8 ms·

AmazonFresh Has Launched in Bay Area

78 points by dko 13y ago

rhizome 13y ago
Double-parking quick delivery trucks remind me of nothing but the 2000 bubble. Here's one way too big for the parking spot about to block a fire hydrant in the Upper Haight just last night: http://imgur.com/61lAhjW http://imgur.com/61lAhjW
- nickpinkston 13y ago
  |Here's one way too big for the parking spot Just like every delivery truck ever...
- hnriot 13y ago
  that looks more like the driver was just stopping at the stop sign!
pws5068 13y ago
Interesting that they're opening with a different price model than Seattle's. $299/year and according to GeekWire their groceries are approximately 14% higher than in-store. http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-solving-economics-grocery-delivery/ http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-...
- bluedino 13y ago
  I would pay a 14% premium to not have to go to the grocery store after work.
  - adamnemecek 13y ago
    The selection is somewhat underwhelming though.
    - jmelloy 13y ago
      And has been getting worse. We've used them in Seattle for a couple years, and the prices keep going up and selection going down.
      - lh7777 13y ago
        I still use Amazon Fresh in Seattle, but I wish there was an acceptable alternative. I'm seeing the same thing - prices, delivery fees, minimum orders going up, selection constantly decreasing. I can walk to small local groceries and farmer's markets for fresh stuff, but Amazon's still my best option for getting the boring stuff without getting in the car.
  - sanskritabelt 13y ago
    I kind of like grocery shopping, especially if it's in a decent store that has enough registers open and where the vegetables aren't molding on the shelves and the cans aren't all dented.
    - ars_technician 13y ago
      Yeah, I can't stand to eat food that came from a dented can...
      - sanskritabelt 13y ago
        Dents in the wrong place can let in air and spoil the food inside.
        fourstar 13y ago
        Clostridium botulinum.
magic5227 13y ago
The annual price seems prohibitively expensive, especially compared to services like Instacart. They don't seem to be offering a very good argument for why the service is worth the cost IMO.
- silencio 13y ago
  I could almost kind of justify it if the selection were better (especially since they also deliver from local businesses and offer Amazon.com items), but everything I tried to buy today was either completely unavailable (cat litter and chicken sausage), or only available next day (super fancy chicken sausage from some local meat market that I could just go and get myself today in 10 minutes), and I couldn't purchase an order under $35 even if I wanted to pay more on top of the still inflated prices. Amazon also offered up breastmilk storage bags when I tried searching for gallon milk. Iiiinnnnteresting. I really wanted an alternative to Instacart and Google Shopping Express especially for the random Amazon items I'd want to throw in and a little more competition (really missing Trader Joes delivery), but I'm pretty disappointed so far. I was in Seattle this past weekend and I was super pumped to try it just to buy a water kettle for my hotel room and going all "I wish this were in SF!" but I can't actually find anything that I want to buy at home that would come faster/better than regular Prime shipping or competing services. I ended up ordering from Instacart with almost everything I wanted instead because I was so frustrated (and I would walk to the local market but I'm sick). Easily would have been willing to migrate my grocery shopping to any service but they're all kind of shitty so :(
  - octernion 13y ago
    Just out of curiousity, what are you looking for in a delivery service that Google Shopping Express/Instacart does not offer?
evmar 13y ago
I tried Google Shopping Express (a similar idea) for a while and found that what really matters is how delivery works. I'm typically at work all day and I (like most San Franciscans?) don't have a doorman to receive deliveries. These Amazon pages don't say much, but they show pictures of delivery trucks in front of Victorians like mine and a grocery bag on a welcome mat. If they left a bag full of food in my entryway like that it'd probably last 20 minutes before being stolen.
- williamcotton 13y ago
  I've got a storage space with Extra Space Storage and if you leave a key with them they'll put your deliveries in your locker for you. It is really convenient! I've got just a small 5x5 room that costs me like $90/month... Along with deliveries I keep my winter gear, backpacking gear, and all sorts of other stuff that I don't really need sitting around me house. Disclaimer: I don't work for these guys, have any investments, or anything to gain, I just like the service.
  - evmar 13y ago
    That's an interesting solution. It seems to me if you have to go to a storage space to pick up you groceries you could just as well go to a grocery store to pick up your groceries, couldn't you?
    - mcpherrinm 13y ago
      At least half the convenience of Instacart for me is ordering my groceries from a computer: It allows me to plan meals, look up recipes, and check nutritional information. And using search is easier than wandering around a grocery store.
- mcpherrinm 13y ago
  You have the option of "Attended Delivery" with Fresh, where they make sure to hand it over to you, or doorstep, where they leave it outside. In my current neighbourhood (South Bay) I have no trouble with unattended delivery and prefer not worrying about being home in time for my Google Shopping Express deliveries, but it would be totally different living in San Francisco.
rahilsondhi 13y ago
I wonder how Instacart feels.
- HorizonXP 13y ago
  Probably pretty good since: a) It validates their idea. b) They just launched in Boston today. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/12/instacart_introduces_neighbor-.html http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/12/in...
user1239321421 13y ago
Odd ... all big supermarket chains do this in all of the UK. My Tesco delivery is arriving in the next 20 minutes ... plus no annual charge over here.
- bbosh 13y ago
  But delivery isn't free, and if you are a regular user you can pay £120 per year for all inclusive delivery with Tesco Delivery Saver.
  - ulfw 13y ago
    Amazon's is a ridiculous $299/year!
- ulfw 13y ago
  Yea but if it's in the Bay Area it's news worthy innovation. (e.g. I ordered food from NTUC, Carrefour (when they were still around) and Cold Storage super market websites for delivery in Singapore three, four years ago. They have done it even longer than that)
mlyang 13y ago
Interesting to see a new spin on this. Webvan was one of the biggest busts of the dot com era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan) -- interesting that Amazon resurrected it..
- colinsidoti 13y ago
  More interesting... They bought Kiva Systems for $775 million from Mick Mountz, a former Webvan employee who identified warehouse fulfillment as a prohibitive cost in delivering groceries. http://www.kivasystems.com/about-us-the-kiva-approach/management-team/mick-mountz http://www.kivasystems.com/about-us-the-kiva-approach/manage... It's unclear if Amazon has actually started using Kiva, though. Does anyone know? That 60 minutes special didn't show them using it. Edit: Changed from "the prohibitive cost" to "a prohibitive cost."
  - yajoe 13y ago
    > It's unclear if Amazon has actually started using Kiva, though. Yeah. They use them a lot. A lot, a lot. It was cheaper to buy the company than pay to outfit every FC. All newish fulfillment centers ( http://www.amazonfulfillmentcareers.com/amazon-fulfillment/locations/ http://www.amazonfulfillmentcareers.com/amazon-fulfillment/l... ) are divided into "kiva" and "non-kiva" areas. I think there is only one FC that is fully "kiva," but it may be as many as 3 now. Details are NDA.
- noise 13y ago
  Webvan was the best thing born of the 1st dotcom era, sadly it was unsustainable. Their timing was perfect for me - I was car-less in SF with kids and the local grocery store had recently gone under leaving me with a bus trip in order to grocery shop. Delivery to my 3rd floor walkup was awfully nice in comparison and well worth the approx. 10% markup. They had really nice crates too, I have 3 that I still use for various things.
bhewes 13y ago
I wonder if this is an experiment to bring all Amazon shipping in house? This would fit with their huge distribution system build out across the globe. In the meantime Amazon's relationship with UPS and FedEx is not disturbed.
cma 13y ago
Impressively they are accepting VISA, MasterCard, and Flooz
- wpietri 13y ago
  So close! I was hoping to finally be able to spend my Beenz.
r00fus 13y ago
Here in the south bay I don't have InstaCart, but my local Safeway does deliver. The experience isn't the best (someone has to be there and sign) but a) I have a nanny and b) I don't pay $299 or 14% more for the items.. in fact, I would pay less as I don't carry a loyalty card, but deliveries give you the loyalty price (presumably, they collect the same kind of info anyway).
- thetrb 13y ago
  Serious question: Why would you sign up for the delivery with all of your information but not for the loyalty card?
  - r00fus 13y ago
    It's a matter of I don't want to carry the card around with me, and I'm lazy - I'll do all the signup for the convenience of delivery, but just lower prices? - not worth my time - at the counter I can usually whine and convince them to use their "default" loyalty card, and get the lower prices with no "tracking".
wehadfun 13y ago
What we need is another kind of mail box. A "AmazonBox", but takes deliveries from other companies as well. Big, refrigerated, with a public/private key.
- Aaronontheweb 13y ago
  Amazon does have Amazon Lockers - the 7/11 down the street from me has them. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=...
  - wehadfun 13y ago
    Dam
  - discodave 13y ago
    Yes but going down to the 7/11 to pick up your groceries defeats the point of delivering groceries. People need lockers at their house or at the very least the nearest street corner.
dmamills 13y ago
As an daily HN reader and Canadian from a very small town, you guys in San Fran live in a very strange bubble.
- augustflanagan 13y ago
  This isn't a new service, it's just new to San Francisco. It's been running for 6 years in Seattle.
  - winslow 13y ago
    I've seen it around LA as well.
radley 13y ago
Curious what "San Francisco Area" means. I can only get Fresh in San Francisco, not Oakland. Maybe down the peninsula?
- robbiet480 13y ago
  The interesting thing about that, is I can order Homeroom (a restaurant in Oakland) delivery, but not to my house, 10 blocks down Broadway
- mikegreco 13y ago
  It isn't available in Santa Clara, so it's certainly not the whole peninsula.
- philip1209 13y ago
  North Beach doesn't seem covered.
- georgechen 13y ago
  I'm at North of Berkeley. Just check. Doesn't go that far yet.
- ericd 13y ago
  Not in MV. Sounds like it just means some arbitrary part of SF.
thefallsman 13y ago
Has anyone noticed that they give you gigantic bags for free? Our office (LA not SF) orders fresh all the time for basic food and they always give us enormous re-usable bags. I'm trying to figure out, are they doing this on purpose (paper bags would be cheaper)? I'm assuming they are, hoping that you'll go shopping and use their cool bags and using this as a method of free advertising.
- machinagod 13y ago
  At least in Seattle they do ask to get the bags back, although it's not enforced (we once got a number of dry ice freeze packs as well). The packs are also cold-keeping, so I wonder if that makes the paper-bag alternative moot.
CRowlands 13y ago
I wish they would do this in Philly I currently Use PeaPod by Giant.
smackfu 13y ago
Wow, one avocado for $1.25. Aren't they usually a lot cheaper than that in the Bay Area? That's like East Coast prices.
- msoad 13y ago
  No I buy avocados at Safeway for $1.50/ea
  - thesis 13y ago
    Also that price in the Houston, TX area.
  - Eliezer 13y ago
    $.50 at Grocery Outlet in El Cerrito.
southpawgirl 13y ago
Isn't $299 a year a lot of money? Here in London the major supermarkets have time slots where they deliver for free (typically late in the evening), but even a prime time delivery, let's say, Sunday morning, costs no more than £5. The most upmarket online vendor, Ocado, offers one year of free deliveries, anytime, for £40. Ok, there's also Amazon Prime thrown in, which is good; and I suppose that in the Bay Area the average delivery journey is longer than in London. Still, it seems a bit steep to me. Maybe it tries to place itself as a luxury service in the Amazon range?
brent_noorda 13y ago
Amazon now has it's own delivery fleet. UPS and FedEx are F'ed?
petesid 13y ago
I wish it was better but I decided not to use them anymore... wrote a blog post about it http://petersid.com/why-you-shouldnt-use-amazon-fresh/ http://petersid.com/why-you-shouldnt-use-amazon-fresh/

78 points by dko 13y ago

Double-parking quick delivery trucks remind me of nothing but the 2000 bubble. Here's one way too big for the parking spot about to block a fire hydrant in the Upper Haight just last night: http://imgur.com/61lAhjW http://imgur.com/61lAhjW

nickpinkston 13y ago
|Here's one way too big for the parking spot Just like every delivery truck ever...
hnriot 13y ago
that looks more like the driver was just stopping at the stop sign!

pws5068 13y ago

Interesting that they're opening with a different price model than Seattle's. $299/year and according to GeekWire their groceries are approximately 14% higher than in-store. http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-solving-economics-grocery-delivery/ http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-...

bluedino 13y ago
I would pay a 14% premium to not have to go to the grocery store after work.
- adamnemecek 13y ago
  The selection is somewhat underwhelming though.
  - jmelloy 13y ago
    And has been getting worse. We've used them in Seattle for a couple years, and the prices keep going up and selection going down.
    - lh7777 13y ago
      I still use Amazon Fresh in Seattle, but I wish there was an acceptable alternative. I'm seeing the same thing - prices, delivery fees, minimum orders going up, selection constantly decreasing. I can walk to small local groceries and farmer's markets for fresh stuff, but Amazon's still my best option for getting the boring stuff without getting in the car.
- sanskritabelt 13y ago
  I kind of like grocery shopping, especially if it's in a decent store that has enough registers open and where the vegetables aren't molding on the shelves and the cans aren't all dented.
  - ars_technician 13y ago
    Yeah, I can't stand to eat food that came from a dented can...
    - sanskritabelt 13y ago
      Dents in the wrong place can let in air and spoil the food inside.
      - fourstar 13y ago
        Clostridium botulinum.

magic5227 13y ago

The annual price seems prohibitively expensive, especially compared to services like Instacart. They don't seem to be offering a very good argument for why the service is worth the cost IMO.

silencio 13y ago
I could almost kind of justify it if the selection were better (especially since they also deliver from local businesses and offer Amazon.com items), but everything I tried to buy today was either completely unavailable (cat litter and chicken sausage), or only available next day (super fancy chicken sausage from some local meat market that I could just go and get myself today in 10 minutes), and I couldn't purchase an order under $35 even if I wanted to pay more on top of the still inflated prices. Amazon also offered up breastmilk storage bags when I tried searching for gallon milk. Iiiinnnnteresting. I really wanted an alternative to Instacart and Google Shopping Express especially for the random Amazon items I'd want to throw in and a little more competition (really missing Trader Joes delivery), but I'm pretty disappointed so far. I was in Seattle this past weekend and I was super pumped to try it just to buy a water kettle for my hotel room and going all "I wish this were in SF!" but I can't actually find anything that I want to buy at home that would come faster/better than regular Prime shipping or competing services. I ended up ordering from Instacart with almost everything I wanted instead because I was so frustrated (and I would walk to the local market but I'm sick). Easily would have been willing to migrate my grocery shopping to any service but they're all kind of shitty so :(
- octernion 13y ago
  Just out of curiousity, what are you looking for in a delivery service that Google Shopping Express/Instacart does not offer?

evmar 13y ago

I tried Google Shopping Express (a similar idea) for a while and found that what really matters is how delivery works. I'm typically at work all day and I (like most San Franciscans?) don't have a doorman to receive deliveries. These Amazon pages don't say much, but they show pictures of delivery trucks in front of Victorians like mine and a grocery bag on a welcome mat. If they left a bag full of food in my entryway like that it'd probably last 20 minutes before being stolen.

williamcotton 13y ago
I've got a storage space with Extra Space Storage and if you leave a key with them they'll put your deliveries in your locker for you. It is really convenient! I've got just a small 5x5 room that costs me like $90/month... Along with deliveries I keep my winter gear, backpacking gear, and all sorts of other stuff that I don't really need sitting around me house. Disclaimer: I don't work for these guys, have any investments, or anything to gain, I just like the service.
- evmar 13y ago
  That's an interesting solution. It seems to me if you have to go to a storage space to pick up you groceries you could just as well go to a grocery store to pick up your groceries, couldn't you?
  - mcpherrinm 13y ago
    At least half the convenience of Instacart for me is ordering my groceries from a computer: It allows me to plan meals, look up recipes, and check nutritional information. And using search is easier than wandering around a grocery store.
mcpherrinm 13y ago
You have the option of "Attended Delivery" with Fresh, where they make sure to hand it over to you, or doorstep, where they leave it outside. In my current neighbourhood (South Bay) I have no trouble with unattended delivery and prefer not worrying about being home in time for my Google Shopping Express deliveries, but it would be totally different living in San Francisco.

rahilsondhi 13y ago

I wonder how Instacart feels.

HorizonXP 13y ago
Probably pretty good since: a) It validates their idea. b) They just launched in Boston today. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/12/instacart_introduces_neighbor-.html http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/12/in...

user1239321421 13y ago

Odd ... all big supermarket chains do this in all of the UK. My Tesco delivery is arriving in the next 20 minutes ... plus no annual charge over here.

bbosh 13y ago
But delivery isn't free, and if you are a regular user you can pay £120 per year for all inclusive delivery with Tesco Delivery Saver.
- ulfw 13y ago
  Amazon's is a ridiculous $299/year!
ulfw 13y ago
Yea but if it's in the Bay Area it's news worthy innovation. (e.g. I ordered food from NTUC, Carrefour (when they were still around) and Cold Storage super market websites for delivery in Singapore three, four years ago. They have done it even longer than that)

mlyang 13y ago

Interesting to see a new spin on this. Webvan was one of the biggest busts of the dot com era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan) -- interesting that Amazon resurrected it..

colinsidoti 13y ago
More interesting... They bought Kiva Systems for $775 million from Mick Mountz, a former Webvan employee who identified warehouse fulfillment as a prohibitive cost in delivering groceries. http://www.kivasystems.com/about-us-the-kiva-approach/management-team/mick-mountz http://www.kivasystems.com/about-us-the-kiva-approach/manage... It's unclear if Amazon has actually started using Kiva, though. Does anyone know? That 60 minutes special didn't show them using it. Edit: Changed from "the prohibitive cost" to "a prohibitive cost."
- yajoe 13y ago
  > It's unclear if Amazon has actually started using Kiva, though. Yeah. They use them a lot. A lot, a lot. It was cheaper to buy the company than pay to outfit every FC. All newish fulfillment centers ( http://www.amazonfulfillmentcareers.com/amazon-fulfillment/locations/ http://www.amazonfulfillmentcareers.com/amazon-fulfillment/l... ) are divided into "kiva" and "non-kiva" areas. I think there is only one FC that is fully "kiva," but it may be as many as 3 now. Details are NDA.
noise 13y ago
Webvan was the best thing born of the 1st dotcom era, sadly it was unsustainable. Their timing was perfect for me - I was car-less in SF with kids and the local grocery store had recently gone under leaving me with a bus trip in order to grocery shop. Delivery to my 3rd floor walkup was awfully nice in comparison and well worth the approx. 10% markup. They had really nice crates too, I have 3 that I still use for various things.

bhewes 13y ago

I wonder if this is an experiment to bring all Amazon shipping in house? This would fit with their huge distribution system build out across the globe. In the meantime Amazon's relationship with UPS and FedEx is not disturbed.

cma 13y ago

Impressively they are accepting VISA, MasterCard, and Flooz

wpietri 13y ago
So close! I was hoping to finally be able to spend my Beenz.

r00fus 13y ago

Here in the south bay I don't have InstaCart, but my local Safeway does deliver. The experience isn't the best (someone has to be there and sign) but a) I have a nanny and b) I don't pay $299 or 14% more for the items.. in fact, I would pay less as I don't carry a loyalty card, but deliveries give you the loyalty price (presumably, they collect the same kind of info anyway).

thetrb 13y ago
Serious question: Why would you sign up for the delivery with all of your information but not for the loyalty card?
- r00fus 13y ago
  It's a matter of I don't want to carry the card around with me, and I'm lazy - I'll do all the signup for the convenience of delivery, but just lower prices? - not worth my time - at the counter I can usually whine and convince them to use their "default" loyalty card, and get the lower prices with no "tracking".

wehadfun 13y ago

What we need is another kind of mail box. A "AmazonBox", but takes deliveries from other companies as well. Big, refrigerated, with a public/private key.

Aaronontheweb 13y ago
Amazon does have Amazon Lockers - the 7/11 down the street from me has them. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=...
- wehadfun 13y ago
  Dam
- discodave 13y ago
  Yes but going down to the 7/11 to pick up your groceries defeats the point of delivering groceries. People need lockers at their house or at the very least the nearest street corner.

dmamills 13y ago

As an daily HN reader and Canadian from a very small town, you guys in San Fran live in a very strange bubble.

augustflanagan 13y ago
This isn't a new service, it's just new to San Francisco. It's been running for 6 years in Seattle.
- winslow 13y ago
  I've seen it around LA as well.

radley 13y ago

Curious what "San Francisco Area" means. I can only get Fresh in San Francisco, not Oakland. Maybe down the peninsula?

robbiet480 13y ago
The interesting thing about that, is I can order Homeroom (a restaurant in Oakland) delivery, but not to my house, 10 blocks down Broadway
mikegreco 13y ago
It isn't available in Santa Clara, so it's certainly not the whole peninsula.
philip1209 13y ago
North Beach doesn't seem covered.
georgechen 13y ago
I'm at North of Berkeley. Just check. Doesn't go that far yet.
ericd 13y ago
Not in MV. Sounds like it just means some arbitrary part of SF.

thefallsman 13y ago

Has anyone noticed that they give you gigantic bags for free? Our office (LA not SF) orders fresh all the time for basic food and they always give us enormous re-usable bags. I'm trying to figure out, are they doing this on purpose (paper bags would be cheaper)? I'm assuming they are, hoping that you'll go shopping and use their cool bags and using this as a method of free advertising.

machinagod 13y ago
At least in Seattle they do ask to get the bags back, although it's not enforced (we once got a number of dry ice freeze packs as well). The packs are also cold-keeping, so I wonder if that makes the paper-bag alternative moot.

CRowlands 13y ago

I wish they would do this in Philly I currently Use PeaPod by Giant.

smackfu 13y ago

Wow, one avocado for $1.25. Aren't they usually a lot cheaper than that in the Bay Area? That's like East Coast prices.

msoad 13y ago
No I buy avocados at Safeway for $1.50/ea
- thesis 13y ago
  Also that price in the Houston, TX area.
- Eliezer 13y ago
  $.50 at Grocery Outlet in El Cerrito.

southpawgirl 13y ago

Isn't $299 a year a lot of money? Here in London the major supermarkets have time slots where they deliver for free (typically late in the evening), but even a prime time delivery, let's say, Sunday morning, costs no more than £5. The most upmarket online vendor, Ocado, offers one year of free deliveries, anytime, for £40. Ok, there's also Amazon Prime thrown in, which is good; and I suppose that in the Bay Area the average delivery journey is longer than in London. Still, it seems a bit steep to me. Maybe it tries to place itself as a luxury service in the Amazon range?

brent_noorda 13y ago

Amazon now has it's own delivery fleet. UPS and FedEx are F'ed?

petesid 13y ago

I wish it was better but I decided not to use them anymore... wrote a blog post about it http://petersid.com/why-you-shouldnt-use-amazon-fresh/ http://petersid.com/why-you-shouldnt-use-amazon-fresh/