8 ms·

I never understood why Amazon doesn't just get into the drive-through market. As a consumer with children, it's a major hassle to go to the grocery store with

I never understood why Amazon doesn't just get into the drive-through market. As a consumer with children, it's a major hassle to go to the grocery store with my kids in tow. It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. The ideal solution would be for me to go to Amazon Fresh, pick my location so I can be assured that everything listed is in stock, and then do my shopping. On their end, the workers would pick the products from the shelves and toss it into bins with a barcode on them, just like they do at the Amazon Warehouses now. There would be 3 categories of bins: Frozen, refrigerated, and room temp. When my order is ready, I would get an alert on my phone. Then I would drive to an Amazon Fresh site and park in a numbered spot and either press a button on an adjacent speaker box or something or enter the parking spot number on my phone. I would get a notice that an attendant is on their way. A few minutes later, a cart would come out with the bagged groceries and the attendant would load them into my car and I would leave. This really seems like the best choice for Amazon. It lets them have regional centers for product warehousing so they don't have to ship cross-country, it lets consumers get products instantly without last-mile logistics problems, and it would let them gradually transition to their own in-house delivery for their regular products and not focus on the products that need instant delivery. Having their own delivery unit, UPS, and local delivery companies would encourage competition and keep the prices low for them.

timjahn 12y ago
I think there's something to an idea like this. So much time right now is wasted grocery shopping. I mentioned this in a comment a while back about Instacart: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418
matwood 12y ago
A few local grocery stores offer this. You order online and pick it up in a drive through area a little while later.
- masonhensley 12y ago
  Example: http://www.harristeeter.com/express_lane/express_lane.aspx http://www.harristeeter.com/express_lane/express_lane.aspx
  - ed 12y ago
    Do a lot of people use this?
    - matwood 12y ago
      A HT is my primary grocery store. Every time I'm there someone is out front getting loaded up.
ISL 12y ago
If you can afford the markup on their groceries, Amazon Fresh in Seattle's delivery can occur in less than 12 hours (sometimes <6). The only thing that's kept me from using Fresh as a utility is price. Local grocery stores still win on price. If you're laid up in bed and can't leave the house, Fresh is awesome.
btrautsc 12y ago
I think this will be an option in the near/mid term. I've long assumed Amazon would compete more directly with both shippers & big box stores - by combining optional last mile delivery for items as well as potentially pick up points. Fresh probably can't work very efficiently outside of a few hyper-condense markets. But ordering everything online and driving through to pickup a preselected batch - of groceries, cables, clothing, electronics (whatever)... that is very doable. You just need regional fulfillment centers (check) and then smaller local pick up points... this could be achieved with an acquisition or two.
ardemue 12y ago
In France at least there are a lot of places like this. For example I shop at Leclerc Drive where you order and pay online. It's ready 2 hours later and you have 24 hours to get it at a physical location. Once you get there, you scan a customer card or your nfc smartphone and somebody comes to your car with your products in bags (frozen, refrigerated and room temp being in different bags) in like 2 ou 3 minutes. If you want to, you don't even have to get out of your car as the guy will load it up your trunk, but most people just help out. I live in a moderately big city and there are 4 Leclerc Drives (www.leclercdrive.fr), and then there's Chronodrive (www.chronodrive.com) and U (www.coursesu.com).
- seszett 12y ago
  Yeah, most supermarkets in medium cities and larger offer drive services. I don't have a car however, so I have been looking at orders delivered to my door, and the offer is still rather poor. I'm in Lille, and even though it's a rather large city only Monoprix and Auchan offer that. Even not considering the shipping and handling charges Monoprix is already more expensive than all the other supermarkets, and Auchan online has very few products offered, to the point of being completely unsuitable as my main groceries source. The few first orders to Monoprix bear large discounts though (which actually made the end price cheaper than what I would have paid in the nearby "real" supermarket) so I tried their service, and I am very pleased with it, to the point where I'm almost ready to use them more often even if they're more expensive. Groceries get delivered to my door the day after, at the hour I choose, this looks like the future to me. Many large cities in France also have a local fruits and vegetable delivery company (usually with mostly organic and/or local products). Well, anyway, what I want to say is that I'm very pleased with the recent development of these services. I can finally skip spending hours in a supermarket every week and hauling back my things by bike or public transport.
  - nolok 12y ago
    Another french customer here, offers "to your door" are a lot more limited in products than the drive services (those tend to be much more like what is on offer in the supermarket if you go in person)
msrpotus 12y ago
Amazon Locker is a little like that: you can pick up purchases from specific locations (though you do need to order them ahead of time).
toomuchtodo 12y ago
Peapod.com does exactly this in some of their service locations.
njharman 12y ago
> It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. Holy crap you need a reality check.
- WalterBright 12y ago
  I remember when mail-order took a month, if you were lucky. [sigh wistfully for the good ole' days] And there was this round thingy on the phone that hurt my finger if I had to do a lot of dialing.
- bullsbarry 12y ago
  You're missing the context of this being grocery items. For most people a multiple day wait for their groceries would be unacceptable.
  - leviathant 12y ago
    I've been getting groceries delivered for years now from Peapod (and a brief trial with Freshdirect). We get our groceries delivered two or three days after we place our order - you might be able to get them sooner, but I think it costs more for that option. You know what we never have to do? Spend more than 5-10 minutes shopping for two weeks' worth of groceries. I don't even leave the couch, and when the delivery person shows up, they take the bags right into the kitchen. Totally acceptable.
    - sneak 12y ago
      This is not most peoples' grocery shopping experience or expectation.
    - Theodores 12y ago
      I spend 5-10 minutes deciding which potatoes to buy in a big supermarket. My choice of potatoes will probably be good for 3 meals and I like to get the right ones. I will carry them home, up a big hill with plenty of other food items, by bicycle. I will peel, prepare and cook them with a great deal of care. The idea of them being bought from some standing order setup on some ipad screen for them to just arrive and be placed into the kitchen is just mind-blowing. I don't know if I could live like that. In the future houses will have kitchen cupboards that can be opened from outside, probably with some steel shutter/garage door type of arrangement. You probably won't even have to have Mr delivery man step in the house, he will back fill the cupboards and even take away any out of date items for you.
evanjacobs 12y ago
Amazon did in fact try a drive-through facility in Bellevue, WA (a suburb of Seattle) a few years ago where customers could pick up previously ordered items. http://downtownbellevue.com/2007/09/27/amazon-fresh-online-grocer-presence-in-downtown-bellevue/ http://downtownbellevue.com/2007/09/27/amazon-fresh-online-g...
whoismua 12y ago
As a consumer with children, it's a major hassle to go to the grocery store with my kids in tow. It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. Not sure if someone else picking them for you is the same. Maybe one day we'll reach that level, but I doubt what you suggested is better than putting your kids in a cart, give e candy or toy and shop.
hagbardgroup 12y ago
They do now, sorta. It's called Amazon Locker: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=...
a2kadet 12y ago
> It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. Relevant - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E
askbill 12y ago
I think this will happen, but with autonomously driven vehicles. While you're at work, your car will leave and drive through an amazon warehouse at 1mph. Someone picks your order, loads it into the trunk of your slow moving vehicle which then returns to your office. End of the day, your goods are there. Lots of problems to solve between where we are and there, but I do think that's where we're headed.
itsboring 12y ago
I'm confused, since when does Amazon Fresh take 2 days? I put in an order last night around 11pm and the stuff was on my doorstep at 4am.
brownbat 12y ago
I've seen grocery stores offering this. Giant: http://www.peapod.com/ http://www.peapod.com/ Ralphs: http://shop.mywebgrocer.com/ http://shop.mywebgrocer.com/ Safeway offers same day delivery: http://shop.safeway.com/ecom/home http://shop.safeway.com/ecom/home That's a few different regions, and the Ralphs has been doing it for over five years. I bet the idea has spread to most major cities by now. I don't know why this hasn't just displaced normal grocery shopping. Lack of knowledge about it or customer comfort, hard to establish new buying trends for basic purchases, no idea.
sgk284 12y ago
> It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. In Seattle, there is often an option for same-day delivery. I suspect they'll eventually roll that out to most cities, assuming it's a successful experiment. I had a ~3 hour turn around the other day (ordered something at 11am and it arrived around 2pm) for a total shipping cost of $2.99 w/ Amazon Prime. It was kind of crazy and made me realize I'm living in the future.

timjahn 12y ago

I think there's something to an idea like this. So much time right now is wasted grocery shopping. I mentioned this in a comment a while back about Instacart: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039418

matwood 12y ago

A few local grocery stores offer this. You order online and pick it up in a drive through area a little while later.

masonhensley 12y ago
Example: http://www.harristeeter.com/express_lane/express_lane.aspx http://www.harristeeter.com/express_lane/express_lane.aspx
- ed 12y ago
  Do a lot of people use this?
  - matwood 12y ago
    A HT is my primary grocery store. Every time I'm there someone is out front getting loaded up.

ISL 12y ago

If you can afford the markup on their groceries, Amazon Fresh in Seattle's delivery can occur in less than 12 hours (sometimes <6). The only thing that's kept me from using Fresh as a utility is price. Local grocery stores still win on price. If you're laid up in bed and can't leave the house, Fresh is awesome.

btrautsc 12y ago

I think this will be an option in the near/mid term. I've long assumed Amazon would compete more directly with both shippers & big box stores - by combining optional last mile delivery for items as well as potentially pick up points. Fresh probably can't work very efficiently outside of a few hyper-condense markets. But ordering everything online and driving through to pickup a preselected batch - of groceries, cables, clothing, electronics (whatever)... that is very doable. You just need regional fulfillment centers (check) and then smaller local pick up points... this could be achieved with an acquisition or two.

ardemue 12y ago

In France at least there are a lot of places like this. For example I shop at Leclerc Drive where you order and pay online. It's ready 2 hours later and you have 24 hours to get it at a physical location. Once you get there, you scan a customer card or your nfc smartphone and somebody comes to your car with your products in bags (frozen, refrigerated and room temp being in different bags) in like 2 ou 3 minutes. If you want to, you don't even have to get out of your car as the guy will load it up your trunk, but most people just help out. I live in a moderately big city and there are 4 Leclerc Drives (www.leclercdrive.fr), and then there's Chronodrive (www.chronodrive.com) and U (www.coursesu.com).

seszett 12y ago
Yeah, most supermarkets in medium cities and larger offer drive services. I don't have a car however, so I have been looking at orders delivered to my door, and the offer is still rather poor. I'm in Lille, and even though it's a rather large city only Monoprix and Auchan offer that. Even not considering the shipping and handling charges Monoprix is already more expensive than all the other supermarkets, and Auchan online has very few products offered, to the point of being completely unsuitable as my main groceries source. The few first orders to Monoprix bear large discounts though (which actually made the end price cheaper than what I would have paid in the nearby "real" supermarket) so I tried their service, and I am very pleased with it, to the point where I'm almost ready to use them more often even if they're more expensive. Groceries get delivered to my door the day after, at the hour I choose, this looks like the future to me. Many large cities in France also have a local fruits and vegetable delivery company (usually with mostly organic and/or local products). Well, anyway, what I want to say is that I'm very pleased with the recent development of these services. I can finally skip spending hours in a supermarket every week and hauling back my things by bike or public transport.
- nolok 12y ago
  Another french customer here, offers "to your door" are a lot more limited in products than the drive services (those tend to be much more like what is on offer in the supermarket if you go in person)

msrpotus 12y ago

Amazon Locker is a little like that: you can pick up purchases from specific locations (though you do need to order them ahead of time).

toomuchtodo 12y ago

Peapod.com does exactly this in some of their service locations.

njharman 12y ago

> It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. Holy crap you need a reality check.

WalterBright 12y ago
I remember when mail-order took a month, if you were lucky. [sigh wistfully for the good ole' days] And there was this round thingy on the phone that hurt my finger if I had to do a lot of dialing.
bullsbarry 12y ago
You're missing the context of this being grocery items. For most people a multiple day wait for their groceries would be unacceptable.
- leviathant 12y ago
  I've been getting groceries delivered for years now from Peapod (and a brief trial with Freshdirect). We get our groceries delivered two or three days after we place our order - you might be able to get them sooner, but I think it costs more for that option. You know what we never have to do? Spend more than 5-10 minutes shopping for two weeks' worth of groceries. I don't even leave the couch, and when the delivery person shows up, they take the bags right into the kitchen. Totally acceptable.
  - sneak 12y ago
    This is not most peoples' grocery shopping experience or expectation.
  - Theodores 12y ago
    I spend 5-10 minutes deciding which potatoes to buy in a big supermarket. My choice of potatoes will probably be good for 3 meals and I like to get the right ones. I will carry them home, up a big hill with plenty of other food items, by bicycle. I will peel, prepare and cook them with a great deal of care. The idea of them being bought from some standing order setup on some ipad screen for them to just arrive and be placed into the kitchen is just mind-blowing. I don't know if I could live like that. In the future houses will have kitchen cupboards that can be opened from outside, probably with some steel shutter/garage door type of arrangement. You probably won't even have to have Mr delivery man step in the house, he will back fill the cupboards and even take away any out of date items for you.

evanjacobs 12y ago

Amazon did in fact try a drive-through facility in Bellevue, WA (a suburb of Seattle) a few years ago where customers could pick up previously ordered items. http://downtownbellevue.com/2007/09/27/amazon-fresh-online-grocer-presence-in-downtown-bellevue/ http://downtownbellevue.com/2007/09/27/amazon-fresh-online-g...

whoismua 12y ago

As a consumer with children, it's a major hassle to go to the grocery store with my kids in tow. It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. Not sure if someone else picking them for you is the same. Maybe one day we'll reach that level, but I doubt what you suggested is better than putting your kids in a cart, give e candy or toy and shop.

hagbardgroup 12y ago

They do now, sorta. It's called Amazon Locker: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=...

a2kadet 12y ago

> It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. Relevant - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E

askbill 12y ago

I think this will happen, but with autonomously driven vehicles. While you're at work, your car will leave and drive through an amazon warehouse at 1mph. Someone picks your order, loads it into the trunk of your slow moving vehicle which then returns to your office. End of the day, your goods are there. Lots of problems to solve between where we are and there, but I do think that's where we're headed.

itsboring 12y ago

I'm confused, since when does Amazon Fresh take 2 days? I put in an order last night around 11pm and the stuff was on my doorstep at 4am.

brownbat 12y ago

I've seen grocery stores offering this. Giant: http://www.peapod.com/ http://www.peapod.com/ Ralphs: http://shop.mywebgrocer.com/ http://shop.mywebgrocer.com/ Safeway offers same day delivery: http://shop.safeway.com/ecom/home http://shop.safeway.com/ecom/home That's a few different regions, and the Ralphs has been doing it for over five years. I bet the idea has spread to most major cities by now. I don't know why this hasn't just displaced normal grocery shopping. Lack of knowledge about it or customer comfort, hard to establish new buying trends for basic purchases, no idea.

sgk284 12y ago

> It's also unacceptable to wait 2 days to get what I order. In Seattle, there is often an option for same-day delivery. I suspect they'll eventually roll that out to most cities, assuming it's a successful experiment. I had a ~3 hour turn around the other day (ordered something at 11am and it arrived around 2pm) for a total shipping cost of $2.99 w/ Amazon Prime. It was kind of crazy and made me realize I'm living in the future.