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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

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 (presumably younger) people in tech taking up curbside slots before other people in the community.

thecodemonkey 7y ago
Hi there! Absolutely. This is why we are explicitly focusing on curbside pickup rather than delivery. It is not about snatching slots as soon as they become available, but more about being able to check across dozens of stores at the same time. We've found that there are actually plenty of pickup timeslots available -- if you just look a bit outside super-urban areas. Call it human-loadbalancing-as-a-service if you will.
- seltzered_ 7y ago
  Thanks for clarifying. > "It is not about snatching slots as soon as they become available" Perhaps consider rewording your post title? It's currently: "Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available" The idea of encouraging people to look for other stores seems to be something grocery stores are doing, I just noticed the Kroger-based chain's website I use (QFC) shows me a list of other locations with pickup availability.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  It may be more optimal in some sense, but it's reminiscent of how Google Maps sends people through residential neighborhoods during rush hour. Which you may have heard people get unhappy about. If it works as intended, assuming the demand continues to exceed the overall capacity, it's just going to spread out the overload more. If you have 200% demand then working on getting from 90% to 99% utilization is missing the forest for the trees.
dubcanada 7y ago
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 inside managing everyone else. What should happen is grocery stores should be closed except for employees and your groceries should be delivered to you, or you pick them up curb side. It would eliminate a whole realm of issues with people not following rules, coughing on produce, not washing hands, moeny exchange, long lines, etc. And if you implemented a strict health check on employees it would be way easier for everyone.
- thecodemonkey 7y ago
  I think that is the ideal situation too. Closing down grocery stores and allowing no-touch curbside pickup (or delivery) only. I don't quite know what the economics of this is like though, and if it is a viable option across the board. Edit: typo
- dewey 7y ago
  > What should happen is grocery stores should be closed except for employees and your groceries should be delivered to you, or you pick them up curb side. Of course that would be ideal, but scaling up a delivery service from scratch is a bit harder than keeping a store running and offering both services which distributes the load a bit.
  - djrogers 7y ago
    this is not a delivery service - it's curbside pickup.
    - dewey 7y ago
      Sorry. Looks like I misunderstood that, I thought it means that they put it in front of your house.
    - 7y ago
throwaway1777 7y ago
It’s a game of cat and mouse with tools like this, just like with restaurant reservations, shoe drops, ticket scalping, and anything else that’s scarce.
- dewey 7y ago
  Do you really think it's the same? There's a difference between the some rare sneaker drop and buying groceries as a high-risk person in a global pandemic.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  The difference is that the supermarkets aren't intentionally scarce and they can choose to scale up (profitable for them) or choose to offer the service only to registered customers who affirm their qualifications.
bluGill 7y ago
I care about my family first though. We now grab the next Wal-Mart spot after every Wal-Mart run. We never used to go grocery shopping every 3 days, but when we can't be sure we can go on demand we make sure that at least don't have to wait more than 3 days to get something. If they had slots available all the time we would mostly do larger orders and use less slots overall.
leetcrew 7y ago
for the most part, the grocery stores themselves don't seem to make any effort to prioritize curbside or delivery slots for high-risk people. why should a third-party notification service be expected to do so?
- perl4ever 7y ago
  How would you know? I just checked a few times and they are always full, at least since the first week, so I gave up. Doesn't tell you anything about who is using it and how.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    I've checked instacart, amazon, and a couple local stores for delivery/pickup slots. there's no place on any of the web forms to indicate that you would be eligible for a priority slot, and I haven't found any news articles to suggest otherwise. my seventy-year-old parents are also unaware of any way to get priority slots, so I am assuming they don't exist. my impression is that the stores consider "elderly hour" to be an adequate solution.
- mjwhansen 7y ago
  I commented this already above so forgive me, but in the UK, Sainsbury's is limiting curbside and delivery to high risk people. But they're only able to do so because they're getting a list of high-risk people from the government and validating against that list. That isn't really possible for us. https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/working-to-feed-the-nation-/latest-information-- https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/working-to-fe...

thecodemonkey 7y ago

Hi there! Absolutely. This is why we are explicitly focusing on curbside pickup rather than delivery. It is not about snatching slots as soon as they become available, but more about being able to check across dozens of stores at the same time. We've found that there are actually plenty of pickup timeslots available -- if you just look a bit outside super-urban areas. Call it human-loadbalancing-as-a-service if you will.

seltzered_ 7y ago
Thanks for clarifying. > "It is not about snatching slots as soon as they become available" Perhaps consider rewording your post title? It's currently: "Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available" The idea of encouraging people to look for other stores seems to be something grocery stores are doing, I just noticed the Kroger-based chain's website I use (QFC) shows me a list of other locations with pickup availability.
perl4ever 7y ago
It may be more optimal in some sense, but it's reminiscent of how Google Maps sends people through residential neighborhoods during rush hour. Which you may have heard people get unhappy about. If it works as intended, assuming the demand continues to exceed the overall capacity, it's just going to spread out the overload more. If you have 200% demand then working on getting from 90% to 99% utilization is missing the forest for the trees.

dubcanada 7y ago

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 inside managing everyone else. What should happen is grocery stores should be closed except for employees and your groceries should be delivered to you, or you pick them up curb side. It would eliminate a whole realm of issues with people not following rules, coughing on produce, not washing hands, moeny exchange, long lines, etc. And if you implemented a strict health check on employees it would be way easier for everyone.

thecodemonkey 7y ago
I think that is the ideal situation too. Closing down grocery stores and allowing no-touch curbside pickup (or delivery) only. I don't quite know what the economics of this is like though, and if it is a viable option across the board. Edit: typo
dewey 7y ago
> What should happen is grocery stores should be closed except for employees and your groceries should be delivered to you, or you pick them up curb side. Of course that would be ideal, but scaling up a delivery service from scratch is a bit harder than keeping a store running and offering both services which distributes the load a bit.
- djrogers 7y ago
  this is not a delivery service - it's curbside pickup.
  - dewey 7y ago
    Sorry. Looks like I misunderstood that, I thought it means that they put it in front of your house.
  - 7y ago

throwaway1777 7y ago

It’s a game of cat and mouse with tools like this, just like with restaurant reservations, shoe drops, ticket scalping, and anything else that’s scarce.

dewey 7y ago
Do you really think it's the same? There's a difference between the some rare sneaker drop and buying groceries as a high-risk person in a global pandemic.
lonelappde 7y ago
The difference is that the supermarkets aren't intentionally scarce and they can choose to scale up (profitable for them) or choose to offer the service only to registered customers who affirm their qualifications.

bluGill 7y ago

I care about my family first though. We now grab the next Wal-Mart spot after every Wal-Mart run. We never used to go grocery shopping every 3 days, but when we can't be sure we can go on demand we make sure that at least don't have to wait more than 3 days to get something. If they had slots available all the time we would mostly do larger orders and use less slots overall.

leetcrew 7y ago

for the most part, the grocery stores themselves don't seem to make any effort to prioritize curbside or delivery slots for high-risk people. why should a third-party notification service be expected to do so?

perl4ever 7y ago
How would you know? I just checked a few times and they are always full, at least since the first week, so I gave up. Doesn't tell you anything about who is using it and how.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  I've checked instacart, amazon, and a couple local stores for delivery/pickup slots. there's no place on any of the web forms to indicate that you would be eligible for a priority slot, and I haven't found any news articles to suggest otherwise. my seventy-year-old parents are also unaware of any way to get priority slots, so I am assuming they don't exist. my impression is that the stores consider "elderly hour" to be an adequate solution.
mjwhansen 7y ago
I commented this already above so forgive me, but in the UK, Sainsbury's is limiting curbside and delivery to high risk people. But they're only able to do so because they're getting a list of high-risk people from the government and validating against that list. That isn't really possible for us. https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/working-to-feed-the-nation-/latest-information-- https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/working-to-fe...