Show HN: Get notified when grocery pickup slots are available

This looks like a neat bit of tech but it doesn’t sit quite right with me. In particular it doesn’t feel very fair to our fellow shoppers.<p>We wait in line for the ATM or the checkout or anything else because a scrabble is unfair. Using a tool like this when others almost certainly are not doesn’t really feel fair on those other people.<p>Having to check manually for a slot sucks, but so does waiting in line, and that’s the lowest common denominator of behavior that still counts as fair which we can all adhere to right now.<p>I get that the grocery companies should make the slot selection better. But laying the blame on them feels a bit like the FAQ for those padlocks that stop the airline passenger in front of you from being able to recline, where the manufacturer tried to claim we are all in this together their product is just part of a campaign for better airline seating for us all. It was no such thing: it was kind of selfish.<p>In any other climate I’d happily be told to quit my social justice moralism, but things seem quite serious at the moment, and I wouldn’t encourage using this tool, but maybe I’m taking it too far.

The fundamental problem here is grocery stores and others needlessly limiting when they make pickups available. Lots of people are sitting at home with extreme schedule flexibility, and would be happy to choose a slot 10 days out or whatever. Instead there is the silliness (and third-party app workarounds like this) of only releasing slots much closer.<p>In other conversation I have seen the following explanation: those systems were designed for a much different supply demand balance than we see today, they just haven&#x27;t had time to adjust things yet.

Hi HN!<p>We realized that curbside pickups is a great compromise for everybody&#x27;s health and safety right now.<p>We built Curb Run because we found it very difficult to get a curbside pickup slot at our local Wegmans. Willing to drive a bit further away to another location, I hacked together a little script that would check for pickup slots across multiple stores in a radius.<p>Fast forward, friends and family started hearing about this and asked if we could help them too. We ended up turning this into a web app for everybody to use -- and with many more stores and chains across the US.<p>We hope that this can help you as well!

a number of commenters are relying on a misperception that we all need to avoid everyone else as much as possible. that&#x27;s incorrect, and leads to this rush to overload curbside pickup options and crowd out people who particularly need to avoid the risk of infection: those with co-morbidities.<p>what most of us need to do is avoid coughing and breathing into each others&#x27; noses&#x2F;mouths, and that&#x27;s what the (better) guidelines are meant to prevent. keeping distance doesn&#x27;t need to be perfect, but best effort, as long as we generally avoid standing face-to-face and talking (especially for prolonged periods, closely, and&#x2F;or loudly).<p>it&#x27;s really fine to go to the grocery store if you don&#x27;t live with someone sick or immuno-compromised and can mostly avoid other people&#x27;s spit in your face.

Hey, this is cool! I tried to setup a curbside pickup for my elderly parents with a local store through instacart, but after getting to the end I discovered it was for next week. Couple thoughts:<p>1. Could I just provide a zipcode instead of sharing my browser location?<p>2. Could I check stores in aggregate? I&#x27;d rather discover which local business has the MOST openings and then register an account there, rather than getting to the end of the shopping experience and waiting.<p>Lastly, you have a typo &quot;seend&quot; in your third step.

After 5 days in a row of not being able to get a delivery slot for another grocer, I used a similar tool. Even with the help of the tool polling the website every minute, the slot filled before I was able to complete the order the first few times. So at this point, it&#x27;s clear that only coders are able to get online grocery delivery from the store I use.<p>If there was a way to reserve delivery slots for the elderly and at-risk, that would be great, but otherwise I see no problem with technically savvy people having an advantage here, if the alternative is requiring people to do manual polling and waste time. Those slots are going to go to somebody. Perhaps some limit to one delivery per week per account to encourage people to order more efficiently. Eventually, delivery capacity will ramp up to satisfy demand regardless.

I appreciate this effort ... when we thought things were going to get bad in late February, we put about 3 months of food in our larder (like a root cellar but reachable from the basement of our house). We&#x27;ve been ordering about every 2 weeks just to keep it replenished just in case things get significantly worse. I&#x27;ve got three at risk people in my house so we can&#x27;t really afford for any of (the five of) us to catch this.

Has anyone started scalping pickup slots yet? “If you want toilet paper, you’ll have to buy our pickup slot for $50”.

This is really great! I&#x27;ve sent it to a couple of my friends who are immunocompromised and have been having trouble getting slots. Thank you for making this!

Such a great idea!<p>Do you have any plans on open-sourcing this?

Asks browser for location permission without an option for entering a zip code or street address #FAIL

Is this US-specific or does it also work in other countries? I scanned the landing page, could not find an answer to this question.

This is so unethical. I&#x27;m reaching out to the IT departments of some of these stores to ask them to block your IP address.

Have you stopped to think about the ethical implications of this?<p>Could you put a warning to be mindful and only consider the service if you&#x27;re high-risk or in a situation where curbside is the only safe option?<p>I love the fact that my high-risk parents are using curbside pickup, but I find myself better fitted to wear a mask and do the groceries myself during off-peak hours. The last thing I think the world wants is (presumably younger) people in tech taking up curbside slots before other people in the community.

I got all excited when I saw the landing page graphic has groceries from an Australian grocery store: Woolworths.<p>Alas...

What I’ve found with Whole Foods delivery is that if you wait for a notification you’ve lost the slot. I use a bot that plays a loud sound when a slot is available and foregrounds the Firefox window. I then have to click the checkout flow immediately. If I’m even a foot away from my machine when it happens I lose the slot. I only get deliveries when I’m active on my PC.

I opened a few issues on GitHub. Once I sign up, how do I stop notifications?<p>How do I add stores to my sub?

Request: Peapod support.

Please please please make this work for the UK!

US only