Outsource your groceries?

[Sweeetland]

OK so i've just stumbled across a very interesting startup that, surprisingly, hasn't had much light here..

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/inst...-in-under-an-hour-SM2Ae1PhRFK2ge645d9EaQ.html

http://techcrunch.com/tag/instacart/

I don't know about you guys but I love this, if only this was available in the UK...




PS. Anyone fancy it?

 

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[Darius]

Yup, I'm familiar with it.

One of my friends are working on something similar.

 

[Sweeetland]

@Darius that's cool, here in the UK or..?

Further digging has revealed it has already been tried in London and failed!

https://twitter.com/PocketShopApp/status/385351475050057728

 

[Darius]

@Darius that's cool, here in the UK or..?

Further digging has revealed it has already been tried in London and failed!

https://twitter.com/PocketShopApp/status/385351475050057728

No, it's here in the US.

 

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[Sweeetland]

@Darius I wish them all the best, please let me know how they get on.

 

[Joe Cassandra]

It's a hard business model to develop because most of the startups who try it (this isn't an original idea) don't have the man power to travel to the store, get everything asap, check out and deliver fresh in a short amount of time.

There was one in Charlotte, NC where I lived that just this week went out of business after just 2 years. One big thing is demand, do people really not want to go do their grocery shopping? Some it may be their only outing of the week (as sad as that may sound).

Entrepreneurs are trying to make a need here when there may not exist one, pizza places don't make their money off delivering, they make it on the markup of the pizza (a pizza costs $1-2 in bulk ingredients and they sell it for $12). Are startups going to mark up groceries by that much?

So to think positively, if you had a major warehouse i.e. a Wal-mart that is just a distribution center , that had all normal groceries that may work, but still the margins would be razor thin unfortunately. Also, Amazon is starting their own "Grocery delivery" which makes competition even more tough (https://fresh.amazon.com/welcome;jsessionid=CFEF110F07A06D7DD2E0228B86919517)

It seems one of those ideas that's great in theory but hard to execute and requires a ton of startup capital.

 

[Sweeetland]

Thank you for your comments, certainly a perspective I hadn't seen!

 

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[exclusives88]

This idea was in Japan before. Since most people take the train and worked long hours, they did not have time to go grocery shopping. Therefore, they included a virtual grocery shop in the trains where you can scan what you want with your phone via qr codes. By the time they get home, the groceries will be ready for them...

Not sure if this will work here but it seems like a good concept. In fact, I had a dream last night about a recipe website where you can add the recipes to your to make list for a specific day and the grocery for that recipe will be delivered to you on the day you specified.

 

[Rcaraway1989]

There's a online grocery startups popping up -- In New Orleans, there's Goodeggs (Also Amazon has recently jumped into the scene). I've thought that I might find someone on Craigslist that's a young chef looking for work/experience (and in Nola they're ton of em) and pay him a fixed sum every week to order my groceries (I'll give him a budget and let him know I eat a high protein, low carb pescatarian diet) to his house, make the food, then I'll come pick them up at a set time.

Of course, I'll do this when it makes more financial sense ; ). I think some guy did this in as an example in the 4HWW and it's stuck with me.

 

[biophase]

I used to use Webvan when they were around 14 years ago. The service was great, but they went out of business soon afterwards. I had them delivering food once a week which was awesome during Chicago winters.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/27/wh...home-delivery-2-0-is-addressing-the-problems/

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Could TaskRabbit accomplish the same thing?

 

[daivey]

you would have to target the mass affluent. be cheap enough for it to make sense but enough markup to make a profit. it be a hard gig for sure.

 

[StartupsRFun]

Im part of a company that uses a similar model, but it is completely peer to peer and based on location, which helps with the logistics of picking up and dropping off items. We are launching in New York City in a month.

 

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[hestati]

Doesn't work. Many people tried it many times, starting in the 60s. People like going out for groceries, they get to see more products, maybe buy a chocolate bar or something. No demand. At first there will be customers, eventually they will be leaving because now they are missing grocery shopping experience.

 

[DennisD]

I used to get my groceries delivered to me every week.
I will be starting this again in the winter.

Via Stop&Shop's peapod.

 

[nzerinto]

Doesn't work. Many people tried it many times, starting in the 60s. People like going out for groceries, they get to see more products, maybe buy a chocolate bar or something. No demand. At first there will be customers, eventually they will be leaving because now they are missing grocery shopping experience.

That's a very broad generalization. There are people who don't like going to get groceries - they feel it's a waste of time (drive to the store, find a park, wander around isles looking for products, stand in line at the checkout, pay for the items, drive home hoping you don't get stuck in traffic, particularly in bigger cities/metropolis etc etc), they find it a real task/don't enjoy the experience, don't have a car, or in many cases, it's something they literally have no time for, because of work/kids/life in general.

There's quite a few grocery delivery services operating in Toronto that I know about and have used personally, Mama Earth and Grocery Gateway being two that I've used. The first focuses on everything being "organic" and "locally grown" etc, so focused on fresh produce only (mostly). Grocery Gateway is actually owned by one of the supermarket chains, so they've got the funding, and can make money off product rather than the delivery per se. Bear in mind both companies still charged a delivery fee anyway.

 

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[hestati]

Well yes, it is generalization, because in general people like to go out for groceries. Yes, there are few here and there who prefer to get it delivered. These companies appear and disappear every year, their life span is few years (unless this this a service offered by the supermarket itself). Pizza delivery exists for decades and many companies do it for decades, yet there is not a single company which could survive long enough in grocery delivery field.

Not saying it cannot be done, but in order to do it you need to have something which every single person lacked for last 50 years. Among people who tried it is Ben Suarez and Sir Branson... Both failed...

 

[hestati]

Actually there is a way to do it, like it is done in South America. Someone grows oranges, he will then get a small truck and drive around screaming "oranges, oranges". His prices are lower, fruits are fresh and there is no middle man, so he gets most of the profits. This business works if you deliver your own food, but even then, why would you deliver? A farm in USA was selling pears by MAIL back in the 70s and was making tons of money and I guess this is what Amazon is doing now.

 

[Shades]

Well yes, it is generalization, because in general people like to go out for groceries. Yes, there are few here and there who prefer to get it delivered. These companies appear and disappear every year, their life span is few years (unless this this a service offered by the supermarket itself). Pizza delivery exists for decades and many companies do it for decades, yet there is not a single company which could survive long enough in grocery delivery field.

Not saying it cannot be done, but in order to do it you need to have something which every single person lacked for last 50 years. Among people who tried it is Ben Suarez and Sir Branson... Both failed...

Did you come across research that backs this up? Maybe you are basing it off past generations? People who can barely check their emails? I know plenty of people, including me, in the 25-40 range that HATE grocery shopping. From the lines, weird check out people, screaming kids, cluttered isles. Theres not much to like about the experience of a grocery store IMO.

 

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[Choate]

I work in a grocery corporation that will allow you to shop online, then deliver to your door for a few extra dollars. Not to mention, we are competing against the brand you named, as well as Peapod, Market Basket may be entering soon; etc. A group of students in my entrepreneurship capstone class in college actually did grocery home delivery as their final project. The market research results were not impressive, as in not favorable for doing this.

One vendor I deal with sells high quality half gallons of milk in a glass jar to our store, and he also delivers to the entire town. The good old fashioned yet modern milk man. There is definitely a market for this; Crescent Ridge.

 

[hestati]

Why did pizza delivery succeed? It is free.

Do you remember A la carte express in Canada, I did not see them for a while, looks like they are either out of business or close to it. Why? They were delivering food from restaurants that do not deliver, but there was a charge (obviously).

I worked at the high scale sushi restaurant. We started offering delivery service and delivery charge was only 5$. People would order, but OMG they would fight for this $5. We had a CEO of one of the top 5 banks in Canada as a customer and even they would fight for this $5 delivery fee.

I actually think you CAN win in this business. If you open your own virtual store, make money by selling groceries and use "we deliver for free" to stand out.

So yes, I am wrong saying it does not work, it is the concept that has to change.

 

[Bowden]

Why did pizza delivery succeed? It is free.

Do you remember A la carte express in Canada, I did not see them for a while, looks like they are either out of business or close to it. Why? They were delivering food from restaurants that do not deliver, but there was a charge (obviously).

I worked at the high scale sushi restaurant. We started offering delivery service and delivery charge was only 5$. People would order, but OMG they would fight for this $5. We had a CEO of one of the top 5 banks in Canada as a customer and even they would fight for this $5 delivery fee.

I actually think you CAN win in this business. If you open your own virtual store, make money by selling groceries and use "we deliver for free" to stand out.

So yes, I am wrong saying it does not work, it is the concept that has to change.

We have a few food delivery services here that are partnered with local restaurants. They charge around $4 per delivery and they are both doing extremely well. Hell when my wife was pregnant we used them all the time.

Grocery delivery could definitely be successful, but the key is partnering with a grocery store that will help promote the service. I know grocery store margins are already low, so they might not give a discount until you can show you can push numbers, but it would definitely be worth it if they get you customers. It would be a win win. They sell the groceries, you deliver them.

Or you could go the route that a few concierge services offer. Flat fee of $20 or so to get whatever you need from the grocery store. Targeted for the working professionals.

 

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[Briton]

Yeah maybe taskrabbit could work. Coolnes.