5 ms·

The fast grocery delivery business was waiting on a crash. It doesn't make sense that there's Getir, gorillas, gopuff, zapp and beelivery. Plus deliveroo, Uber

The fast grocery delivery business was waiting on a crash. It doesn't make sense that there's Getir, gorillas, gopuff, zapp and beelivery. Plus deliveroo, Uber eats, and Amazon prime now. Probably more that I haven't heard of. All for inefficient delivery of small quantities of low value items. I have a supermarket a 5 minute walk away, I just don't get it.

ageitgey 4y ago
Every cohort of new startup founders reinvents Webvan when VC money is plentiful.
- danrocks 4y ago
  I feel there's a theorem here waiting to be formalized.
- thewarrior 4y ago
  Wow this is such a great line. I hope it becomes famous and you get credit for it :D
LightG 4y ago
Same. Absolutely bonkers but a few people on my street do use it so ... Honourable positive mention for Getir though. In our area, they were the first/only(?) one who invested in electric mopeds so we don't hear the incessant noise of mopeds going back and forth down our road. Hopefully this becomes the norm.
housingisaright 4y ago
Are these grocery-delivery services popular in the states / somwehere else? Never understood the market for them in the EU. Either you live in a city, have - at worst - 10-15 min to walk to a store, or you live outside a city where it is 10-15 min with a car to a store and the service is not available. They will die as soon as they stop subsidize the cost with VC money.
- nivenkos 4y ago
  It depends on the business. Amazon Go in Spain and the supermarket deliveries in the UK are hugely popular because a lot of people don't have cars in the larger cities - so it's very convenient to get everything delivered in one batch.
  - stedaniels 4y ago
    Supermarket deliveries are popular, but are third party delivery services for groceries? I don't have any stats, but anecdotally I'd say not.
    - capableweb 4y ago
      From people I know who uses them, it seems to be mostly useful because you can get things delivered to you in like one hour instead of having to have it delivered next week, which the service the supermarkets themselves offer. Some companies even can deliver groceries in just 10-15 minutes.
      - maccard 4y ago
        > you can get things delivered to you in like one hour instead of having to have it delivered next week, which the service the supermarkets themselves offer. I just checked Sainsburys (a major supermarket in the UK for anyone who doesn't know it), and I can book a delivery slot for 6 hours from now for £4. It's not an hour, but it's definitely not a week.
        sokoloff 4y ago
        If you or your partner is craving ice cream, chocolate, or something, 6 hours might mentally just round up to a week.
        capableweb 4y ago
        I checked all the major supermarkets in the south-western EU country I'm in for the week, all give me delivery times for next week, FWIW, YMMV and yadda yadda.
iLoveOncall 4y ago
The only use case for it is to get beers when you run out at a party or baby diapers in the middle of the night when everything is closed. I don't think this market would be enough for 1 of those startups, let alone the 10-ish we have.
ajsnigrutin 4y ago
It's great for old people without cars, so they can order a bunch of heavy/bulky items (drinks, toilet paper,...) and have it delivered. But this is usually handled by first party (store) deliveries and is not time-critical. with enough VC money, anyone can reinvent the wheel many times and fail at it.
tsimionescu 4y ago
I use such deliveries occasionally (Glovo, mostly) for items that are maybe a 30m+ walk away, and that I forgot to order. For example, I'm after work, I realize I'm out of cat food, I'm too tired to spend 1h+ walking, and taking a cab is as expensive (it also happens that public transport between this particular store and my home is really bad). So, I order a bag of cat food off Glovo and get it delivered 30m-1h later. If I ordered from the store it would arrive 2-4 days later, and I can't find the brand my cats eat anywhere closer. Now, this is just a small convenience - it won't change my life if the service goes away, and I don't use it often at all, but it's nice to have. I don't think they have any chance of making the money back on such order though.
Nextgrid 4y ago
The thing is, there is a business there but it only works with economies of scale. If they're constantly focused on eating each other it won't work because you have multiple "networks" each with a finite, unevenly-distributed share of supply (restaurants), delivery drivers and demand (customers) that can't share load between each other (so you end up with situations where one company's drivers doing nothing while another one doesn't have enough capacity - both end up losing money). A business providing ultra-fast courier service providing order matching & routing that otherwise stays neutral and charges a delivery fee (as opposed to skimming off the entire bill) would work.
- maury91 4y ago
  That is only partially true, at least here in Europe, I notice many riders and drivers working for multiple companies at the same time. So these company they do share load. You can notice this easily when you take an Uber and you put your trolley in the cargo and notice that there are a Bolt and an Uber eats thermal box
mrtksn 4y ago
Getir expanded into much more than grocery delivery, I use their food delivery quite often. They even do rent-a-car, taxi hailing and job board. Also, in Turkey, every major supermarket chain has its own delivery platform and they are quite popular. It's useful, you don't spend your time shopping for everyday necessities because you can quickly order and pay for your frequent purchases instead of riding a shopping cart for half an hour to pick up the exact same stuff every few days.
vshade 4y ago
I mostly used those during the height of the pandemic, with the restrictions on how many people could be inside an store and even how worried I was of getting sick with a small child at home and very far from my family. But now, I have lot's of options very close to home and very few worries (Although I mask myself when inside the store)

ageitgey 4y ago

Every cohort of new startup founders reinvents Webvan when VC money is plentiful.

danrocks 4y ago
I feel there's a theorem here waiting to be formalized.
thewarrior 4y ago
Wow this is such a great line. I hope it becomes famous and you get credit for it :D

LightG 4y ago

Same. Absolutely bonkers but a few people on my street do use it so ... Honourable positive mention for Getir though. In our area, they were the first/only(?) one who invested in electric mopeds so we don't hear the incessant noise of mopeds going back and forth down our road. Hopefully this becomes the norm.

housingisaright 4y ago

Are these grocery-delivery services popular in the states / somwehere else? Never understood the market for them in the EU. Either you live in a city, have - at worst - 10-15 min to walk to a store, or you live outside a city where it is 10-15 min with a car to a store and the service is not available. They will die as soon as they stop subsidize the cost with VC money.

nivenkos 4y ago
It depends on the business. Amazon Go in Spain and the supermarket deliveries in the UK are hugely popular because a lot of people don't have cars in the larger cities - so it's very convenient to get everything delivered in one batch.
- stedaniels 4y ago
  Supermarket deliveries are popular, but are third party delivery services for groceries? I don't have any stats, but anecdotally I'd say not.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    From people I know who uses them, it seems to be mostly useful because you can get things delivered to you in like one hour instead of having to have it delivered next week, which the service the supermarkets themselves offer. Some companies even can deliver groceries in just 10-15 minutes.
    - maccard 4y ago
      > you can get things delivered to you in like one hour instead of having to have it delivered next week, which the service the supermarkets themselves offer. I just checked Sainsburys (a major supermarket in the UK for anyone who doesn't know it), and I can book a delivery slot for 6 hours from now for £4. It's not an hour, but it's definitely not a week.
      - sokoloff 4y ago
        If you or your partner is craving ice cream, chocolate, or something, 6 hours might mentally just round up to a week.
      - capableweb 4y ago
        I checked all the major supermarkets in the south-western EU country I'm in for the week, all give me delivery times for next week, FWIW, YMMV and yadda yadda.

iLoveOncall 4y ago

The only use case for it is to get beers when you run out at a party or baby diapers in the middle of the night when everything is closed. I don't think this market would be enough for 1 of those startups, let alone the 10-ish we have.

ajsnigrutin 4y ago

It's great for old people without cars, so they can order a bunch of heavy/bulky items (drinks, toilet paper,...) and have it delivered. But this is usually handled by first party (store) deliveries and is not time-critical. with enough VC money, anyone can reinvent the wheel many times and fail at it.

tsimionescu 4y ago

I use such deliveries occasionally (Glovo, mostly) for items that are maybe a 30m+ walk away, and that I forgot to order. For example, I'm after work, I realize I'm out of cat food, I'm too tired to spend 1h+ walking, and taking a cab is as expensive (it also happens that public transport between this particular store and my home is really bad). So, I order a bag of cat food off Glovo and get it delivered 30m-1h later. If I ordered from the store it would arrive 2-4 days later, and I can't find the brand my cats eat anywhere closer. Now, this is just a small convenience - it won't change my life if the service goes away, and I don't use it often at all, but it's nice to have. I don't think they have any chance of making the money back on such order though.

Nextgrid 4y ago

The thing is, there is a business there but it only works with economies of scale. If they're constantly focused on eating each other it won't work because you have multiple "networks" each with a finite, unevenly-distributed share of supply (restaurants), delivery drivers and demand (customers) that can't share load between each other (so you end up with situations where one company's drivers doing nothing while another one doesn't have enough capacity - both end up losing money). A business providing ultra-fast courier service providing order matching & routing that otherwise stays neutral and charges a delivery fee (as opposed to skimming off the entire bill) would work.

maury91 4y ago
That is only partially true, at least here in Europe, I notice many riders and drivers working for multiple companies at the same time. So these company they do share load. You can notice this easily when you take an Uber and you put your trolley in the cargo and notice that there are a Bolt and an Uber eats thermal box

mrtksn 4y ago

Getir expanded into much more than grocery delivery, I use their food delivery quite often. They even do rent-a-car, taxi hailing and job board. Also, in Turkey, every major supermarket chain has its own delivery platform and they are quite popular. It's useful, you don't spend your time shopping for everyday necessities because you can quickly order and pay for your frequent purchases instead of riding a shopping cart for half an hour to pick up the exact same stuff every few days.

vshade 4y ago

I mostly used those during the height of the pandemic, with the restrictions on how many people could be inside an store and even how worried I was of getting sick with a small child at home and very far from my family. But now, I have lot's of options very close to home and very few worries (Although I mask myself when inside the store)