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Comment by Aaargh20318 | Hacker News Reader

Aaargh20318

When I go to a supermarket, I have to deal with finding the stuff I need, way too many people in the store, etc. but at least I can take my stuff home immediately.

When I buy online I have to wait for delivery, but at least I don't have to go looking for stuff in 20 different isles only to find out the thing I needed is in a completely illogical place, or deal with all the people there.

This concept combines all the disadvantages of physically going to a supermarket with all the disadvantages of buying online. Amazon's concept actually improves the physical buying experience.

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Going to a (small) supermarket is not a disadvantage, I find it a nice experience, because you can see/smell/touch) the products you want. I wouldn't buy fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, etc. online.

Not being able to take your stuff home is a little annoying, but depending on where you live it can be almost necessary to have groceries delivered. In Paris many buildings don't have elevators at all, or very small ones that can hold at most two people and not many bags. If you live on the 5th floor you're happy to get someone bring the bags up the stairs for you.

For me, it really depends on how reliable the market is. If I know produce and fish are going to be reliably high quality and fresh, I'd be more inclined to use an online service. However, that's not really the case with the average supermarket and therefore I prefer shopping in person. (If it were available where I live, I'd probably use Instacart with Whole Foods from time to time, but I'm lukewarm on using Peapod which is available for me.)

Is going to the store such a big disadvantage? I work from home, I spend most of the time physically away from people. I do enjoy my shopping. You know, a little bit of interaction with people. I have tried online shopping with delivery when living in the UK. Very often, at the door, it turned out that X, Y and Z was not in stock and I had to go to another shop and find the missing bits myself. Waste of time...

That was pretty much what I found while I was using grocery delivery (Peapod) because I was on crutches. This was a while back and there are generally more options today (though not where I live fr the most part). I'd get substitutions I didn't care for and random common items I absolutely needed for a recipe would be out of stock.

I could imagine using a reliable service again but, so long as driving to the store and shopping is straightforward, ordering online for delivery isn't something I really need.

Depends how much time the physical delivery takes. From my experience Monoprix picks high-rise locations (not like WallMart). Most of its customers should be at walking distance.

I don't want to speculate but it would help if a french gentleman tells us his experience.

You're right, every city I used to live in France, I had at least 1 Monoprix within a short walk distance. Where I currently live, I can get to 3 different Monoprix in less than 10 minutes by walk. Never seen a Monoprix outside of a city anyway:)

What Amazon ad didn't show is a huge cart full of items which will have to be unloaded into the car then again from the car to the house. That's not negligible when the weather is cold.

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