4 ms·

The Great Grocery Game

23 points by ruswick 14y ago

TannerLD 14y ago
Very detailed analysis of different grocery services. I love how the items that were selected with some additional information (freshest milk, ripe avocado, etc…).
Shivetya 14y ago
Interesting to see so much difference between three similar services on the same area. Though I do not understand why you felt having a woman on one team made it better. Seems as this heavily biased the results.
- teej 14y ago
  I expected most of the services to screw up on the avocado, that's why I made it part of the order. When the Postmate got it right we speculated over why. The answer we came to is that women are more likely to closely evaluate produce. After talking to some of the services, it turns out that women are overwhelmingly better shoppers. I assume this is because culturally women grocery shop more than men.
  - moogleii 14y ago
    I would edit that into the post. Right now, "It's hard to say whether this was due to the startup or because the competitor was a female and thus had more attention to detail" sounds quite different.
ceeK 14y ago
How does this sort of service compare to direct supermarket delivery? Seems like they can significantly reduce overheads due to bulking the deliveries, although at the expense of speciality requests (i.e. ripe avocado).
chris_han 14y ago
This is awesome. Love the timeline diagram, and that you held the grocery items constant.
brian_wendt 14y ago
Wow, just wow. Life hack for the win. As for female vs male shoppers I'd disagree with that women make better shoppers. What I would agree on is that in America there are more women doing grocery shopping which means your odds of having a women deliverer do better is good. However I'd argue that in this case Exec just provides a more thorough service hence the extra cost. My wife classically falls victim to marketing ploys and fancy packaging rather than getting the best deal. She often doesn't remember what supplies we already have at the house so I end up with a new bag of powdered sugar every holiday season.

23 points by ruswick 14y ago

Very detailed analysis of different grocery services. I love how the items that were selected with some additional information (freshest milk, ripe avocado, etc…).

Shivetya 14y ago

Interesting to see so much difference between three similar services on the same area. Though I do not understand why you felt having a woman on one team made it better. Seems as this heavily biased the results.

teej 14y ago
I expected most of the services to screw up on the avocado, that's why I made it part of the order. When the Postmate got it right we speculated over why. The answer we came to is that women are more likely to closely evaluate produce. After talking to some of the services, it turns out that women are overwhelmingly better shoppers. I assume this is because culturally women grocery shop more than men.
- moogleii 14y ago
  I would edit that into the post. Right now, "It's hard to say whether this was due to the startup or because the competitor was a female and thus had more attention to detail" sounds quite different.

ceeK 14y ago

How does this sort of service compare to direct supermarket delivery? Seems like they can significantly reduce overheads due to bulking the deliveries, although at the expense of speciality requests (i.e. ripe avocado).

chris_han 14y ago

This is awesome. Love the timeline diagram, and that you held the grocery items constant.

brian_wendt 14y ago

Wow, just wow. Life hack for the win. As for female vs male shoppers I'd disagree with that women make better shoppers. What I would agree on is that in America there are more women doing grocery shopping which means your odds of having a women deliverer do better is good. However I'd argue that in this case Exec just provides a more thorough service hence the extra cost. My wife classically falls victim to marketing ploys and fancy packaging rather than getting the best deal. She often doesn't remember what supplies we already have at the house so I end up with a new bag of powdered sugar every holiday season.