Groceries delivered by Amazon Fresh. Photo by Andrew Hitchcock on Flickr.
Grocery shopping can be a big hassle. The lines, the drive, the loading and unloading, and the amount of time it takes to walk the whole store to get everything on the list. Do you ever with you could buy your groceries online like everything else?
You might recall almost a decade ago the aggressive marketing of online grocery stores and grocery delivery services. While they were limited to major metro areas like New Your City and Los Angeles, they were touted as the next big thing. Then they quietly seemed to fade away, due to prohibitive costs and the dot com bust.
Now, the idea of buying groceries online is back, with some new twists and bigger players. Is the end of the grocery store at hand?
Why Online Grocery Shopping Failed To Catch On
One of the most talked about and biggest grocery delivery companies from the early attempts was Webvan. The company went bankrupt in 2001, their business model of delivering groceries and other items in up to ten metro areas not profitable enough to work.
Challenges included competing with established local grocery stores, some of which started offering express service – a store employee did your shopping and met you at the curb – or local delivery. Transportation costs and the fact that many groceries are perishable products with a short shelf life added to the financial woes.
Big Companies Behind New Grocery Delivery Services
Amazon
Amazon.com, had purchased Webvan after the latter business failed. In its effort to sell “everything under the sun” groceries and food products have been available from Amazon, even with two-day free shipping with the Prime service.
But Amazon has also been touting a new service called Amazon Fresh. This service lets you order your delivery within a 30 minute window for delivery, and offers fresh produce and other groceries that you would otherwise get from your local supermarket.
Amazon Fresh is using many of the same strategies as Webvan, but with the backing of a very successful Internet business. It is currently only available in Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, though other, less perishable goods can be ordered from Amazon and delivered by UPS, FedEX, or the USPS.
Walmart
The local superstore is experimenting with new delivery options too. Already spread out throughout the country, Walmart has the positioning and infrastructure to bring groceries to more areas than any other national chain.
In San Fancisco, San Jose, and Denver Walmart is testing a new To Go service, a same-day delivery option for customers. They are also testing a customer pickup option where your groceries are picked for you from store shelves, so you just have to pick up the bags near the door.
Smaller Companies Get Creative With Grocery Delivery Services
It is not just the giants of the grocery store and online world that are trying shopping for groceries online again. Some smaller companies are trying fresh approaches to the idea.
One exciting prospect is Instacart. Rather than struggle with warehousing, cold storage, and purchasing perishable inventory, Instacart streamlines the shopping experience by having shoppers pick up orders from local food stores and deliver them to customers.
What’s more, Instacart is hiring local people and offering as much as $25 per hour for anyone with a car and smartphone to be a shopper for them. If you don’t mind the hassle of shopping at your local store, this could be a great flexible part-time job.
Instacart is currently serving San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Peapod, a service that has been around since the days of Webvan and the initial wave of grocery delivery services, is still serving many markets in the Midwest and up and down the Atlantic coast of the United States.
Netgrocer is another example of a service that uses FedEx to handle deliveries, trading same-day service for an existing and national delivery service.
Will It Work This Time?
Will online grocery shopping finally become commonplace? While right now many of us will not get to try these services, or only one of them, the idea is exciting. Those fortunate to be in San Francisco seem to have a lot of options even now.
Over the past decade, internet usage as drastically increased, and mobile phones and Internet service has changed the way we use the Web. Maybe this time the idea might finally come to fruition.
Have you ever ordered groceries online? What do you think about the concept? Let us know in the comments section below!
