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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

>Web queues are ineffective as shown by sneaker bots. You’d need actual ID style authentication of accounts.

...and that's rendered ineffective by SaaS bot companies that take your account logins and payment details and places the orders on your behalf, for a fee of course[1]. The economically efficient solution would be to auction off the slots, so at least the grocer is reaping the profit rather than some third party. It also has the benefit of capitalizing the grocer so they can hire more people and/or buy more equipment so there are more slots in total. Also, if it bothers you that some FAANG programmer can afford deliveries than some old granny, this can be alleviated by reserving a certain % of the slots to "needy" people (eg. old, disabled, sick, immunocompromised) subject to validation.

[1] kinda like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_drop_catching

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Totally agreed. It’s the classic “hiring people to wait in line for you” solution. Eh I don’t think surge pricing should be put anywhere near this problem and it’s certainly not economically efficient in the classic sense, that is creating the most economic output and benefit for the consumer.

This assumes it's easy to resell a slot, which may not be correct (eg if you have to put in your delivery address when entering the queue). Tickets are a very different commodity.

>This assumes it's easy to resell a slot

That's not what I'm saying. Rather than buying a slot (or an account) from the bot operator, you'd give the bot operator your order and address/account/payment info, so when the slots become available, the bot operator can place an order on your behalf.

Isn't that just what amazon should already be doing?

They need an option for people who are flexible with their delivery times, put in your order and they assign you a delivery slot when one opens up.

If a bot can do that, then amazon can just do it themselves and actually improve the user's experience.

How many people are working from home right now that don't can _when_ groceries get delivered other than "the next available slot"

You are solving the wrong problem. Curbside pick up is about as safe as delivery for 1/3 the labor cost and the grocer already has enough people if he uses everyone.

A food delivery auction would in some segments drive up the cost drastically when some can least afford it fuelling panic. This panic would fuel buying and hoarding.

Meanwhile the poor flock to the shelves to buy before the rich can pay to have it all delivered for hoarding.

Surge pricing for groceries during a crisis may be one of the worse ideas I've seen on hacker news.

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