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Instacart started with food that internet early adopters wanted, even though it was operationally difficult. Other services started with items that were easies
by tlb 12y ago
Instacart started with food that internet early adopters wanted, even though it was operationally difficult.
Other services started with items that were easiest to catalog and inventory. Safeway (for example) started with a full selection of Oscar Mayer luncheon meats and Kraft processed cheese food, but no microbrews or good cheeses (I remember searching for Brie and getting no results) even though they have such things in stores around Palo Alto.
Instacart took the better path: first please early adopters, then please everyone at scale.
- mtdewcmu 12y agoI imagine Safeway didn't want to take on the risk of trying to solve tricky problems, e.g., with inventory tracking. It might have legitimately made more sense for them to be conservative, since they had an existing business to manage. If internet groceries had turned out to be easy, they'd have a piece. Observing what Safeway didn't try could have been a key piece of Instacart's success.