I tried Google Shopping Express (a similar idea) for a while and found that what really matters is how delivery works. I'm typically at work all day and I (like most San Franciscans?) don't have a doorman to receive deliveries.<p>These Amazon pages don't say much, but they show pictures of delivery trucks in front of Victorians like mine and a grocery bag on a welcome mat. If they left a bag full of food in my entryway like that it'd probably last 20 minutes before being stolen.
Isn't $299 a year a lot of money? Here in London the major supermarkets have time slots where they deliver for free (typically late in the evening), but even a prime time delivery, let's say, Sunday morning, costs no more than £5. The most upmarket online vendor, Ocado, offers one year of free deliveries, anytime, for £40.<p>Ok, there's also Amazon Prime thrown in, which is good; and I suppose that in the Bay Area the average delivery journey is longer than in London. Still, it seems a bit steep to me. Maybe it tries to place itself as a luxury service in the Amazon range?
Odd ... all big supermarket chains do this in all of the UK.<p>My Tesco delivery is arriving in the next 20 minutes ... plus no annual charge over here.
Interesting that they're opening with a different price model than Seattle's. $299/year and according to GeekWire their groceries are approximately 14% higher than in-store.<p><a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-solving-economics-grocery-delivery/" rel="nofollow">http://www.geekwire.com/2013/jeff-bezos-amazon-fresh-closer-...</a>
The annual price seems prohibitively expensive, especially compared to services like Instacart.<p>They don't seem to be offering a very good argument for why the service is worth the cost IMO.
Double-parking quick delivery trucks remind me of nothing but the 2000 bubble. Here's one way too big for the parking spot about to block a fire hydrant in the Upper Haight just last night: <a href="http://imgur.com/61lAhjW" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/61lAhjW</a>
Interesting to see a new spin on this. Webvan was one of the biggest busts of the dot com era (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan</a>) -- interesting that Amazon resurrected it..
I wonder if this is an experiment to bring all Amazon shipping in house? This would fit with their huge distribution system build out across the globe. In the meantime Amazon's relationship with UPS and FedEx is not disturbed.
What we need is another kind of mail box. A "AmazonBox", but takes deliveries from other companies as well. Big, refrigerated, with a public/private key.
Has anyone noticed that they give you gigantic bags for free? Our office (LA not SF) orders fresh all the time for basic food and they always give us enormous re-usable bags.<p>I'm trying to figure out, are they doing this on purpose (paper bags would be cheaper)? I'm assuming they are, hoping that you'll go shopping and use their cool bags and using this as a method of free advertising.
Here in the south bay I don't have InstaCart, but my local Safeway does deliver.<p>The experience isn't the best (someone has to be there and sign) but a) I have a nanny and b) I don't pay $299 or 14% more for the items.. in fact, I would pay less as I don't carry a loyalty card, but deliveries give you the loyalty price (presumably, they collect the same kind of info anyway).
I wish it was better but I decided not to use them anymore... wrote a blog post about it<p><a href="http://petersid.com/why-you-shouldnt-use-amazon-fresh/" rel="nofollow">http://petersid.com/why-you-shouldnt-use-amazon-fresh/</a>