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Instacart Launches Costco
- nthitz 13y agoHm interesting that you don't need an existing Costco membership. I hope they are able to expand service beyond SF!
- apoorvamehta 13y agoWe plan to have Costco available as we launch other cities wherever it is logistically practical.
- stonemetal 13y agoYou can buy off costco's website without a membership. They just tack on a 5% fee for doing so.
- titlex 13y agoWhy do they force you to sign up? That could potentially turn away customers.
- fomojola 13y agoProbably the increase in revenue from having people signup is more than (or is expected to be more than) the loss from people opting out. They look like they're doing well so I'll assume it is working out for them.
- andyakb 13y agoDo the terms of costcos membership agreement allow them to do this, or did they negotiate a separate agreement?
- niggler 13y ago"the fee associated with delivery from its stores will be higher, clocking in at $9.99 for your collection of items, stiffer than the normal $3.99 rate." I'm sure Costco is getting a portion of that fee.
- benatkin 13y agoI'm not. It takes a long time to make it through a Costco, and the higher cost may simply be passing on the extra labor cost to customers. Also I think the distance to travel would be longer on average than, for example, Safeway.
- qiqing 13y agoThis is excellent news for Chez JJ. Thank you Instacart, you just made our hacker house network more scalable.
- rdl 13y agoWow, this is awesome. It works even better for Costco than most places since Costco inventory is fairly consistent, so ordering in advance is fine.
- seeingfurther 13y agoI love Instacart... that is all. Please branch to NYC soon!
- lanstein 13y agoWe in SF really do take for granted that we get all of these services at launch.
- seeingfurther 13y agoAgreed. I'm moving to NYC and I'm realizing this fact just now knowing Instacart isn't in NYC yet.
- brianbreslin 13y agofreshdirect is in nyc, i hear its fantastic.
- filmgirlcw 13y agoyah it totally is. It's cheaper than most of the supermarkets too and stuff is fresh (per the name). Plus they'll carry your groceries up the stairs for you, which is great if you're on a third-floor walk-up during the summer.
- filmgirlcw 13y agoInstacart isn't but Fresh Direct is and is honestly usually cheaper, even with delivery fees, than it would be buying from the local grocery store. And since the city doesn't have many regular grocery stores -- in Brooklyn you have some of the various NSA (National Supermarket Association) stores, but frankly most of them suck. If you ARE lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe's (and keep in mind, you'll need to be in walking distance or be willing to take the subway with your bags), prepare for lines from hell. I wouldn't go to Costco without a car -- and since you've really only got Long Island City, the one in Brooklyn Heights and the one on 117th Street, traffic is going to SUCK. To that end, I'm not even sure if a thing like Instacart would work with NYC because most of our grocery stores -- aside from Walgreens/Duane Reade and CVS are local bodegas that you're lucky if they take credit cards, let alone have a consistent inventory system. In the suburbs like Long Island or maybe parts of Staten Island, but not in Brooklyn or in Manhattan (can't speak for the other 2 boroughs but I assume Queens and the Bronx would be hard too). Anyway, long comment short -- Fresh Direct. Oh, and ZocDoc for finding a doctor. Those are the two startups (aside from Seamless and GrubHub) that totally made my first two years in NYC.
- ianb 13y agoCan someone tell me how exactly Instacart is working this? Do they have an agreement with Costco? (I'm guessing not.) Do they have individual shoppers who just do their thing as though they were individuals, and then deliver? Are those individuals employees or freelancers? I'm guessing Costco would be a bit reluctant to formally allow something like this, as I also presume that one reason they get lower prices from suppliers is that they only sell to members, so there is less of a perception that a supplier is undercutting other retailers by letting Costco sell at a reduced price. A sort of price discrimination... but if stuff gets resold without a markup to bring the price in line with other retailers it would make their negotiations more difficult.
- thetrb 13y agoI don't know the answer to your question, but isn't Instacart free to resell anything they bought at Costco? So would they even need an agreement from them?
- filmgirlcw 13y agoBecause Costco is a paid membership service. I assume reselling is against their membership agreement. It'd be difficult to enforce, especially on the scale they probably operate at, but still. EDIT: It's not. I somehow assumed it would be. Interesting to know it isn't.
- cleverjake 13y agoFormer Costco employee here - nope. A lot of the point of the store is reselling large items to small companies. Not many families need gallon jugs of butter or 100lbs bags of rice, but tons of restaurants do. That being said, the reselling is normally for people who do something with it (ie cook the food, print with the ink, etc), not turn around and sell the exact same product.
- rdouble 13y agoWhen I lived in the Mission the guys who ran the bodega across the street bought half the stuff they sold from the SOMA Costco.
- mnicole 13y agoThis alone would have me as a customer in Portland, but I agree with titlex that forcing a signup modal before I can peruse the site is really unfriendly.
- mattlong 13y agoI used Instacart for the first time yesterday to have Trader Joe's delivered. It was awesome! Their website shopping experience could use a little TLC, but other than that it was solid.
- apoorvamehta 13y agoThanks! Would love to hear your feedback: happycustomers@instacart.com
- kategleason 13y agoas a user I have never been more excited!! this is so awesome :)
- brianbreslin 13y agoHow do they get the inventory of a costco if it isn't officially sanctioned by costco? Do they buy the stuff on their corporate card then charge you on yours and bank off the $10 fee? I don't live in an instacart location, so am not sure how their biz model works (sounds like peapod).
- lelandbatey 13y agoAs someone who lives outside the valley, I feel so weird seeing articles like this. I think they bother me because they illustrate just how much this whole universe of tech is totally rooted in a single geographic area. In anything else, changes in a business that had such a tiny area of influence would not make the news next to stories on international business. I shouldn't feel so bothered about this, but I do.
- ebbv 13y agoAs another person far, far outside the valley these kinds of stories annoy me too. But, they make it up the list because they get voted up. So we're on a valley centric site, so it's the price we pay.
- pg 13y agoRooted in doesn't mean intrinsically limited to. Apple and Google are also rooted in the Valley in the sense that their original users were here. But anything sufficiently good becomes ubiquitous. And incidentally, Instacart may well be such a thing. The effect it's had on my life is almost entirely a function of having small children rather than being part of the startup world.
- lelandbatey 13y agoHaving typed my previous comment on my phone, I think I'd like to expand on what I was feeling: When I read HN, I think of it as a place for news that appeals to the mind of a "hacker". That's the "box" that it inhabits in my mind. When I see posts like this one though, I'm reminded that there's a very large bias towards things going on in a relatively small area or set of areas (SF, NYC, Boston, Austin, maybe Seattle). I think my feelings on seeing this post are just facing the reality of these natural biases. Also, I'd like to say that these biases aren't a bad thing. It's natural when lots of people with the same interests live in just a few places. But it does exist, and it gives me a bit of a mental jolt when I run across them. ----- Also, I agree with the sentiment that "anything sufficiently good will become ubiquitous." I've live(d) in the Seattle area all my life, and services like Amazon Fresh are wonderful for more than just people living the startup lifestyle.
- ttrreeww 13y agoSo.. it's 1999 again?
- pg 13y agoWhat?
- zachlatta 13y agoI think they're referring to the dotcom era when other companies tried same-day delivery.
- seeingfurther 13y agoI think that was a typo and what he really meant was that the future has arrived! I'm never wondering around Trader Joe's looking for shit again. Instacart rules.
- kevingibbon 13y agokozmo.com reference
- lifeformed 13y agoUgh I can't even look at the Instacart page without having to sign in. I don't even live in the valley, I just wanted to check out their page.
- pyrocat 13y agoHurry up and come to Seattle!
- reaclmbs 13y agoOh my god. If this includes berry ice cream delivery I will be a happy man.
- rdl 13y agoWill you deliver non-food items from Costco? Are there weight/size limits?