Has anyone else noticed that safeway.com doesn't sell their in-store brand of sandwich bread, which usually costs $1.99? You can only buy loaves of bread that are $4.00 or more. Their entire online store is stocked only with crappy, expensive, name-brand items.

So, yeah, in theory you can get your groceries delivered to you, but none of those services are intended for cash-strapped families and/or conscientious shoppers.

The prospect of lugging 4 bags of groceries plus 3 kids on a late, crowded MUNI bus is just sooooo inviting...

It makes sense that not all items can be delivered. They still have to retain their profit margins. As automation ramps up and demand for services like this ramps up, the overhead for the markets will go down and it will be easier to offer the cheaper items as well.

I realize this is a bit of a chicken and egg problem but we have seen how quickly startups or even technology being implemented by existing players can respond to increased demand.

In other countries everything in-store is available online...

I frequently see something like http://www.lowes.com/pd_60573-41885-640-8213-0200_0__ being used for carrying groceries.

I see a reasonable number of people using cargo bikes: https://christinemgrant.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/p1030899...

However it's also not that common for people here to carry lots of groceries at a time, unless you're planning a party. It's a lot more common to just pick up a few things each day: instead of one "big" shopping trip a week, most people make a short 10-minute stop every day or two, often on the way home from work. Partly for convenience, but partly also because that way your food is fresher. If you're shopping in that style, your groceries will fit in a regular bike's cargo basket.