

Amazon Is Working On A Plan To Deliver Your Groceries - cdvonstinkpot
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-and-grocery-delivery-2013-5

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austenallred
I don't want to be _that guy_ who points out minutia, but the title alludes to
a news event that isn't true. Bezos clearly states in the article that Amazon
has "not yet figured out the grocery model," but the title makes it seem like
it's rolling out outside of Seattle.

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yajoe
I was at that shareholder meeting, and Bezos was answering a question about
the future of Amazon Fresh asked by the only other person under 30 in the room
of 100.

Bezos didn't make any pronouncements with his response. Instead he praised the
Amazon Fresh business so far, disclaimed progress against inherent
difficulties in that market, and said out loud that he continues to believe in
the business and management. There was nothing else to get out of his answer,
and any reporter or other 'source' reading into that quote is speculating.

For context, Bezos also said he is optimistic about AmazonLocal and said
similar positive statements when asked by an elderly woman who uses the
service. I happen to know that the team supporting Amazon Local is much, much
smaller than it was a couple years ago. Reducing headcount isn't what I would
call optimistic, but Bezos was doing the right thing and saying positive
platitudes at the shareholder meeting.

Two other people asked Jeff to comment on political issues -- one on the
prohibition of selling gun parts, and another on selling violent video games.
I almost feel bad for the man having to deal with that nonsense.

Amazon may very well be rolling out Amazon Fresh elsewhere or using the same
infrastructure for same-day -- who knows -- but Jeff certainly didn't make any
announcement or hint at the shareholder meeting.

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zht
you should see the mini flare-ups of criticism Square gets on their Facebook
posts after they recently banned using the service to sell gun parts.

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zacgarrett
As someone who lives in Seattle and has used Amazon Fresh, I actually prefer
to go to the grocery store for most things. Items like produce are almost
always not the best of quality, even though they have a quality ranking
system. I've found that it is not worth it to purchase produce.

There is also the lack of browsing on amazon. I am fine with that for almost
all other items, but something about food makes me want to walk the aisles and
find food that sounds good. I do love cooking, so I might be in the minority
in that regard.

I would rather walk a third of a mile to a real grocery store. That is mainly
because of the produce and meats which is the bulk of my purchases. The rest
of the stuff, cleaning supplies and such, I order through prime and get them
in 2 days. Otherwise I would have to pay a delivery fee or meet a minimum
order amount for free delivery.

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techsupporter
Amusingly enough, I've had the exact opposite experience. I would much rather
use Amazon Fresh than go to a traditional grocery store. Fresh will bring
items from Amazon's local delivery service and from other local businesses
around Seattle and, in my experience, has been better for produce and meats
than the Fred Meyer near me. Some neighborhoods of Seattle (and the suburbs)
have walkable access to PCC, or Whole Foods, or Trader Joes; sadly, Lake City
seems to be left out of that for now. That, I think, is the best part of
Amazon Fresh's promise: even if you're not able to walk to a market with a
wider selection, one will come directly to you for a nominal price.

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bphogan
I can't figure out why they're doing this themselves and not partnering up
with the smaller local and regional grocery stores that are getting clobbered
by the Wal-Mart supercenters. Like 1800 Flowers does. I order, the local place
gets my order, the convenience fee goes to the middlemen, and I can be lazy.

I know there were failed startups that did this in the past, but you'd think
Amazon could figure out ways to make it work. It has to be better than rolling
their own.

~~~
michaelt
I work for a grocery delivery company in the UK who deliver from a central
warehouse. Some reasons include:

1\. If you pick in a store, the picker might find things that are out of stock
because walk-in customers have brought them. This means items missing or
substituted, which customers don't like.

2\. Most people have a way they do grocery shopping already (like driving to
wal-mart) and you have to compete with that. People won't pay a big
convenience fee. That means you need economies of scale, you need a low cost-
per-pick and you need to drive down waste.

(People don't seem to factor the cost of their time or petrol into the cost of
grocery shopping. I've seen people who earn $100 an hour but who don't want to
pay $10 to save themselves an hour of grocery shopping.)

3\. You need a big range. Many customers do one main weekly shop and a smaller
'top up shop'. If your range doesn't have everything they want for their main
shop, they'll be driving to wal-mart for those scented candles anyway so wal-
mart will get their entire main shop.

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r00fus
I have all these problems with Safeway Delivery and Google Shopping Express
(which doesn't do groceries unfortunately).

I still swear by those services. They save hours of my or my wife's time every
week. We value our time highly.

This is a highly profitable (and growing) niche but one that can support
multiple vendors and local stores.

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ireadqrcodes
It is still a problem to be solved because if you buy an iPad on Amazon, you
know what you will get. If you buy a potato, it is a different shaped thing
every time. -> higher chance of dissatisfaction

~~~
k-mcgrady
I don't think it's that big of a problem. In the UK all the major supermarket
retailers do home deliveries and I've used the services for 4 years.

The produce that quickly goes out of date usually has a message on the website
telling you the minimum time it will last for (e.g. 2+ - they won't deliver
something that will go out of date in else than 2 days).

If items you want are not in stock they substitue but give you the option of
refusing the substitute and taking a refund instead. If the substitute is more
expensive they will give you it at the cost of the item you actually wanted.

In the last 4 years I can't think of one bad experience other than a driver
being late because he broke down once.

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blazespin
Having sources in Amazon, I can tell you the goal here is not simply to
deliver Groceries but rather to find a way to remove FedEx / UPS / etc from
their cost of goods sold.

The economics of Fresh are very poor for Amazon and likely will always remain
so, unless they can start to leverage it for same day shipping of the rest of
their product line.

It's not something Amazon likes to discuss too much as it has the potential to
upset their partners significantly in this space.

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ippisl
How would that enable same day shipping ? People usually do groceries once a
week, but buy other stuff any day of the week.

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blazespin
Fresh delivers same or next day. These fleets are stacked LIFO and sent on
optimal routes which touch many customers. There's no reason they can't carry
a mix of products.

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ippisl
is there a difference in routes between the grocery shipping and UPS ?

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regal
Amazon's been delivering groceries in China for a while now:

[http://www.amazon.cn/%E9%A3%9F%E5%93%81/b/ref=sa_menu_grcy?i...](http://www.amazon.cn/%E9%A3%9F%E5%93%81/b/ref=sa_menu_grcy?ie=UTF8&node=2127215051)

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jfim
Do they deliver fresh or perishable items? Amazon has had non perishable items
for a while now (in the US); I think the article is referring to fresh items,
such as produce.

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gcb0
Amazon only has prices going for it.

And for all groceries i looked up, even wholefoods have better prices... So
either they are still figuring it out, or they already settled for the small
convenience crowd that doesn't care for price

