The world was ready for Webvan back then, it was taking off, but the fatal flaw was their legendary dot-com overspending did them in. The Webvan implosion was

The world was ready for Webvan back then, it was taking off, but the fatal flaw was their legendary dot-com overspending did them in. The Webvan implosion was so big that it left a lasting stigma around that entire business model that made people assume that you'd need a Webvan-size spending budget to ever attempt it again. Instacart has a clever twist of offloading the actual transportation and storage, the most expensive and complex aspect of grocery delivery, work onto self-appointed local providers who solve that hard part themselves independently of Instacart.