News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown. Parent comment

Re:What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown by CydeWeys on Sunday March 05, 2017 @11:33AM (#13796730)
The Amazon pricing makes sense though, because Amazon is paying the cost of shipping it to your door rather than you paying the cost of time, money, and gasoline to go fetch it at a store and bring it back. Amazon's model is at least price-transparent.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown by dasil003 on Sunday March 05, 2017 @01:06PM (#13797364)
Well, to be fair, I think both models make perfect sense. But I don't think Amazon is necessarily more transparent. In case it wasn't clear, I was talking about list prices, not including shipping.

In either case, you have to go seek out the on-premise retail prices, and in fact this is no different than traditional price comparison shopping whereby you learn that different stores have different loss leaders to get people in the door, and if you really want to get the cheapest price you have to shop a lot of different places. I'm not sure whether Amazon's model of centralized distribution with direct delivery has greater economies of scale then the big box store model, but I'm worried people are blinded by Amazon's convenience and don't realize how often the prices are really quite bad.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown by jon2k17 on Sunday March 05, 2017 @11:42AM (#13796793)
Isn't that what Instacart is doing I.e bringing it to your door the same day, which I presume is much more costly?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown by grandalf on Sunday March 05, 2017 @12:42PM (#13797197)
Yes. Not sure why people don't see this.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown by meesterdude on Sunday March 05, 2017 @12:29PM (#13797111)
but shipping is an additional charge - YOU are paying to have it shipped to your door, not amazon.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is Instacart really charging? the breakdown by dangrossman on Sunday March 05, 2017 @12:56PM (#13797290)
There is no shipping charge for Amazon Subscribe & Save items (the subscriptions with discounts he referred to). You don't need a Prime membership either.

https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe-Save/b?ie=UTF8&node=5856181...

[ Parent | on HN ]