Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by minimax on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @03:10PM
(#6401222)
Mehta tells TechCrunch that “33 percent of the year, Chicago has some form of precipitation” and that his company has learned in the San Francisco area that “people just do not like grocery shopping when it’s raining.”
I think in Chicago he's going to learn something about how much people like grocery shopping when it's 15°F outside too...
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by minimax on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @08:24PM
(#6402731)
I live in Chicago but I'm originally from the south. I feel exactly the opposite. To me, it feels a little bit warm in the summer for all of a month or two, then it's cold as hell in January and February.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by loganfrederick on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @02:41PM
(#6401035)
My roommate just signed up for Peapod and got our first delivery last week. I am looking forward to trying out Instacart and comparing the experience. It seems like I've been seeing an increasing number of Peapod trucks around the city the past six months (maybe it's just me), so I agree with the article's suggestion that there is demand for the service in Chicago.
Edit: In case the team is reading, I'm also curious: Does Instacart have anyone (like an Operations Manager) in Chicago, or are all the logistics being handled remotely from SF?
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by apoorvamehta on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @03:23PM
(#6401293)
yes, we do have people on the ground in Chicago. And, we are looking for more ops focused people to join. Please email us at [email protected] - Thank you.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by b_mandell on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @02:54PM
(#6401127)
I live in Chicago and a Trader Joes opened up near me about a week ago. This is the most fantastic news I've heard in a long time: cheap, good groceries delivered to my door!
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by toofishes on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @03:40PM
(#6401417)
If it opened up "near" you, can you explain why delivery is fantastic news? I think I do grocery shopping different than most people living in the city that find these services useful. If a grocery store is five minutes away or on the walk home from the train, just-in-time shopping seems much more practical.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by timjahn on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @05:11PM
(#6401991)
It's more than just $3.99 extra. The food is marked up as well. The site live chat rep just told me to except groceries to be 10% more expensive via Instacart than if you shopped yourself.
I imagine it will be easy with things packaged goods, but when it comes to meat or fruit, you're hoping the personal shopper doesn't pick out some rotten fruit.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by hnriot on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @05:57PM
(#6402193)
I don't spend anything like 15-30 mins in Trader Joes. I know where the things I want are, I might sometimes spend time browsing the wines for something new, but this is no different that browsing the same online.
I just don't get the big deal, it seems like whining to me. It really isn't that big of a deal, you take your life so seriously that you can't spend a little time looking for food you might enjoy. Maybe it's because I'm European where we the attitude to food is different.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by yogo on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @02:58PM
(#6401147)
For a new market the area covered is pretty good. Your neighborhood probably got skipped because of Uptown :P. Notice how far west they go in Logan Square but Humboldt Park is skipped?
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by kirinan on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @02:18PM
(#6400885)
I really hope they expand to Seattle. I know Amazon Fresh exists and that Safeway does delivery here, but they don't do same day delivery and its a lot more expensive than instacart. Some competition will do this area some good. If they can keep quality up and keep prices down, I know they can dominate this whole market.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by timjahn on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @05:17PM
(#6402015)
Hoping they expand to my neighborhood soon so I can give them a try. I think there's a big future in grocery delivery because there is so much energy expended per household buying groceries.
- Drive to grocery store
- Roam around store picking out groceries and putting in shopping cart
- Remove all items from shopping cart, put them on belt to checkout
- Take all bags of purchased groceries and put in shopping cart
- Take all bags out of shopping cart, put in car
- When you get home, take all bags out of shopping cart and bring into house
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by the_watcher on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @06:13PM
(#6402275)
I cannot wait until they (hopefully) come to Austin. The only chances I have to go to the grocery store are at peak hours, which makes me dread the trip, and often causes me to put it off and eat out.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by jtmcmc on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @09:46PM
(#6402961)
Everytime I think about using instacart I see the prices are all significantly higher than me schlepping my butt down to whole foods / berkeley bowl and I don't see it as worth it.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by rayiner on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @02:49PM
(#6401093)
"Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta told AllThingsD that his company built a 'feasibility matrix' to determine which city it would expand to. Components of the matrix included what you might guess: car-ownership density and income. Weather was reportedly also a factor. Mehta tells TechCrunch that '33 percent of the year, Chicago has some form of precipitation' and that his company has learned in the San Francisco area that 'people just do not like grocery shopping when it’s raining.' Seattle, you might be next."
I think Chicago is a natural fit. The specific neighborhoods they picked have about 600k people in 33 square miles (a bit denser overall than San Francisco as a whole). There are a ton of residential skyscrapers in those neighborhoods, which means they probably can hit several orders in one go. 30% of Chicago households don't have a car, about the same as San Francisco. It rains or is cold about half the year, and is hot and humid a couple of months out of the remainder, which makes people not want to carry groceries home.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by mbertrand on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @03:02PM
(#6401182)
Agreed. Being from Chicago I think that its very natural for all the points listed above. The density of the city with the void of competition in the space (only Peapod comes to mind) make Chicago a great market to expand too. Chicago usually doesn't come to mind first as an early adopter market but given the rapid adoption of Uber (like other cities) I think the market is proving it is interested in similar services.
Re:Instacart Expands To Chicago
by timjahn on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @05:12PM
(#6401999)
Agreed. I know many people who don't have a car living in the denser parts of the city, and grocery shopping (even for a single person living alone) can become a harder task simply because you can't carry a ton at once.
I think in Chicago he's going to learn something about how much people like grocery shopping when it's 15°F outside too...
"It’s as cold as the last circle of Dante’s Inferno in Chicago about half the year"
Um, not even close. And even when it is 15F, we don't sit and home and moan about it. Life goes on.
Edit: In case the team is reading, I'm also curious: Does Instacart have anyone (like an Operations Manager) in Chicago, or are all the logistics being handled remotely from SF?
2. 30 minutes + travel time is worth more to me than $3.99
3. Not having to deal with finding the items in the grocery store is worth its own point
I imagine it will be easy with things packaged goods, but when it comes to meat or fruit, you're hoping the personal shopper doesn't pick out some rotten fruit.
I just don't get the big deal, it seems like whining to me. It really isn't that big of a deal, you take your life so seriously that you can't spend a little time looking for food you might enjoy. Maybe it's because I'm European where we the attitude to food is different.
But yeah, I wish they came as far north as Uptown.
I think Chicago is a natural fit. The specific neighborhoods they picked have about 600k people in 33 square miles (a bit denser overall than San Francisco as a whole). There are a ton of residential skyscrapers in those neighborhoods, which means they probably can hit several orders in one go. 30% of Chicago households don't have a car, about the same as San Francisco. It rains or is cold about half the year, and is hot and humid a couple of months out of the remainder, which makes people not want to carry groceries home.