the supermarkets themselves? What service do supermarkets provide themselves? I think it's debatable. Safeway in CA had delivery, and using it was a guaranteed way to get bruised, nearly un-sellable produce. Safeway must have told its pickers to pick the fruit and vegetables that were about to expire... and the same for milk, cheese, or any limited shelf-life item. Instacart has only the incentive of pleasing the customer. I've had zero issues with suboptimal produce being picked by Instacart shoppers. So I'd argue that whatever supermarkets need as a core competency to compete in the existing (pre-Instacart) market, providing high quality delivery and e-commerce experiences are not part of that. I think supermarkets are essentially market makers for household goods, produce, etc. They must understand demand in order to keep the right items in stock. Beyond that, they seem to flounder between providing super-low margins (and the corresponding slow checkout lanes) or a more premium expeirence with higher markup and other entertainment features (music, oyster bars, etc.) In the cities I've lived in, all of the in-house delivery options had significantly constrained delivery options.