Archived Amazon wants to build drive-up grocery stores (engadget.com)
submitted ago by ChillyHellion
Posted by: ChillyHellion
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Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
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Archived Amazon wants to build drive-up grocery stores (engadget.com)
submitted ago by ChillyHellion
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[–] guldilox 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Interesting.
In Business school my group spent a term designing an implementation, execution, and break-even plan for something like that (it was much closer to a mini-mart). We came to realize that the margins were insanely small. The associated costs for land-size and operations were huge. And the labor costs if we wanted to be even remotely fair to human beings was killer.
Take this with a grain of salt, because our plan was on a smaller scale and we didn't exactly have the liquidity of AMZN. And, well, we were also just-learning business students - but our final conclusion was that it wasn't a viable business.
That said, I kind of see this as the tablet in a PC / large smartphone arena. Novel, but largely lacking in a niche that really needs filling unless you can convince customers they need it. Using Safeway's delivery to my door service is better than me needing to go and drive through and wait and drive home and unload, and I've never had an issue with frozen / fresh foods this route. Instacart is another option in my area. I'm sure there are others.
[–] Radial 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
With tech like this https://youtu.be/quWFjS3Ci7A
Amazon might be able to reduce those labor costs enough for this to work.