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When autonomous grocery delivery becomes common, that's going to be huge for people without cars. Obviously you can already get delivery from Whole Foods, Fres
by crazygringo 1y ago
When autonomous grocery delivery becomes common, that's going to be huge for people without cars.
Obviously you can already get delivery from Whole Foods, FreshDirect, etc., but it's expensive due to the drivers.
And public transport and bikeshares are great for transporting you, but not for trying to carry four or six bags of groceries along with you.
- Zambyte 1y agoIf people were legally allowed to live near grocery stores, they wouldn't feel the need to carry four to six bags of groceries along with them.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago> If people were legally allowed to live near grocery stores What are you talking about? What backwaters country is this? In many places in the world, people live literally on top of grocery stores, such law would be ridiculed until the law makers have to socially isolate themselves if they tried to come up with something so stupid.
- Zambyte 1y agoThe US, which is where Phoenix is. And yes, my point is that we (in the US) should have walkable (and bikeable) cities, like much of the rest of the world.
- xnx 1y ago100 yards isn't a walkable distance in Phoenix in the summer.
- Zambyte 1y agoYes it is.
- xnx 1y agoI wouldn't want any elderly person I knew walking that distance in any of the 3 weeks Phoenix typically spends over 100 degrees (even hotter over pavement).
- Zambyte 1y ago100 yards is less than a block. Did you mean to say a longer distance? And yeah, walkable cities includes infrastructure that does not magnify the sun at pedestrians (see: shade, plants)
- asdff 1y agoYou know what desert cultures around the world do to avoid this phenomenon? They just go outside in the mornings and evenings.
- afavour 1y agoI assume OP is talking about US zoning laws which separate residential zones from commercial ones.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y agoBut in cities and towns you must have mixed zoning like the rest of the world?
- evandev 1y ago> the median distance to the nearest food store for the overall U.S. population was 0.9 miles, with 40 percent of the U.S. population living more than 1 mile from a food store. The median distance to the third-nearest food store for the overall population was 1.7 miles. When the ERS researchers looked at rural food store access, they found that the median distance to the nearest and the third-nearest food store was 3.1 miles and 6.1 miles, respectively. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/june/u-s-shoppers-access-to-multiple-food-stores-varies-by-region https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/june/u-s-shoppers-...
- macNchz 1y agoThe great majority of development in American cities over the last 75 years has been single-use, with neighborhoods of exclusively single-family houses separated from nearby commercial strips with big parking lots along wide roads. The downtown/center of older cities may still have mixed use, and there have been changes happening in recent years to allow/build more apartments and mixed use areas, but, generally outside of the densest parts of the largest cities commercial and residential areas are required to be separate, with personal cars as the primary/only way to get between them. This has been a bit of a self-reinforcing phenomenon, IMO, as car-first infrastructure puts people at the mercy of traffic congestion, and means that any apartment building or business in their vicinity will result in more cars passing through, more congestion, more competition for parking, as well as the presence of the large parking lots that cities mandate for any new construction, which themselves make it unpleasant to get around in any other way.
- devilbunny 1y ago
- grim_io 1y agoBless your non-merican heart :_)
- arrosenberg 1y agoThey are talking about US suburbs. For example, the house I grew up in is over a mile to the nearest grocery and you have to cross two large intersections on the way.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y agoThe intersection stuff sucks, but "over a mile" seems to be between 1.5 to 2km, is that considered far to walk in the US? Measuring where I go to have my morning coffee at a cafe each day, it seems to be 1.3km away, and I walk there and back every morning...
- arrosenberg 1y agoAre you carrying your groceries to the coffee shop? Also, walking places in US suburbs is a miserable experience, especially in the Southwest where it gets hot. Everything is spread out with large parking lots, sidewalks are a maybe, the roads are busy and there is no shade or sound dampening.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago> Are you carrying your groceries to the coffee shop? Obviously no. But where I lived ~20 years ago the nearest grocery was a 20 minute walk there and then 20 minute walk back with two or four shopping bags with stuff, and I wasn't the only one walking there when needing to do shopping. I think it's more common than not out in the world that things are far away so you need to spend awful amount of time on just getting places. Unless you live in a city of course.
- ragazzina 1y agoGo to Google Maps, drop the StreeView person anywhere in the US 10 times and count how many times you find yourself in a place where you would be happy to be walking right now. Try and look for sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. It's hard to understand the layout of American cities for the European and Asian mind. I've been to the US many times and I'm still shocked when I need to drive from this parking lot to that parking lot across the street because it would be dangerous and possibly illegal to just walk there.
- piperswe 1y agoMy grocery store is 3 miles (~5km) away with nearly zero sidewalks, and I live in the capital city of my state. America is a hellscape in that respect.
- JumpCrisscross 1y agoCounterpoint: my family in New Delhi regularly gets groceries (and booze and cigarettes and pet food) delivered. Convenience comes in many forms, and not everyone values the same elements similarly.
- cph123 1y agoJust for a bit of comparison... I'm in the UK and don't drive. It is a 10-min walk to a big Tesco superstore, which is really convenient. It is on my commute too (which I also walk, Uber if its raining heavily).
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> If people were legally allowed to live near grocery stores My rural grocery store is 1.9 mi away. I tend to shop a few times a week, and only for what I need.
- GoatInGrey 1y agoHow many bags is "only for what I need" and how large is your household?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> How many bags is "only for what I need" and how large is your household? Generally one bag, mostly produce. Maybe a meat I’ll cook that day. House size ranges from one to five. The only time I wind up with a full fridge is around holidays or when I have houseguests with food anxiety.
- ponector 1y agoThat is a US thing. They even have a term for it: food desert. As European it's hard to imagine a place where you cannot walk to a grocery store.
- toephu2 1y agoSame with Asia.
- yabones 1y agoIt's not inherently an American thing, it's the result of several mid-century zoning and urban design decisions. I used to live in a 1920s era "streetcar suburb" neighbourhood. I lived on the third floor, and the ground level was a full (but small) grocery store. I never spent more than ~$50 at a time on groceries because I only bought for a couple days at a time. The same decisions and laws that created the current system can be changed to take us back to the "norm" in the rest of the world.
- asdff 1y agoPeople have a lot of hyperbole about grocery store density. Pull up a random city and see how they are actually distributed. Even in flyover state metros grocery stores are basically evenly distributed 1-3 miles apart from the next across the entire urbanized/suburbanized area.
- standardUser 1y agoIn my California suburban hometown, half of the housing was in the hills and any store, let alone a grocery store, was effectively unwalkable.
- asdff 1y agoIts california. You have what 14 days of rain a year? Ebike. Done.
- Philip-J-Fry 1y agoThe solution is walkable towns/cities. Not deliveries hahaha.
- electriclove 1y agoSure, how has that worked over the past fifty years? Let’s try deliveries now and see if that helps
- Zambyte 1y agoWalkable cities have been working great since the dawn of cities. They continue to work fine where they are allowed to exist.
- crazygringo 1y agoThey've always been allowed to exist in the US. But the US also allows suburbs, and it turns out a ton of people prefer those, having backyards for their kids. I love cities but I'm also well aware that tons of people don't want to be stuck in cities.
- Zambyte 1y agoWalkable cities are actually illegal in much of the US due to zoning laws right now. The reason you don't see shops in residential suburban developments is not because there is no demand, it's because it's literally illegal. Having walkable and bikeable destinations is compatible with back yards. It just needs to be legal to build it.
- HDThoreaun 1y agoits illegal because the voters dont want it
- npteljes 1y agoTo me it looks like lobbies have more power than voters.
- cudgy 1y ago“… but it's expensive due to the drivers.“ Really? Drivers only get paid 2 to 3 dollars per delivery from DoorDash and UberEats. These companies are predatory and pay the drivers less than it cost the drivers to deliver. So now these companies will assume all the costs instead of passing the cost down to the drivers? How does that make them more profitable? Maybe there’s some DoorDash or Uber eaters here that can explain my confusion.
- trenchpilgrim 1y agoRight, unless the drivers are using ebikes or scooters, they're paying more in vehicle maintenance and gas than they're making in fees.
- cudgy 1y agoDon’t forget depreciation of the vehicle and the risk of an accident as well. Why would DoorDash want to assume all that responsibility when they have such a good legal scam against all their drivers right now? I call it a scam because DoorDash claims to not be taking the tips of drivers, but given the puny payouts per delivery the drivers lose money and time without the tips, so how can they claim they’re not taking the tips.
- boringg 1y agoGrocery shopping done by task rabbits / etc leaves things to be desired. Quality of choices on things. Maybe its good for staples and saving you time there.
- bombcar 1y agoWalmart will apparently delivery groceries to me for free under the right incantation. I don't know how much advantage autonomy will add to that.
- spike021 1y agoGrocery delivery services are already ruining the regular supermarkets. My local grocery store used to always have fresh stock and full shelves. For the past year or two I've noticed a rapid increase in delivery shoppers who typically have 2-3 hand baskets or 2 full carts with them in aisles and clearing out shelves of food.
- crazygringo 1y agoThat doesn't make any sense. People aren't eating more food. Before they just had to go themselves. And supermarkets restock constantly throughout the day from the back.
- asdff 1y agoFunny that you think the autonomous offerings pass the savings to the human customer.