
AmazonFresh Has Launched in Bay Area - dko
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2013/12/amazonfresh_has_launched_in_ba.php
======
evmar
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.

~~~
mcpherrinm
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.

~~~
evmar
Thanks! That makes sense. I didn't see this in their docs, ut your comment
inspired me to look harder. It seems their "learn more" link doesn't say much,
but if you pick "Help" from the footer it has a more detailed FAQ that says
what your comment does.

------
southpawgirl
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?

------
user1239321421
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
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
Amazon's is a ridiculous $299/year!

------
pws5068
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-...](http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-
solving-economics-grocery-delivery/)

~~~
bluedino
I would pay a 14% premium to not have to go to the grocery store after work.

~~~
sanskritabelt
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
Yeah, I can't stand to eat food that came from a dented can...

~~~
sanskritabelt
Dents in the wrong place can let in air and spoil the food inside.

~~~
fourstar
Clostridium botulinum.

------
magic5227
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
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
Just out of curiousity, what are you looking for in a delivery service that
Google Shopping Express/Instacart does not offer?

------
rhizome
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
|Here's one way too big for the parking spot

Just like every delivery truck ever...

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

~~~
augustflanagan
This isn't a new service, it's just new to San Francisco. It's been running
for 6 years in Seattle.

~~~
winslow
I've seen it around LA as well.

------
mlyang
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
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/manage...](http://www.kivasystems.com/about-us-the-kiva-
approach/management-team/mick-mountz)

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
> 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/l...](http://www.amazonfulfillmentcareers.com/amazon-
fulfillment/locations/) ) 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.

------
bhewes
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.

------
wehadfun
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
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=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010)

~~~
discodave
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.

------
thefallsman
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
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.

------
r00fus
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
Serious question: Why would you sign up for the delivery with all of your
information but not for the loyalty card?

~~~
r00fus
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".

------
smackfu
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
No I buy avocados at Safeway for $1.50/ea

~~~
Eliezer
$.50 at Grocery Outlet in El Cerrito.

------
petesid
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/)

------
cma
Impressively they are accepting VISA, MasterCard, and Flooz

~~~
wpietri
So close! I was hoping to finally be able to spend my Beenz.

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

~~~
robbiet480
The interesting thing about that, is I can order Homeroom (a restaurant in
Oakland) delivery, but not to my house, 10 blocks down Broadway

------
rahilsondhi
I wonder how Instacart feels.

~~~
HorizonXP
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/in...](http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2013/12/instacart_introduces_neighbor-.html)

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

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

