It depends on your business model.

If a basket of groceries brought online costs $15 more than the in-store prices, then you can pick in-store profitably, very easy. That's the instacart model.

But if a basket of groceries brought online costs about the same as buying in-store? With the retailer bearing the costs of picking, packing and delivery instead of the customer?

Well then you need something more efficient than a store.

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cudgy 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Even $15 more isn’t enough on account of delivery time, transpo costs, driver time, picking items, and bagging. Current model is for drivers to subsidize by being tricked into taking unprofitable orders.

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michaelt 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

If Kroger operates the same was as Ocado does in the UK, then the drivers are paid by the hour, with the company providing the van and fuel.

Agree a lot of modern delivery businesses involve "self-employed" drivers getting paid a pittance and using their own vehicle and fuel, though.

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mothballed 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

From what I've seen, for grocery the model is they'll give you the least desirable or near expired stock that the walk-in customers won't grab. So they're basically saving spoilage. This happens so reliably I'm absolutely convinced this is how they 'pay' for it without raising prices.

I've also noticed this with hardware stores like Lowes. If I place a pickup order they more often than not will pawn off on me their broken, returned, or even used and damaged stock. Items like building wrap will have soil and rips on it, concrete mix will be spoiled from moisture, lumber will be all the most warped pieces (if you don't order a whole pallet, expect every last piece of fractional pallet will be knotted to hell, split, twisted, and badly warped), plumbing valves will be open package and leaky, etc etc. It's like clockwork, even if the stock sitting on the shelf doesn't have these problems. Due to this there are some stores I will never do a pickup/delivery order from.

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gambiting 2 days ago | parent [-]

Here in the UK it's common for online grocery sites to say "fresh for at least X days" on every item, so bread will usually say 5 days, eggs 7 days etc etc. Doesn't matter if I select collection(so someone is picking those items for me at the store) or delivery(so they come from a larger warehouse). They stick to that promise.

	▲	NegativeLatency 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		An example of my experiences: you’ll get the apple with the bruise and maybe some damage instead of the nice one you’d pick out if you’re shopping for yourself.

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lotsofpulp 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

And how about charging more in store than online?

On two separate occasions, I stopped by Walmart recently and spent $0.50 extra and $1.50 extra by walking in, going to the aisle, and picking up the item myself.

The Walmart app even tells you that the price on the app is only for online orders. But I didn’t want to wait for an unknown amount of time for a Walmart employee to bring it out to my car (been more than 10 to 15min a few times).

So basically, I pay extra to avoid that volatility in time to run that errand, and I do more work for it.

	▲	ssl-3 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yep. Wal-Mart has been that way for years now. I rarely shop at Wal-Mart. There's only a few things that I buy there. One of those things is motor oil: Their online pricing for 5 quarts of full-synthetic whatever is usually impossible to beat. The only catch is that you have to go to the store, park outside, and wait for someone to bring it out. Going inside the store to buy it in person often costs several dollars more (and those dollars count towards the next cheeseburger). It seems completely asinine for it to be this way, and I feel completely silly waiting outside for someone to bring me a single jug of motor oil and hand it to me through my car window, but it's very clear that they don't want me in the store. And I'm cheap. So I play their game and let them do it for me. (It's usually very fast for me, so there's that.)
	▲	sejje 2 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I'm not sure they want us in the store anymore. And I'm glad to stay outside.
	▲	reaperducer a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		And how about charging more in store than online? I find your Wal-Mart anecdote interesting, because the chain supermarket that I use is the exact opposite. I buy the same items from the same store every two weeks (then supplement at neighborhood stores). Sometimes I shop in-store, and sometimes I get delivery. But the two-week shopping list is so unchanging that I even use the shopping list on the delivery web site when I'm walking through the aisles. Because of this, I notice that the supermarket charges more for products being delivered than those retrieved in-store. Sometimes it's enough that I'll text my wife a picture of the price tag in the store, followed by a screenshot from the store's delivery web site. Recently from memory, a 12-pack of ginger ale was about $3 more for delivery than in the store. But I'd say overall, probably 80% of the items I buy regularly are cheaper in the store. These days, I only get things delivered if I have other significant obligations that warrant paying a 10% delivery markup, plus the delivery fee, plus a tip. I think the price discrepancy between in-store and delivery is the reason that so many supermarkets I've been to recently (and also Macy's) have zero cell phone service under their roofs.