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One thought. People still like food and food things and being social, and the "farmers market" feeling. Even in a future which makes online grocery great for mu
by tuna-piano 9y ago
One thought. People still like food and food things and being social, and the "farmers market" feeling. Even in a future which makes online grocery great for mundane shopping, people still need stuff to do.
Whole Foods already has bars, cafes, and restaurants. Maybe Whole Foods locations turn into places where people can hang out, try new things, and buy online grocery delivery (or pickup delivery as well)?
Who should be trembling in their sleep even more so with this news:
-Blue Apron, HelloFresh, Plated, etc
-Drizzly, alcohol delivery, etc (I think absolutely doomed)
-WalMart? (Maybe completely different customer sets)
-Target, Kroger, other grocery?
-Instacart (I think absolutely doomed)
Whole Foods is a large cafe/fast casual business. I assume competitors in that space aren't scared at all yet... but I would not necessarily sleep well if I were Starbucks or Chipotle. Amazon seems to play to win, and they usually win. Do they want to play is my main question.
- tuna-piano 9y agoOr maybe Amazon sees its new checkout technology (that knows which items you buy automatically) as so special that it's better to roll it out at stores it owns than sell to existing retailers?
- marrone12 9y agoYeah, I wonder how this is going to affect Blue Apron's upcoming IPO. My guess is for the worse.
- magic_beans 9y agoI really don't undertand how companies like Blue Apron and Plated ever expected to be in business very long. Do they get many repeat customers? Theoretically a subscriber would actually learn to cook over time and then Blue Apron would lose that customer... I just don't understand the long term goal.
- deegles 9y agoChurn through customers and VC capital until aquihire?
- sotojuan 9y agoThe SV way.
- omarchowdhury 9y agoTried and... true?
- NuSkooler 9y agoI know many people that know how to cook (well) that use Blue Apron. What they don't like to do is a) go to the store(s) all the time for fresh ingredients, and b) they like trying new things.
- throwaway9980 9y agoMy wife is one of those people. Loves to cook, does it at a very high level, and hates the grocery store. I was super skeptical about food delivery, but I've become a believer. We get more meals at home, with less stress and time wasted, for a small premium above shopping at the grocery store. It's a very immature market today, in another 10 years I think it will be the typical approach for most home cooks that aren't on a tight budget.
- arzt 9y agoWhole Foods is an instacart equity owner. I would be curious how this is being handled given the new conflict.
- etjossem 9y agoProbably factored into the final price, heavily discounted given Amazon's own plans for last-mile.