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The problem I have with arguments that are bearish on food delivery is that they are all focused on supply-chain challenges and ignore the obvious massive deman

The problem I have with arguments that are bearish on food delivery is that they are all focused on supply-chain challenges and ignore the obvious massive demand for the product. Of all the problems you can have in business, the only one that cannot be overcome is a lack of demand. Widespread 1-day delivery of retail goods would have seemed totally absurd and unscalable just 20 years ago ("What, are we gonna FedEx overnight everything? Ridiculous!") and yet here we are. When there is demand, supply will rise to meet it almost every time. Someone will figure out the logistics to make this work and become the Amazon of food (perhaps Amazon?).

yalogin 6y ago
Well theoretically you are right but practically speaking even amazon couldn’t really change distance. The whole allure of shipping things from a warehouse and not paying rent is true but at the end of the day amazon ended up setting warehouses all over the country to meet the demand for same day delivery. So it did reduce the real estate costs but it’s still has to stock all items close to the customer. So the efficiency is in cutting display and showroom costs. Food doesn’t fall under that category as it’s very different even from perishable grocery items. That is the source of skepticism. I agree there is demand but it only means that the business will never die, doesn’t mean that it’s going to overhaul the industry. Let’s see though. I do hope some innovative idea comes along.