Amazon grocery services will never reach 80% of the potential market for obvious reasons (cost/distance/local volume issues).
Regional grocers will probably make delivery a more common feature of life in some areas.
The increasing trend towards packaged and preserved foods of all kinds will be symbiotic with the growth of delivery. Just as tomatoes were modified to be easier to store, ship and keep on sale longer (at the expense of almost everything else), many foods now primarily bought “fresh” will move to a pseudo-fresh mode, like irradiated milk that does not need refrigeration.
Embedded marketing in social media will continue to rise, further devaluing the content of what seems to be natural communication and relationships.
For the housebound, sure. But inclement weather? I’ve had so many packages take 2 or 3 times longer than they should due to bad weather somewhere between me and the distribution center, even days after a storm, that I can’t imagine it’d reliably be easier to get a delivery than drive somewhere.
But Amazon doesn’t have the typical overhead of a grocery store. They ship from a warehouse. I compared the PrimeNow prices with those of another local grocery store that delivers, Safeway. Safeway’s delivered food is twice as expensive as both PrimeNow and their regular stores!
Another failed attempt at grocery delivery. This probably doesn’t cost Amazon much, they have local delivery resources already that aren’t operating at capacity yet, and they’ll expand their general customer base. In the end they may succeed at non-fresh grocery delivery such as canned foods, dry goods, etc.
I use grocery delivery regularly. It saves me money because there are no impulse purchases and I can see exactly how much I’m spending as I fill up the cart. It’s definitely caught on here-- I see the Peapod truck in my neighborhood almost every time I go out.
Amazon seems to be carving a niche with high-end local specialities. That’s not really what I need right now, but I might check it out. Prices on normal items seem about on par with our (admittedly ridiculously expensive) local options.
The profit margins are just so wicked small in grocery retail, AND this technology will be hellaciously expensive to ramp up in an entire chain. You think POS ( Point Of Sale ) retailers have balked at and ultimately refused to spend the $$$ to get credit card Chip Reader Terminals installed and activated? ( Even though this is Federal law )
Convince me that any major or smaller boutique food chain would go through this expense.
As I said, I believe this isn’t about food retail. Just as the Tesla isn’t really about building a car. My personal belief is that the entire car system is nothing more than a proving ground for what has emerged as the Power Wall.
You design a testing ground that others pay for. Amazon wants to design and test this method? Get supermarkets to sign on. Sure, they are paying for the first one. That won’t last because that’s a profitless business model.
Just as selling the Tesla concept to America is a losing proposition. I adore the concept. I drive a Prius now that uses Hybrid Drive. But as a business model? No way. I do think the Powerwall is what Elon Musk is really after here.
I never had a delayed delivery due to weather even in one of our infrequent snow events. Note that Amazon Fresh isn’t shipping products to you; they had their own fleet of branded delivery trucks. Everything came out of the local Safeway distribution center. Same day service was totally possible. If you got your order placed in the morning as I recall.
I personally prefer going to a store especially if I’m buying produce; I want to see/feel it before I buy it. But I could see myself using it for the same reason as your co-workers wives.
It’s not available where I live but is where my sister lives. Prices seem to be 30 to 50 percent higher than her regular grocery stores. I would have expected even higher prices frankly. I could see myself using the service occasionally for the convenience, but the biggest benefit would be to people who don’t have a car, who have mobility issues, or whose time is worth a lot more than mine is.
I didn’t realize you had to pay $15/month in addition to the usual Amazon Prime membership fees (after the 30 day free trial). I’m sure it’s useful for some people but I certainly wouldn’t pay that much as long as I have a car and am able to do my own shopping.
I’ve tried it. It only became available in my area a few months ago. I ordered lots of organic produce and organic meat as well as some organic pantry items. Had no problem with the quality of the produce so didn’t mind that I hadn’t chosen it myself. Lone produce items, like a lone bell pepper, came shrink-wrapped, which I thought at first was wasteful but then I figured it’s actually less plastic than one of those plastic produce bags from the grocery store or farmer’s market. (Sometimes when I buy only one I don’t bother with the bag, though, since I know I’ll be washing it at home anyway.)
The organic meat was similarly shrink-wrapped to within an inch of its life, plus attached to a card that extended past the size of the meat, describing exactly what it was and where it came from. I got organic chicken and turkey. The meat price was a little higher than at grocery or farmer’s market.
Overall prices for everything else were definitely higher than at the farmer’s market or regular grocery store. Easy to see that you’re paying premium for convenience. As for that aspect, no complaints, as it arrived exactly when supposed to. It IS weird that they put like one small package (1 lb) of meat in a huge green insulated container, the same size one as for the rest of the stuff. There were also large cold packs, don’t think there was any chance anything would’ve spoilt.
We did not use the service again for a couple months (we’d only wanted to try it out) so the huge totes sat around until then. I finally decided recently to order a few things just to have a delivery so they’d pick up the totes. I ordered some paper towels and kleenex, not groceries. They cost almost twice what I pay at Walmart (which is evil, yadda yadda) but I wanted rid of the totes and didn’t want to buy more groceries. The two items were delivered bright and early the next morning at the front end of the 2-hour window. They were in TWO TOTES! Which I do not understand. Literally it was two items that would’ve fit with room to spare in one tote. But I didn’t care - I asked the driver to wait while I took the items out and also retrieved the 5 we’d had sitting around forever. She happily waited a minute or so and then took all the totes back with her.
tl;dr Definitely things cost more, you’re paying for convenience. I’ll use it again once in a while but not as a regular thing for now.
Too late to edit, realized I didn’t address the actual question in OP. I don’t think Amazon Fresh will make a huge dent in regular grocery stores, at least not anytime soon.
However, anybody else here know about Amazon Go? I read an article about it in some business journal. It’s a fully automated grocery store. There are no cashiers and not even any self-check stations. You take items off the shelf and walk out the door with them. You can do this because you’ve been detected when you enter the store and/or when you remove an item from the shelf and your payment method is automatically charged. I don’t recall all the details, but I watched the demo and it looks so bizarre compared with what we’re so used to.
I think they only have one store right now, in Seattle if I recall correctly. But if THAT thing ever catches on, I can see it replacing “regular” shopping. Imagine, just going in the store, picking what you want, bagging it in a tote or whatever you bring yourself or, heck, just carrying it in your hand if it’s just one thing, and strolling right out without having to so much as open your wallet.
Mine is worth more than the price of Amazon fresh, so we use it several times a week for years now. I still do a once weekly run to Trader Joe’s and the butcher, but I love having those green bags by my door when I get home. It means that I just saved an hour.
Well, yes, if you shop and cook at that kind of level, you’re probably in a tax bracket where mundanities like grocery shopping is best left to the help. :rolleyes:
