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I do technical consulting for the grocery business. The grocery industry is a lot of fun -- lots of extremely hard technical challenges and interesting CS probl

I do technical consulting for the grocery business. The grocery industry is a lot of fun -- lots of extremely hard technical challenges and interesting CS problems, but also lots of low hanging fruit in the way of painful manual process. Couple this with the fact that the grocery marketplace is dynamic in the extreme. Prices and availability of items in categories like produce change on a daily if not hourly cadence. And it's all about relationships, which is something nearly every startup in this space misses, which is why nearly all of them fail faster and harder than they do in other industries. You won't get far if you're thinking in terms of replacing people with APIs. Anyway, I'm excited to see what the next ten years will bring here.

ollieglass 6y ago
> And it's all about relationships, which is something nearly every startup in this space misses, which is why nearly all of them fail faster and harder than they do in other industries. Could you expand on this? It's not clear from the outside how this would be such a central part of the industry.
- bruiseralmighty 6y ago
  Not the original poster, but I also work in the grocery services industry with a startup that does door-to-door grocery delivery. My guess is this person meant relationships with the farmers and producers being critical. At least this is true for us. If you want the freshest produce and other local items, then you need to know the farmers and other vendors in your area. If you want to go mass market instead, then there are only a few wholesalers to choose from.
  - gundmc 6y ago
    Not even just that, in CPG store managers typically have a lot of autonomy in what SKUs get carried, how many placements of each, what shelf locations, etc. It's not easy for a small to mid-sized brand to try to get their product into stores when each physical brick and mortar store is a pitch in and of itself. So what ends up happening is brands partner with Agencies who specialize in building relationships with each of the store managers in a region and advocating for all of the brands in their portfolio. I realize this is a step removed from Instacart and delivery services, but the whole industry tends to operate in a similar interpersonal/relationship-based way.

ollieglass 6y ago

> And it's all about relationships, which is something nearly every startup in this space misses, which is why nearly all of them fail faster and harder than they do in other industries. Could you expand on this? It's not clear from the outside how this would be such a central part of the industry.

bruiseralmighty 6y ago
Not the original poster, but I also work in the grocery services industry with a startup that does door-to-door grocery delivery. My guess is this person meant relationships with the farmers and producers being critical. At least this is true for us. If you want the freshest produce and other local items, then you need to know the farmers and other vendors in your area. If you want to go mass market instead, then there are only a few wholesalers to choose from.
- gundmc 6y ago
  Not even just that, in CPG store managers typically have a lot of autonomy in what SKUs get carried, how many placements of each, what shelf locations, etc. It's not easy for a small to mid-sized brand to try to get their product into stores when each physical brick and mortar store is a pitch in and of itself. So what ends up happening is brands partner with Agencies who specialize in building relationships with each of the store managers in a region and advocating for all of the brands in their portfolio. I realize this is a step removed from Instacart and delivery services, but the whole industry tends to operate in a similar interpersonal/relationship-based way.