I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Every supermarket in Montrela offers phone orders and home delivery for a fee of less than $5 if your order is big enough ($50+). If you want to, you can even do your shopping in the store, and pay about two bucks to have them deliver to your house if it was in a few km.
I just checked, and one of the smaller chains (4 stores) has their own online ordering platform.
San Francisco is an odd place. And so is Silicon Valley and the big brands we all know. Most of what startups there do is to solve local problems of San Frnacisco (and there are MANY!).
Taxis suck? -> Uber
Hotels super shit and your rent is super high? -> AirBnB
Restaurants don't deliver -> various delivery services
Wholefood et al doesn't deliver -> various delivery services
No laundry in your $5000 rental apt -> laundry by app
A lot of those problems don't exist in more developed places. (Yet other problems do). But these big startups grow due to it's ecosystem and Marketing/PR focus on the Bay Area.
Their revenue numbers must look absolutely insane, even if they're not actually profitable. I spend more money through instacart right now than any other software, and maybe all other software I use, combined.
None of my grocery stores within the 60 minute range offer delivery. I wish they did. I live outside of a major city, in a pretty wealthy area. There is no instacart, no amazon fresh, etc. Uber doesn't even deliver here. It's pretty lame and the population exists to support even just one of these services.
All my nearby stores offer this, I still use Instacart. It lets me shop from any store, their QC is amazing, and living in a small apartment I need to make 2 or 3 $35 trips (instead of one big $150 trip) and that becomes free on Instacart (saving me close to 5hrs per week of drudgery).
Dozens of variations of these delivery & order services have existed spanning 20 years in the US, at start-ups and at large companies.
It's about perfecting the concept, deploying fully across the nation at high quality, acquiring access to 300 million people and owning the US market (worth tens of billions in sales in total once it's saturated).
Also in my neighborhood: Google Express offers home delivery of lots of stuff. Amazon Prime Now offers home delivery of lots of stuff.
But your local stores-that-deliver doesn't argue against Instacart. Isn't it in their interest to outsource that chore to someone instead of paying their own drivers?
Some context, aside from the viability of Instacart itself.
Apoorva Mehta used to work down the hall from us at SomaCentral, a shared office space retrofitted out of an old law firm on Townsend. He and his buddy would be heads down in their laptops every time we walk past their bullpen corner.
They were busy building out a legal tool slash social network slash law something slash annotation something slash whatever. The plan didn't so much change but rather morph every time I said hi.
They were smart though, so I figured they would hit it whenever they get to it. Though they've been at this for awhile now.
While most others tried to keep a social factor going on at the space, they tend to be so busy they would avoid it. Though and now then I do remember getting to grab a drink with them.
A few years later, settling in my new job in Berkeley/Oakland I called up Instacart to deliver me some groceries. But it was only last year I finally looked up the company profile and soon realized it's the same Apoorva Mehta.
From being that dude to 3 billion dollars in a matter of five years is--to quote another commenter--insane.
But he's keeping the silicon valley dream alive.
That's pretty nifty in itself.
The rest of us are just hanging out here writing comments.
Tech:
The Dash Wand [1] puts Alexa on your refrigerator and every time you scan an item, Amazon is building up a database of the most popular SKUs they should add to their warehouse.
Scale:
Scale is the name of the game and Instacart is playing with a losing hand. Vans/trucks are more efficient than cars, warehouses > grocery stores, robot shelves > store runners.
Anecdote:
Instacart was popular in Boston until Fresh opened last year. There is now a large pile of Amazon bags for pickup everyday in my front lobby.
Price:
Amazon has many of the exact same items as Instacart/wholefoods but at lower prices. My grocery bill went down about 20%
I initially used Instacart. But then started to notice my orders would often need replacement items. So I opted for no replacements, and it was even worse... because items that were very relevant in my order were left out and I had to order again. In addition, prices were very high compared to the store.
Then, they wouldn't show up on the scheduled times. Then, if you canceled the order and talked to customer support, they would try to uncancel the order and schedule it for a completely arbitrary time where you might not even be home, a lot of decision making on your behalf with no confirmation.
After all that chaos and constant fighting with customer support I switched to Amazon. They show up on time, the use durable packaging that is refrigerated if necessary, the prices are reasonable, item availability is "what you see is what you get" with no replacements, the delivery fee is a flat yearly fee... In all the time I have using Amazon Fresh or Prime now, I have had ZERO arguments with them.
Now I only order from Amazon. In addition to that, they have the Amazon Dash, which I can use to scan the barcodes for the products I need to reorder to quickly add them to the cart, or set reminders for items I need to buy using Amazon Echo.
Note that I am not affiliated with Amazon in any way.
If I had to use Instacart again, I would probably use it to order 20 gallons of water, and then go to the store myself to buy the rest. The website is very incompetent at reflecting the effective stock and the system is not good at finding/suggesting replacements. The last time I used Instacart was to literally see what my last order was, so I could order the same things via Amazon.
tl;dr is that Amazon can deliver a better experience because they actually know exactly what they have in their own warehouses. Often times on Instacart you order something and it gets replaced with something else because it was out of stock, because they work with other stores like Safeway, Whole Foods.
Also everyone already has a relationship with Amazon so it's just easier to go that route.
I think you nailed it. I live in NYC and work too much, meaning I live and die by trading money for time. And every time I use instacart I regret it for the exact same reasons you describe.
The idea of hooking into some kind of warehouse management network makes a lot of sense. Does an API exist? Probably not. But there's an opportunity right there. Partner with a major warehouse management system, preferably one that works with Safeway or Stop n' Shop, and figure out a way to cut out the store visits altogether.
Of course this would mean automating away the shoppers :/.
I read your article. In New Zealand the Countdown supermarket chain has an online ordering system: https://shop.countdown.co.nz
You select your local supermarket, and it has a pretty good idea of what they actually have because it's an official service. You can also specify per item whether substitutions can be made, and if necessary they'll try to find a good alternative (like your "different salsa") if they can. The times you end up with a substitution or no item sound VERY low compared to your experience with Instacart. You might order 40 items and get a couple of subs if you're unlucky.
It also sounds cheaper than Instacart. It costs around $10USD for delivery (depends on how much your order), or around $3.50USD if you want to collect from the store,which is still super convenient because you just go in and wheel out your already-full trolly.
I'm kind of surprised that supermarkets doing delivery doesn't seem to be a big thing in the US. Usually we're the ones who are a few years behind.
Integrating inventory across various grocery stores would be ideal, but it seems like a big undertaking not to mention it clashes with the shopping experience (e.g. customers keep items in their shopping carts for long times)
I like the idea of warehouses, though the requirement to stock items seems restrictive, kinda like when Google Shopping Express launched - it had such a small selection of products. One potential middle ground... why not use a warehouse/centralized location to aggregate the requested groceries, then have a separate system to dispatch the groceries to the customer? By aggregating from multiple grocery stores, you minimize the risk an item is not available.
I know nothing about grocery retail but my initial reaction is why can't Instacart tie into Safeway, Wholefoods, etc. inventory management system to get a more timely view on what's available? Are existing grocery inventory management systems more rudimentary so this is not possible?
My theory is that the inability of US chains to figure out online ordering is really some anti-competitive agreement to force customers to go into the store because the chains live and die by high-margin impulse buys.
Wholefoods just opened a brand new chain called '365' that has all sorts of sophisticated nonsense like a programmatic tea-bot and yet there is no online ordering. Even the made to order stuff is driven by an interface which could just be made publicly accessible and they'd be done but no, into the store you go.
Tesco had this in the UK since 1996(!), with a CD-ROM ordering system that synced new products over dialup in batches.
Now all (apart from Lidl and Aldi, I imagine their margins are too low) offer online shopping and have done for a long time.
Really can't understand why the US stores don't do this and instead have allowed Instacart, which has little/no proper supply chain knowledge, to build a $3bn business in it's place. Very odd.
Supermarkets and e-commerce are entirely different competencies and I have no trouble believing that being good at one doesn't give you a tonne of advantage at the other.
Putting some startup's tea-bot into a store is far easier than integrating that tea-bot into an online ordering system.
I see Uber, Lyft, Amazon Fresh, Instacart, etc and I can't understand why they take the market by storm like that. They are not the first to ever think about that, their service isn't super great (except for Amazon, I'd say) and still, in the US, it seems like the market just sits and waits for them. Then a majority of people jumps in and the thing skyrockets.
Meanwhile, in other countries, small to medium-sized companies have had online groceries ordering for many years, local taxi unions have had websites and recently apps, and still... it's like OMG so much innovation from US companies let's give them crazy valuations.
I'm not on the Amazon Fresh/Instacart trend yet (and may not be -- I really enjoy grocery shopping and frequent different farmers' markets, so it's not a problem I need to have solved for me).
But as for Uber/Lyft, the reason they're vastly more valuable than whatever local taxi website/app is convenience and lack of friction. When you get an Uber, you don't have to worry about payment or directions; it's all handled for you. When you get to a different city, you don't have to google the local taxi companies and pick one; you just open Lyft and get a ride.
Just ended by Instacart subscription for Amazon Fresh. I hated how Instacart would mess with prices. So far, much happier with Amazon Fresh. Costco access gives Instacart a huge advantage, but they abuse it.
One interesting counter to Instacart are services like grocerkey (http://www.grocerkey.com/) that exist as whitelabel instacart's for stores. That local chain that everyone knows probably doesn't want to send all their customers to instacart if they don't have to. I'm not sold on Instacart being something people use outside of a few major cities, but maybe that's enough for them.
Why? Grocery shopping is extremely inefficient and has to be done weekly by almost everyone in the world. It's not a small problem that they're solving, so large amounts of cash (and a high valuation) makes sense.
Unsubstantiveness and name-calling make for a bad kind of HN comment. If you have a substantive point, you're welcome it to make it thoughtfully. If you don't, please don't post here.
[+] [-] biggc|9 years ago|reply
I just checked, and one of the smaller chains (4 stores) has their own online ordering platform.
[+] [-] ulfw|9 years ago|reply
Taxis suck? -> Uber Hotels super shit and your rent is super high? -> AirBnB Restaurants don't deliver -> various delivery services Wholefood et al doesn't deliver -> various delivery services No laundry in your $5000 rental apt -> laundry by app
A lot of those problems don't exist in more developed places. (Yet other problems do). But these big startups grow due to it's ecosystem and Marketing/PR focus on the Bay Area.
[+] [-] laser|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brokenmasonjars|9 years ago|reply
Aggravates me a lot..which is an understatement.
[+] [-] pj_mukh|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adventured|9 years ago|reply
Webvan existed in 1996.
Dozens of variations of these delivery & order services have existed spanning 20 years in the US, at start-ups and at large companies.
It's about perfecting the concept, deploying fully across the nation at high quality, acquiring access to 300 million people and owning the US market (worth tens of billions in sales in total once it's saturated).
[+] [-] sgustard|9 years ago|reply
But your local stores-that-deliver doesn't argue against Instacart. Isn't it in their interest to outsource that chore to someone instead of paying their own drivers?
[+] [-] alaskamiller|9 years ago|reply
Apoorva Mehta used to work down the hall from us at SomaCentral, a shared office space retrofitted out of an old law firm on Townsend. He and his buddy would be heads down in their laptops every time we walk past their bullpen corner.
They were busy building out a legal tool slash social network slash law something slash annotation something slash whatever. The plan didn't so much change but rather morph every time I said hi.
They were smart though, so I figured they would hit it whenever they get to it. Though they've been at this for awhile now.
While most others tried to keep a social factor going on at the space, they tend to be so busy they would avoid it. Though and now then I do remember getting to grab a drink with them.
A few years later, settling in my new job in Berkeley/Oakland I called up Instacart to deliver me some groceries. But it was only last year I finally looked up the company profile and soon realized it's the same Apoorva Mehta.
From being that dude to 3 billion dollars in a matter of five years is--to quote another commenter--insane.
But he's keeping the silicon valley dream alive.
That's pretty nifty in itself.
The rest of us are just hanging out here writing comments.
[+] [-] a13n|9 years ago|reply
Why Instacart is gonna get crushed by Amazon
https://medium.com/@a13n/why-instacart-is-gonna-get-crushed-...
[+] [-] ironchief|9 years ago|reply
Tech: The Dash Wand [1] puts Alexa on your refrigerator and every time you scan an item, Amazon is building up a database of the most popular SKUs they should add to their warehouse.
Scale: Scale is the name of the game and Instacart is playing with a losing hand. Vans/trucks are more efficient than cars, warehouses > grocery stores, robot shelves > store runners.
Anecdote: Instacart was popular in Boston until Fresh opened last year. There is now a large pile of Amazon bags for pickup everyday in my front lobby.
Price: Amazon has many of the exact same items as Instacart/wholefoods but at lower prices. My grocery bill went down about 20%
[1]https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-All-New-Dash-Wand/dp/B015YEXOR...
[+] [-] partycoder|9 years ago|reply
I initially used Instacart. But then started to notice my orders would often need replacement items. So I opted for no replacements, and it was even worse... because items that were very relevant in my order were left out and I had to order again. In addition, prices were very high compared to the store.
Then, they wouldn't show up on the scheduled times. Then, if you canceled the order and talked to customer support, they would try to uncancel the order and schedule it for a completely arbitrary time where you might not even be home, a lot of decision making on your behalf with no confirmation.
After all that chaos and constant fighting with customer support I switched to Amazon. They show up on time, the use durable packaging that is refrigerated if necessary, the prices are reasonable, item availability is "what you see is what you get" with no replacements, the delivery fee is a flat yearly fee... In all the time I have using Amazon Fresh or Prime now, I have had ZERO arguments with them.
Now I only order from Amazon. In addition to that, they have the Amazon Dash, which I can use to scan the barcodes for the products I need to reorder to quickly add them to the cart, or set reminders for items I need to buy using Amazon Echo.
Note that I am not affiliated with Amazon in any way.
If I had to use Instacart again, I would probably use it to order 20 gallons of water, and then go to the store myself to buy the rest. The website is very incompetent at reflecting the effective stock and the system is not good at finding/suggesting replacements. The last time I used Instacart was to literally see what my last order was, so I could order the same things via Amazon.
[+] [-] a13n|9 years ago|reply
Also everyone already has a relationship with Amazon so it's just easier to go that route.
[+] [-] lstyls|9 years ago|reply
The idea of hooking into some kind of warehouse management network makes a lot of sense. Does an API exist? Probably not. But there's an opportunity right there. Partner with a major warehouse management system, preferably one that works with Safeway or Stop n' Shop, and figure out a way to cut out the store visits altogether.
Of course this would mean automating away the shoppers :/.
[+] [-] Nition|9 years ago|reply
You select your local supermarket, and it has a pretty good idea of what they actually have because it's an official service. You can also specify per item whether substitutions can be made, and if necessary they'll try to find a good alternative (like your "different salsa") if they can. The times you end up with a substitution or no item sound VERY low compared to your experience with Instacart. You might order 40 items and get a couple of subs if you're unlucky.
It also sounds cheaper than Instacart. It costs around $10USD for delivery (depends on how much your order), or around $3.50USD if you want to collect from the store,which is still super convenient because you just go in and wheel out your already-full trolly.
I'm kind of surprised that supermarkets doing delivery doesn't seem to be a big thing in the US. Usually we're the ones who are a few years behind.
[+] [-] chejazi|9 years ago|reply
I like the idea of warehouses, though the requirement to stock items seems restrictive, kinda like when Google Shopping Express launched - it had such a small selection of products. One potential middle ground... why not use a warehouse/centralized location to aggregate the requested groceries, then have a separate system to dispatch the groceries to the customer? By aggregating from multiple grocery stores, you minimize the risk an item is not available.
[+] [-] twakefield|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway91111|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] siliconc0w|9 years ago|reply
Wholefoods just opened a brand new chain called '365' that has all sorts of sophisticated nonsense like a programmatic tea-bot and yet there is no online ordering. Even the made to order stuff is driven by an interface which could just be made publicly accessible and they'd be done but no, into the store you go.
[+] [-] martinald|9 years ago|reply
Tesco had this in the UK since 1996(!), with a CD-ROM ordering system that synced new products over dialup in batches.
Now all (apart from Lidl and Aldi, I imagine their margins are too low) offer online shopping and have done for a long time.
Really can't understand why the US stores don't do this and instead have allowed Instacart, which has little/no proper supply chain knowledge, to build a $3bn business in it's place. Very odd.
[+] [-] Eridrus|9 years ago|reply
Supermarkets and e-commerce are entirely different competencies and I have no trouble believing that being good at one doesn't give you a tonne of advantage at the other.
Putting some startup's tea-bot into a store is far easier than integrating that tea-bot into an online ordering system.
[+] [-] cududa|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hkmurakami|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] caminante|9 years ago|reply
WFM never wants to be a virtual distribution center for Instacart.
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] toephu2|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gtirloni|9 years ago|reply
Meanwhile, in other countries, small to medium-sized companies have had online groceries ordering for many years, local taxi unions have had websites and recently apps, and still... it's like OMG so much innovation from US companies let's give them crazy valuations.
What gives? Is it market size?
[+] [-] jdminhbg|9 years ago|reply
But as for Uber/Lyft, the reason they're vastly more valuable than whatever local taxi website/app is convenience and lack of friction. When you get an Uber, you don't have to worry about payment or directions; it's all handled for you. When you get to a different city, you don't have to google the local taxi companies and pick one; you just open Lyft and get a ride.
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