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Grocery stores operate with razor thin margins of 2%. Pickup is more labor intensive and hastily scaled up COVID-19 pickup runs at a -5% profit. It’s better tha
by supertrope 5y ago
Grocery stores operate with razor thin margins of 2%. Pickup is more labor intensive and hastily scaled up COVID-19 pickup runs at a -5% profit. It’s better than no sales but is inherently a luxury service in a market with customers who are not willing to pay extra. Even Whole Foods had to find an exit as mainstream and discount grocers started grabbing organic market share.
- SamuelAdams 5y agoYeah, I worked at Meijer when they introduced their curbside pickup. It was a challenge getting that profitable. They had to have extra coolers for meats and other products that needed to be kept cool until the customer arrived. They ended up just raising prices on all products purchased through Shipt (instacart) or through curbside. Most people don’t notice that a pack of batteries is 5.49 in store versus 5.99 in the app. Some big ticket items, like Xboxes or other digital items, where customers generally know the price, were not increased. But in general it worked out well and became profitable.