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Shit, déjà Vu. Is it y2k again? If not, what are these guys doing differently from the Y2K grocery services? EDIT: since Adredreseen Horrowitz invested, I as

Shit, déjà Vu. Is it y2k again? If not, what are these guys doing differently from the Y2K grocery services? EDIT: since Adredreseen Horrowitz invested, I assume it's likely not a repeat from Y2k, and I'm really interested in what they're doing differrently

free2rhyme214 12y ago
Smartphones didn't exist back then and there isn't the dot com bubble going on right now.
ThomPete 12y ago
Its a legitimate question actually. The difference is that they got their logistics and pricing down. The Y2K companies didn't.
potatolicious 12y ago
The number of people on the internet (even if we strictly limit to the USA) is far larger now than it was in 2000. There were an estimated 400 million worldwide internet users in 2000. It's now estimated at over 3 billion. In 2000 only 41% of all US households had internet access. Now it's 81%. This number also doesn't include internet in your pocket (74% of all Americans have some kind of mobile broadband). The idea of "groceries on the internets" was never bad, it just tried to enter a market that didn't actually exist yet. They also tried to do too much, too quickly: i.e., launching into low population density markets that had zero chance of being cashflow even in the next 20 years. Notice that Fresh, Instacart, Google Shopping Express, and all these other perishable delivery companies are now strictly only in the densest urban areas where there is sufficient economy of scale to make the numbers work. There are also some smaller contributors to success: people in general are much more willing to put their credit cards on the internet and buy things through the internet. People are able to access the internet while on the go. In the case of Amazon and Google they're leveraging a brand and existing user base that they've been building for years. The state of web tech also means the products are far less painful than before - keep in mind that 2000 was before AJAX, where every click of every button meant a completely new page load... over a connection that is likely dialup. The game is very, very different from the way it was in 2000.
- Killah911 12y ago
  That sounds reasonable. I do still wonder about building up infrastructure vs crowdsourcing. I'd love to have groceries delivered, I hate going to the grocery store & spending hours of my life which I can put to better use. However, I'm an early adopter. The negative Karma points were totally worth the responses. Wish there were some more with more specifics on said startup.
johnrob 12y ago
More and more, it seems like most y2k ideas were good. Unfortunately they were almost all too early.
- rdl 12y ago
  Even some of them were viable at the time, but forced into unsustainable growth to compete with other companies, since money was free or negative cost -- e.g. Webvan was actually a good business in certain cities, but got pushed to expand very rapidly and thus died. I'm waiting for "datahaven" to be a viable business, though. That would be really fun.
grinich 12y ago
Mobile smartphones. That's what changed, and it's made all the difference.
capkutay 12y ago
One significant difference is that instacart just matches you up with shoppers who can go to your local stores, pick up the food, and deliver to you and everyone in your area. I believe the Y2k grocery services had fleets of trucks, warehouses, and tried to act like a layer in between the food distribution companies and the buyer. This method proved to be extremely expensive and hard to sustain.
- tatalegma 12y ago
  Isn't that what FreshDirect does?

free2rhyme214 12y ago

Smartphones didn't exist back then and there isn't the dot com bubble going on right now.

ThomPete 12y ago

Its a legitimate question actually. The difference is that they got their logistics and pricing down. The Y2K companies didn't.

potatolicious 12y ago

The number of people on the internet (even if we strictly limit to the USA) is far larger now than it was in 2000. There were an estimated 400 million worldwide internet users in 2000. It's now estimated at over 3 billion. In 2000 only 41% of all US households had internet access. Now it's 81%. This number also doesn't include internet in your pocket (74% of all Americans have some kind of mobile broadband). The idea of "groceries on the internets" was never bad, it just tried to enter a market that didn't actually exist yet. They also tried to do too much, too quickly: i.e., launching into low population density markets that had zero chance of being cashflow even in the next 20 years. Notice that Fresh, Instacart, Google Shopping Express, and all these other perishable delivery companies are now strictly only in the densest urban areas where there is sufficient economy of scale to make the numbers work. There are also some smaller contributors to success: people in general are much more willing to put their credit cards on the internet and buy things through the internet. People are able to access the internet while on the go. In the case of Amazon and Google they're leveraging a brand and existing user base that they've been building for years. The state of web tech also means the products are far less painful than before - keep in mind that 2000 was before AJAX, where every click of every button meant a completely new page load... over a connection that is likely dialup. The game is very, very different from the way it was in 2000.

Killah911 12y ago
That sounds reasonable. I do still wonder about building up infrastructure vs crowdsourcing. I'd love to have groceries delivered, I hate going to the grocery store & spending hours of my life which I can put to better use. However, I'm an early adopter. The negative Karma points were totally worth the responses. Wish there were some more with more specifics on said startup.

johnrob 12y ago

More and more, it seems like most y2k ideas were good. Unfortunately they were almost all too early.

rdl 12y ago
Even some of them were viable at the time, but forced into unsustainable growth to compete with other companies, since money was free or negative cost -- e.g. Webvan was actually a good business in certain cities, but got pushed to expand very rapidly and thus died. I'm waiting for "datahaven" to be a viable business, though. That would be really fun.

grinich 12y ago

Mobile smartphones. That's what changed, and it's made all the difference.

capkutay 12y ago

One significant difference is that instacart just matches you up with shoppers who can go to your local stores, pick up the food, and deliver to you and everyone in your area. I believe the Y2k grocery services had fleets of trucks, warehouses, and tried to act like a layer in between the food distribution companies and the buyer. This method proved to be extremely expensive and hard to sustain.

tatalegma 12y ago
Isn't that what FreshDirect does?