Ask HN: Online Supermarkets? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Online Supermarkets?

6 pointsfiesycal7 comments

Are there any successful online supermarkets? I mean places where you buy groceries and have them delivered to your door. The major supermarkets all have 'online stores' but they're slow, hard to use and not worth the time. Do any of you think its possible that a 'Webvan' started today has a chance of being successful, such as AmazonFresh. Or is the business model not scalable? What do you think the possibilities are, the problems, pitfalls etc.

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http://www.relayfoods.com/ is pretty neat, but only locations in VA right now.

Here in the Netherlands we have Albert (www.albert.nl), the online version of the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands (Albert Heijn). They seem to do a good job, especially in places like Amsterdam where a lot of people don't have a car.

When I was in France this this summer, I noticed an E.Leclerc supermarkets where you could purchase your groceries online, only you had to pick them up yourself at a drive-through counter. The groceries were already packed in bags, so I can imagine you can save some time there.

I did not try these services, though, I like to see/smell/feel my food before I buy it.

Lots in the UK, you regularly see delivery vans from the major brands driving around London. That's said online grocery shopping only makes up around 4% of the market (~$8bn) at the moment.

Korea has a really great system where you can shop for 'virtual items' while waiting for the subway. The items are then gathered at your nearest super market and delivered to your door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJVoYsBym88

I'm looking for an online store from United States(I'm from another country) to scrape the prices of fresh foods/produce: fruits, vegetables, grains, meat...

The stores I have found only publish packaged foods.

Could anyone point me the right way?

In Australia our 2 major supermarkets also run pretty good online versions. I doubt anyone could successfully compete with them here (they have a duopoly currently).

Freshdirect.com in Nyc is pretty great

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