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Comment by dalfonso | Hacker News Reader

My bet is this will be very similar to Walmart Neighborhood Market. About the size of a drug store, will stock grocery essentials, and will have lower prices than traditional grocery stores (Safeway/VONS, Ralphs, Albertsons, QFC, etc.)

A store like this might allow them to more cost effectively fulfill small items (deodorant, a pack of pens, batteries, aspirin, candy bars, etc.) by shipping from the store to your home.

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The big innovation of 7/11 Japan that launched the convenience store craze in Japan was keeping as much stock as possible in lots of retail outlets and ready at point of sale instead of in warehouses.

for what it's worth I think a lot of the convenience store craze in Japan also comes from Japanese cities being very dense and heavily walked. Most of the states lives in a sparsely built suburban environment, using cars for most or all transportation, making it very easy and often preferable to hit up the nearest big box.

In Japan you're almost guaranteed a konbini between you and your destination, and this makes it easy and pleasant to dip in for a snack, breakfast while walking to the train, etc. This is only economically feasible in a dense environment with a LOT of nearby shoppers, particularly considering land costs in Tokyo.

(I saw a good article at some point how a lot of small-town and rural convenience stores in japan aren't economically feasible and they struggle to keep the lights on as corporate demands unreasonable amenities like being open 24/7)

They could call it "Marks and Spence" :-) It would need a lot of ready made stuff so that people on the go could just grab stuff to heat up and eat later.

Oh man, having been to M&S in the UK, I would love to have them in the US.

As would I :-)

If they could do a Dollar General they would crush it. Basically a mini Walmart with no produce. They could pack it to the rafters with frozen food, toiletries and their cheap Chinese shit and use their eye in the sky robocashiers to keep the party going.

How is this better than a Dollar General? Cheaper?

Better targeted products, they already know what people in the area of each store demand, so each store could have a different mix of products.

I think you underestimate Dollar General. They are very good at what they do.

They really are. I'm always impressed with how much they can squeeze out of the small footprint of their stores. I wonder if they could link up with Pyxis or similar to do tele/robo pharmacy.

It doesn't need to be better, just different. Based on the test market, Amazon's offering would appear to address a very different segment from Dollar General, which often serves communities where the nearest Walmart is an hour away.

Amazon doesn't need to be cheaper than Dollar General, just the grocery section at CVS.

Adds amazon lockers for cheaper deliveries and returns; $1 digital credit is likely cheaper than last mile delivery for many locales.

Hell my driveway is a third of a mile long. If the truck gets 15mpg and the driver drives 10mph at $30/hr it costs UPS about 2 bucks just to drop a package off at my front door.

My local grocery store already has amazon lockers in the parking lot. Clearly you don't need to open an entire store to enable that.

Huh, the neighborhood markets are the size of drugstores near you? They’re the size of regular Walmart’s grocery sections here.

Eh you're probably ant fucking, it's a fine comparison to draw versus big box stores.

TBF, probably "2 Walgreens" would be a good comparison in some markets, or "classic grocery store" size.

Kudos to you. I just looked it up and the Walmart Neighborhood Market closest to me is ~30K sq. ft. while the CVS closest to me is 17.5K.

> Eh you're probably ant fucking

I must admit, I'm unfamiliar with this terminology.

There's a similar Whole Foods store. It's called Ideal Market. It's a whole foods brand, they carry their brand products (365) and basically just groceries without much extra.

But yeah, those don't carry items outside of what you'd find in a normal Whole Foods.

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