Amazon buying Whole Foods

[ghostrunner]

Not sure what they're planning. There are ideas to do it with the ability to automate the check out process where a system keeps track of what is in the cart and charge for those items as customers leave the store.

Mentioned that above - they have one small store doing it already.

I'd be really tempted by that. My local grocery is a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, and I often go in for only a couple things only to be held up at the checkout line for 10 minutes.

Right. I wonder if this is Amazon's way to enter into the B&M industry moreso than it already has. Leave Whole Foods alone until they perfect that pilot store/no checkout model, then rebrand Whole Foods as Amazon and launch that model.

If so, it seems it's not really them transforming the grocery industry as simply entering into it.

And, I still question the feasibility of everyone buying groceries online due to the above mentioned last mile issue. As you mention, think of any grocery store on a given day. There's probably, at a minimum, 10+ people checking out at any given time. Even with drones, it's almost impossible to get those groceries delivered in a timely manner. And, that doesn't even account for the loss of bulk.

Painting with a broad brush....people have grocery lists. They write it down for a week then go tot he store once and spend $100 or whatever....One trip to the store once a week. If they can spend $20 to have fresh thyme, potatoes, and steaks delivered in an hour, surely they'll do that instead of saving up a weeks worth of groceries once a week. That creates even more trips.

while bezos is a brilliant mind, it's going to take something revolutionary to get over that hurdle.

Kroger does a service now where they'll get the groceries together and bagged, and you pick them up. I think that or the auto-checkout make more sense than delivery. At least on a large scale.

[Famous Mortimer]

Online delivery works pretty well in the UK, but I guess it's easier to live closer to a distribution centre than it is in these parts.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Not sure what they're planning. There are ideas to do it with the ability to automate the check out process where a system keeps track of what is in the cart and charge for those items as customers leave the store.

Mentioned that above - they have one small store doing it already.

I'd be really tempted by that. My local grocery is a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, and I often go in for only a couple things only to be held up at the checkout line for 10 minutes.

Right. I wonder if this is Amazon's way to enter into the B&M industry moreso than it already has. Leave Whole Foods alone until they perfect that pilot store/no checkout model, then rebrand Whole Foods as Amazon and launch that model.

If so, it seems it's not really them transforming the grocery industry as simply entering into it.

And, I still question the feasibility of everyone buying groceries online due to the above mentioned last mile issue. As you mention, think of any grocery store on a given day. There's probably, at a minimum, 10+ people checking out at any given time. Even with drones, it's almost impossible to get those groceries delivered in a timely manner. And, that doesn't even account for the loss of bulk.

Painting with a broad brush....people have grocery lists. They write it down for a week then go tot he store once and spend $100 or whatever....One trip to the store once a week. If they can spend $20 to have fresh thyme, potatoes, and steaks delivered in an hour, surely they'll do that instead of saving up a weeks worth of groceries once a week. That creates even more trips.

while bezos is a brilliant mind, it's going to take something revolutionary to get over that hurdle.

Kroger does a service now where they'll get the groceries together and bagged, and you pick them up. I think that or the auto-checkout make more sense than delivery. At least on a large scale.

Right, Kroger does that click-list. But, even that has issues. For instance, the substitution. If you spend $100, let's stick with that, it's almost a guarantee that one thing or another will be out of stock. If you allow for the people filling the orders to substitute and get kroger brand chive cream cheese instead of philadelphia brand cream cheese, fine. But, what about when they have to substitute kroger brand american cheese (which is disgusting) isntead of Kraft? You either end up with [expletive] that you don't want or have to go in anyway and pick out a decent alternative...while your ice cream sits in the trunk and basically negates the whole point of click list in the first place.

I've done it and hate it.

[tlombard]

I still keep meaning to try the new service that has paired with Shop N Save and I think Schnuck's. Apparently you can shop online and have everything delivered within an hour or two for a very reasonable price.

[JoeMcKim]

Not sure what they're planning. There are ideas to do it with the ability to automate the check out process where a system keeps track of what is in the cart and charge for those items as customers leave the store.

Mentioned that above - they have one small store doing it already.

I'd be really tempted by that. My local grocery is a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, and I often go in for only a couple things only to be held up at the checkout line for 10 minutes.

It takes you 10 minutes even if you go through the self checkout line?

[ghostrunner]

Not sure what they're planning. There are ideas to do it with the ability to automate the check out process where a system keeps track of what is in the cart and charge for those items as customers leave the store.

Mentioned that above - they have one small store doing it already.

I'd be really tempted by that. My local grocery is a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, and I often go in for only a couple things only to be held up at the checkout line for 10 minutes.

It takes you 10 minutes even if you go through the self checkout line?

Yep. During busy times. My area was kind of a food desert before that store opened.

[Famous Mortimer]

They just refunded me $60 for a portable hard drive straight away, when it had been marked as delivered and then not shown up. I will go and buy $60 worth of stuff from Whole Foods as thanks.

[TheoSqua]

I still keep meaning to try the new service that has paired with Shop N Save and I think Schnuck's. Apparently you can shop online and have everything delivered within an hour or two for a very reasonable price.

We tried it. The delivery charge is like $5, pretty reasonable. What they don't tell you is that the prices on the online store where you order things are like 20% more than in the brick and mortar store. So you end up paying significantly more.


The biggest challenge with automated delivery like this is keeping up profit margins. Grocery stores tend to not make a profit from the standard items like milk, meat, eggs, etc. They get their profit from placing items with higher mark ups that people buy impulsively. Retail stores have this down to a science.

Obviously Amazon knows a thing or two about generating impulsive purchases online, but the grocery shopping list is a little different. Customers have a list, and stick to the list. So the number of prompts amazon would need to do online to equal the number of impulse buys a normal customer encounters in a brick and mortar store is going to be a huge challenge to reproduce without impacting usability.

[tlombard]

Huh. I started an order with Shop N Save once before and didn't notice the prices being any higher. I'll have to check that out this weekend. I thought they even had sale items that matched the prices in their ads but maybe I'm wrong. It was a few months ago that I poked around on the website so my memory could be completely wrong.

[JoeMcKim]

They're not going to have one of their drivers spend roughly 45 minutes to collect your food and deliver it to you to split $5 between the driver and themselves. You're paying for convenience and trust me you're spending way more then $5 per delivery of a whole shopping cart of groceries. I'm related to one of the drivers and I think he said you get charged 70 cents per item.