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Comment by abalone | Hacker News Reader

> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store...

Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum.

Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct integration with their inventory system. Way less substitutions. Also Prime ($99) is obviously a higher-value bundle than Instacart Express ($149).

Instacart's opportunity is to serve all the other retailers that are crapping their collective pants over this. Whether it's a short or long term opportunity... remains to be seen.

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"way less substitutions" we had three no-ask substitutions on our very last order and arugula that spoiled in two days time. Canceled our trial. Instacart, at least in NYC, is a mess IMO.

thats what he said. AMZN is better

Right now I wouldn't say prime now's inventory integration is any better, but I'm sure it eventually will be. Both instacart and prime now seem to have trouble determining if an item is actually in stock.

It’s still better. Instacart has a completely separate “crowdsourced” database. Amazon at least has comprehensive SKUs and prices.

>Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out exactly that for Whole Foods. Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh. Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum.

It's worth noting that Instacart has been doing this for years now, and has massive amounts of operational experience in this area which Amazon lacks. They also have lower or no minimums and a greater selection.

Instacart does not have better selection at WF, due to the inferior inventory system.

Amazon’s minimum is $35 for free 2hr delivery.

Not too worried about Amazon’s operational experience with deliveries.

> all the other retailers

this is a big pool, with not only deep pockets but millions of customers who are not ever going to shop at Whole Foods. Think Target and Costco customers, and think of every other local retail experience they have that can be delivered.

Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.

"Think Sears customers. Think Macys. Think JC Penny."

- equivalent sentiment 20 years ago.

> Making it profitable is a whole other can of worms but I definitely see opportunity.

Great, so there's an unprofitable opportunity for Instacart. Fantastic.

In all seriousness that's why I said short vs long term.. I probably agree Instacart can exploit some of the retailer panic here in the short term. But in the long term large scale vertically integrated players have massive cost and customer experience advantages.

I don't disagree. I'm just trying to imagine what investors are thinking pouring all this money into Instacart. And none of this rules out Instacart being gobbled up by Amazon after some down rounds.

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