RSSAmazon Quietly Debuts Online Grocery
By Ed Oswald | Published June 15, 2006, 11:00 AM
Amazon took baby steps into the realm of online groceries, offering only non-perishable goods and free shipping to anywhere in the United States. The company offers a total of about 10,000 items, and features such as a shopping list, product recommendations and savings opportunities for bulk buys.
Perishable goods are not offered through the service, as Amazon said it would not be able to ship those items for free. The company gave no possible time frame as to when -- and if -- it would offer those products.
Fitting in with its business model, Amazon pledged to keep prices low through a variety of methods. "For example, items you purchase might come in larger packs than you see at a traditional grocery store, and we might ship a product in a manufacturer's original case," the company said on its Web site.
The service was quietly introduced as a beta without much fanfare on May 25. Amazon said that a grocery service was something that its customers had asked for in future stores.
Nationwide online grocery shopping has been attempted in the past, most notably in the late 1990s during the Internet boom. Investors poured millions into such services, however the majority went belly up in 2001 following the tech crash, or became regional providers.
That has not stopped local grocers from offering such services. Companies such as Safeway and SuperValu have begun to experiment with online shopping.
They are soo close, yet missing the boat. Instead of boxing items in 12 packs of mashed potatos and 75 packs of kool-aid to keep prices low and offer free shipping why not make a minimum order amount. I would buy everything to have it delivered except I dont need Jumbo packs of everything.
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|Works for me. Everything I eat comes out of a can or a box. Well, everything I can afford to eat, that is.
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|"...we might ship a product in a manufacturer's original case," the company said on its Web site."
Great. Now, not only do the UPS guys get to pass their time drop kicking your electronics from their delivery trucks, but they'll also have something yummy to snack on while they're doing it.
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|Now I need to see if they will sell me caffiene free Mountain Dew.
I can't find that stuff anywhere. :(
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|I think it's great for the bargain hunters like myself to find a good deal on something besides clothing and such. I have a large family and purchase most items in bulk, so it sounds like something that would work for me.
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|so, wait.... lets say im hungry right now.....
i order stuff that will get delivered to me in 3-4 days ..... how is this convenient ????
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|Because that way you don't have to take time out of your weekend to go grocery shopping. Of course, that convenience won't realise itself until they offer perishables.
I kinda like to pick out my produce anyway.
If you are hungry now, order a pizza.
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|Amazon doesn't ship the majority of the products in its catalogue overseas. What's silly is that European Amazon online shops like that in Germany, France, UK don't ship to other European countries.. that's really silly. It's like Amazon US wouldn't ship products to Canada.. that's pretty dumb, isn't it ?
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|Might have to do with laws about transportation of goods across borders. Food from Canada likely hasn't been approved by the US FDA, not that there is anything wrong with it, it just hasn't had the FDAs oversight.
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|So...
Simon delivers, for folks who SD doesn't deliver to, but with a more limited selection (no perishables).
Meh...
I'm one of the few remaining, 'get off your lazy ass, go out and do it your *damn* self' kind of folks.
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