Thanks for the link, I didn't realize that Safeway offered a 1-hour delivery window. One note is that a $49 minimum order is required for delivery service and a $12.95 shipping fee on purchases under $150.
Google Shopping has no minimum order amount and for this 6-month trial period has no delivery fees. Though, their site eludes to a $5 delivery fee per store you order items from once the trial period ends.
Of course, Safeway offers delivery of perishable foods, while Google shopping does not.
I wonder if the same day delivery is just a way to get people in, but the real value is being able to shop at a bunch of local retailers from one place.
We also use it several times a week. It's easier now with no delivery fee (will eventually be $5), but you order a case of root beer online and it's on your doorstep the next day. Simple.
I'm not sure how the economics will work out or how prices may change once it will reach scale.
I've been using this for a few months. It's super convenient for buying common items sold from places like Target and Staples.
If it wasn't free shipping I don't think I would use it over amazon prime though. There is no comparing the selection from Amazon to what is currently available from express shopping.
I've used this service for a couple weeks now, and it is an astonishing time saver. Same day delivery opens up very a different way of thinking about things. I have a couple thoughts though:
1) I currently feel guilty because its so easy to just buy one thing at a time, and theres nothing stopping me from doing it, that I end up making micropurchases. I wish Google would either prevent this or say "Oh its fine we use all electric vehicles any way."
2) I'm curious what their pricing plan is going to be like. I've compared the service to instacart which has minimum delivery amounts to avoid delivery fees. Google Express looks to be going more along the lines of an Amazon Prime type membership, where one price gets you unlimited deliveries. I don't know if they'll end up with this though.
3) Groceries! I would love to be able to buy produce, dairy, etc from Google Express.
4) I wish the delivery windows could be tighter... Maybe it sounds picky but Instacart has very nice delivery windows compared to Google Express.
I currently feel guilty because its so easy to just buy one thing at a time, and theres nothing stopping me from doing it, that I end up making micropurchases.
Google can absorb some losses for now as they ramp up adding even more ads on search to subsidize this service (and others) but you know where this is heading. The math has to be there, either prices have to be sky-high or /and a delivery fee. See Kozmo, Webvan...
I've been doing the same thing with micropurchases. I have no hesitation in thinking "Oh, I could use one of those..." and having it show up later that night or the next day.
But, it looks like they are planning on charging a yearly/monthly whatever subscription fee, plus $4.99 per delivery per store. Whenever I order, I have my $4.99 (or $9.98 if it's from 2 stores) waived, and I'm currently on the 6 month free trial that claims to be waiving my subscription fee.
My behavior will definitely change if this is the structure they go with. I sure won't be paying $4.99 for each impulse buy I make.
Given the variations of already bagged produce, I'm not sure I'd go that route for it.. I'm pretty picky and usually go to get my own. I also find that some chain stores are better than others.
I have used it for a few weeks too. Google needs to fix the ordering interface to focus you on stores you already have purchases pending with. If I can save a buck at one store but that causes two-store delivery fees.... oh the headache.
I worry that Goog isn't getting valid data - the clear reason to run the trial - because the selection is low (compared to Prime) - and the multi-store fee is not active. They could bump the per-store fee up to $1 per store, and get more valid data.
My primary desire for same-day is groceries (milk and bananas) but I admit I live a 3 minute walk (literally) from a nice little Mexican grocery that has an in-house butcher, milk and most veg. It's good to get into the sunshine for a few minutes.
I've used it a couple of times but it still has some flaws. For instance, you can only buy things that are listed on the website. I decided to give it a shot to get a new PS3 game delivered. The item would be located no more than 3 feet away from other items listed, but Google would not pick it up for you.
In another case, I just wanted a new filtered water pitcher. It ended up taking three days to get something delivered because the item I had selected would be out of stock, and there was no way to select an alternative. Getting any product on day one would have outweighed any marginal price differences between selections.
Compare this to Instacart which gives a lot of freedom in what the shoppers pick up for you. That being said, when the service did work, it was a good experience.
Stores tend to keep the new PS3 games locked up these days, so the shopper would have to find an employee to get the item, and then probably ring it up as a separate purchase in the entertainment section in addition to the final checkout—and then might get extra guff for the already-purchased game and have to show the receipt.
I'm not sure what their general policy is, but, for a delivery service with a decent emphasis on speed, it makes sense to me to exclude items that could significantly slow down the shopper with extra employee interaction, especially since they'd probably only have one video game order per trip, tops.
You make very good points but I got the impression that Shopping Express may work a little differently. It seems like Google might actually call the store and have the store employees prepare the order, or at least confirm that some items are in stock. One clue was an extremely quick turn around time for out of stock items: my order would be canceled less than an hour after being placed and hours before the intended delivery time for being out of stock. Of course, this doesn't rule out the possibility that the shopper happened to be at my Target at the time and was just buying every item for the day.
That being said, you do bring up good points and that may well be the reason.
Just curious, how do you actually see this? Maybe:
A self-driving car pulls up and double-parks in front of your building. It texts you to come outside and gives a four-digit pin. You go to the car, type the pin in, and a small door opens with your package sitting there. I guess the car has some weird conveyor system for moving packages into the pickup area.
Is this what you are thinking? I'm not sure how well double-parking by a self-driving car would work (delivery people do it, but they also can use their judgement). The conveyor system also seems like it would create problems.
When self driving cars become popular, the double parking issue could be solved, by many ways from parking automation , to regulation(even by the people living in the building), to the problem not being there at all, since nobody would own cars.
The car could launch a quadcopter to handle the driveway-to-door part. The car wouldn't even need to stop. By the time it's turned itself around, the quadcopter would have probably made the delivery. Security of the package and picking an appropriate drop point seem the most difficult parts to me.
Something like that is actually a great idea. My thought was more along the lines of economics of same day delivery. It's incredibly expensive at the moment for a number of factors one of them being employee costs but also inefficiencies in volume and demand for the service. Self driving cars I figure solve some of these issues.
I don't understand why people are so buttburt about Google Reader.
Google's business is to make money, directly or in-directly.
G-Reader didn't make much money, they tried advertising, it didn't work. Turns out people who use RSS, also tends to be tech savvy (a very small portion of overall internet users), people who are tech savvy are less likely to click on ads.
So they don't make any money from it directly, and I can't think of many indirect ways they could make a sizeable amount of money from tech-savvy users. They could start charging small amount per month, and as much as everyone said AFTER google decided to shut it down that they would be willing to pay for a paid service; I suspect in reality most would have just moved to another free service.
Another reason why it makes sense that google decided to shut it down, because now they have Social Site, Google+, from a business point of view it makes more sense for them if rss readers just subscribe to those site on G+. Less fragmentation and all that. I don't necessarily like it, but it makes sense from their point of view.
As to their delivery service. IF it actually turns out to be a serious business venture beyond testing the waters. I suspect, this would start making them money from very early days, if it really picks up that is. It has also the added bonus of knowing name, address, shopping habits of individuals. I would suspect, even if they don't make much money from delivery, those alone would be immensely valuable for Google and their advertisers.
Compare to that, an RSS reader seems like minor inconvenience for google. There is no comparison at all.
They could, but they don't have any obligation to. How many of their online service they shut down was eventually open-sourced? I can't think of any.
Also there are other things to consider, we know that Greader was running on auto-pilot for a long time, and the people who worked on it are either not with Google any more or are working on some other project. In order for them to open source this project, they either had to get those people back to help them opensource it or they would have to get new people to run down the whole codebase and take out portions that can be potential security/vulnerability issue. Looks like to me thats a lot of work.
There are tons of free and open-source RSS readers out there, some are pretty darn good. Why bother?
42 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 102 ms ] threadhttps://shop.safeway.com/ecom/home
Google Shopping has no minimum order amount and for this 6-month trial period has no delivery fees. Though, their site eludes to a $5 delivery fee per store you order items from once the trial period ends.
Of course, Safeway offers delivery of perishable foods, while Google shopping does not.
http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2013/03/calling-all-sf-ba...
I'm a fan. We use it several times a week.
I'm not sure how the economics will work out or how prices may change once it will reach scale.
If it wasn't free shipping I don't think I would use it over amazon prime though. There is no comparing the selection from Amazon to what is currently available from express shopping.
1) I currently feel guilty because its so easy to just buy one thing at a time, and theres nothing stopping me from doing it, that I end up making micropurchases. I wish Google would either prevent this or say "Oh its fine we use all electric vehicles any way."
2) I'm curious what their pricing plan is going to be like. I've compared the service to instacart which has minimum delivery amounts to avoid delivery fees. Google Express looks to be going more along the lines of an Amazon Prime type membership, where one price gets you unlimited deliveries. I don't know if they'll end up with this though.
3) Groceries! I would love to be able to buy produce, dairy, etc from Google Express.
4) I wish the delivery windows could be tighter... Maybe it sounds picky but Instacart has very nice delivery windows compared to Google Express.
Google can absorb some losses for now as they ramp up adding even more ads on search to subsidize this service (and others) but you know where this is heading. The math has to be there, either prices have to be sky-high or /and a delivery fee. See Kozmo, Webvan...
But, it looks like they are planning on charging a yearly/monthly whatever subscription fee, plus $4.99 per delivery per store. Whenever I order, I have my $4.99 (or $9.98 if it's from 2 stores) waived, and I'm currently on the 6 month free trial that claims to be waiving my subscription fee.
My behavior will definitely change if this is the structure they go with. I sure won't be paying $4.99 for each impulse buy I make.
I worry that Goog isn't getting valid data - the clear reason to run the trial - because the selection is low (compared to Prime) - and the multi-store fee is not active. They could bump the per-store fee up to $1 per store, and get more valid data.
My primary desire for same-day is groceries (milk and bananas) but I admit I live a 3 minute walk (literally) from a nice little Mexican grocery that has an in-house butcher, milk and most veg. It's good to get into the sunshine for a few minutes.
In another case, I just wanted a new filtered water pitcher. It ended up taking three days to get something delivered because the item I had selected would be out of stock, and there was no way to select an alternative. Getting any product on day one would have outweighed any marginal price differences between selections.
Compare this to Instacart which gives a lot of freedom in what the shoppers pick up for you. That being said, when the service did work, it was a good experience.
I'm not sure what their general policy is, but, for a delivery service with a decent emphasis on speed, it makes sense to me to exclude items that could significantly slow down the shopper with extra employee interaction, especially since they'd probably only have one video game order per trip, tops.
That being said, you do bring up good points and that may well be the reason.
Interestingly, it has not impacted my Amazon Prime purchases.
A self-driving car pulls up and double-parks in front of your building. It texts you to come outside and gives a four-digit pin. You go to the car, type the pin in, and a small door opens with your package sitting there. I guess the car has some weird conveyor system for moving packages into the pickup area.
Is this what you are thinking? I'm not sure how well double-parking by a self-driving car would work (delivery people do it, but they also can use their judgement). The conveyor system also seems like it would create problems.
I'm thinking murtali just didn't think that far.
And conveyors are pretty reliable in industry.
They offer the same set of retailers which Google has to offer. Why wait a day when you can get it within 1hr?
Google's business is to make money, directly or in-directly. G-Reader didn't make much money, they tried advertising, it didn't work. Turns out people who use RSS, also tends to be tech savvy (a very small portion of overall internet users), people who are tech savvy are less likely to click on ads.
So they don't make any money from it directly, and I can't think of many indirect ways they could make a sizeable amount of money from tech-savvy users. They could start charging small amount per month, and as much as everyone said AFTER google decided to shut it down that they would be willing to pay for a paid service; I suspect in reality most would have just moved to another free service.
Another reason why it makes sense that google decided to shut it down, because now they have Social Site, Google+, from a business point of view it makes more sense for them if rss readers just subscribe to those site on G+. Less fragmentation and all that. I don't necessarily like it, but it makes sense from their point of view.
As to their delivery service. IF it actually turns out to be a serious business venture beyond testing the waters. I suspect, this would start making them money from very early days, if it really picks up that is. It has also the added bonus of knowing name, address, shopping habits of individuals. I would suspect, even if they don't make much money from delivery, those alone would be immensely valuable for Google and their advertisers.
Compare to that, an RSS reader seems like minor inconvenience for google. There is no comparison at all.
Could Google have open-sourced it, and allowed other people to run the server side stuff on non-google servers?
Also there are other things to consider, we know that Greader was running on auto-pilot for a long time, and the people who worked on it are either not with Google any more or are working on some other project. In order for them to open source this project, they either had to get those people back to help them opensource it or they would have to get new people to run down the whole codebase and take out portions that can be potential security/vulnerability issue. Looks like to me thats a lot of work.
There are tons of free and open-source RSS readers out there, some are pretty darn good. Why bother?
(Obviously that information will not be withheld from the NSA.)
Jokes aside, automatic delivery is what they making them for.