Uber CEO: We're Going After Groceries Next (yahoo.com)

Uber is digging deeper into the business of food. From a report: Uber's restaurant delivery business "Eats" hit $6 billion in bookings earlier this year, growing over 200%, quickly becoming a crown jewel for the ride-sharing company. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said given the success in the delivery of food, the next logical step is to enter the grocery space. "We will move into grocery. That's fundamental. A lot more people will be eating at home. Right now we are busy with Eats, but you can see grocery as an adjacent business. We're thinking about Uber much more as a platform," he said at Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit 2018 on Tuesday.

Comments

Hard No

[SuperKendall]

I enjoy talking to Uber drivers and have liked quite a few of them (compared to liking about 0.0001% of taxi drivers I have ever met).

But there is not one Uber driver I've ever seen that I would want picking out groceries for me nor would even eat anything they hand me (you drink those free bottles of water in Uber cars? Good luck with that).

Re:Hard No

[dysmal]

They'll partner with grocery stores who have employees shopping for you. The Uber drivers will get the employee picked groceries to your home. The employees shopping for customers is already a growing trend in grocery stores and so it's a natural progression for Uber to be the last mile carrier.

All so you don't have to go out in public and associate with real PEOPLE!!!

Re:Hard No

[cayenne8]

But there is not one Uber driver I've ever seen that I would want picking out groceries for me nor would even eat anything they hand me (you drink those free bottles of water in Uber cars? Good luck with that).

It isn't just Uber drivers...

I can't imagine sending anyone out to pick my food for me....

I'd not trust them to spend he time to pick the best produce for me, nor look over the meats, and look for the best marbling in beef, etc.

Not to mention, I usually choose my meals based on a couple things:

1. What's on sale in weekly ads

2. What happens to really look good.

I usually do most of my menus based on seeing what's on sale that week, and going maybe on Friday or Sat to the various stores to get the best deals on things.

Sometimes there's a Costco trip in there too.

But often I get in the store and see something that either looks good, or I didn't realize was in season, etc....and quickly in my head some up with something to cook with that.

Not sure how an Uber driver or shopping service could make me as happy cooking and eating as I do myself shopping for food.

Re:Hard No

[cayenne8]

They'll partner with grocery stores who have employees shopping for you. The Uber drivers will get the employee picked groceries to your home. The employees shopping for customers is already a growing trend in grocery stores and so it's a natural progression for Uber to be the last mile carrier.

The trouble with that is, the store employees will likely pick out your stuff for you in rotation of stock that is best for the STORE, not YOU....

When I go in, I pick to see what looks freshest and best to ME.

Re:Hard No

[alvinrod]

There are a lot of people who don't eat any fresh produce (which is probably not great from a health perspective, but that's another matter entirely) for whom it makes no difference whether they pick out their items or someone else does it. I suppose a few of them might be worried that the store employees will give them the dented cans, but my guess is that the kind of people who leave eating from them all the time probably wouldn't mind since it means not having to go to the store.

Humanity never ceases to amaze me. The strive to persevere even in the face of adversity and the dedication to advancement even after countless defeats is impressive. But on the other hand, the shear abject laziness is remarkable. One would have thought that the thousands of years prior to the modern era where people had to work all day to avoid starving would have removed whatever genes lead to people who would rather vegetate themselves as opposed to steam a raw vegetable for supper, but apparently it didn't get them all.

Re:Hard No

[MrL0G1C]

In the UK some supermarkets pick from stores and some pick from dedicated delivery warehouses. Getting your shopping from a dedicated warehouse is obviously preferable and the fresh food quality is noticeably better because a) it hasn't had a bunch of people prodding at it to see if it's ripe b) has been stored optimally and c) staff don't care, they will simply grab an item which will be queued in a methodical first in first out system (assuming the supermarkets aren't complete idiots) .

Good luck with that!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck with that! Groceries are a low-margin business. The low margin depends on the customer traversing the "last mile" shifting the last mile problem from supplier to consumer.

Sure some wealthy people probably will be interested, but they don't need Uber for that and that demographic would expect and demand a high degree of accountability and Uber is not in that kind of marketspace.

Re:Good luck with that!

[dysmal]

The natural partnership is with Amazon after their recent acquisition of Whole Foods. Uber will go pick up groceries for the Amazon Prime customers.

This'll work nicely during the holiday season when Uber drivers will also get tapped to pick up packages from stores. If a Prime customer wants that last minute gift on 12/24 THAT badly, they'll pay for it and both Amazon and Uber will be more than happy to take their money.

Re:Ooh Webvan is back!

[b0s0z0ku]

Await the burst. Buy low. Profit. Don't watch out, rather, enjoy the show.

Prior art

[TimMD909]

Giant Eagle already does this in the Pittsburgh area. If I recall, it's about $15 for them to pick out everything you wanted and deliver it. Came in handy after the last surgery where I wasn't able to get around for a bit.

Fail

[viperidaenz]

Supermarkets are big enough to run their own delivery operations.
It's common in New Zealand. They have people in the different sections of the supermarket picking the items for multiple orders.
You shop online and get told then that is likely in stock. If it isn't in stock when your order gets picked, they'll substitute it. If the substitute costs more, they don't charge you more, if it costs less, they'll refund you the difference. They're very generous on their weight based pricing for produce too. It's cheaper for them to give you more than fuss around trying to hit the exact value you paid for.

Your groceries then get delivered in a little refrigerated truck. No way in hell I'm having some random guy in their car deliver me frozen goods.

To top it all off, this only costs $13 for delivery. $9 if it's over $200. $118 for unlimited deliveries for 6 months - works out to only $4.5 a week.
How is Uber going to compete with that price? They'd need to provide trucks or coolers too, since they can't realistically offer delivery for anything that requires refrigeration

Re:Fail

[youngone]

Luckily for Uber the average driver has no idea how much vehicle maintenance actually costs.

Luckily for the rest of us Uber loses massive amounts of money with no real sign of ever turning a profit, so at some point they will run out of suckers and shut down.
The summary says Uber Eats had $6 billion in bookings, but how much did they lose on those bookings?
A quick search tells me they lost $890 million or so in the second quarter of this year.
Just think about that for a moment. Nearly $1 billion loss in 12 weeks. Amazing.

Lose more money faster!

[crgrace]

But make it up in volume.

I wonder what Uber is playing at. I get that they're trying to "get big fast" because it did work for Amazon, but Amazon lost far, far less money than Uber is losing and they are in markets with much greater barriers to entry.

off topic: uber drivers are always hanging out parked across my driveway (taxis NEVER do this)... usually they move when I honk but on Saturday this guy kept trying to inch forward think I could get into my garage if he just moved six inches forward. I had to honk and make all these gestures... pissed me off.

Re:Rushing to fill orders

[q_e_t]

It's probably not pay, more time demand. They probably have 0.5 seconds per apple to pick it and put it in the bag, and examining it isn't viable in that time. They don't get a bonus and no one ask you "How do you like them apples?".

Here in the UK the picking and packing service from the local grocery store is pretty fantastic, though. Maybe they are just given a little more time? I have had only one complaint over a substitution of passata for tomato puree, which is minor.

There's more to the world than the US

[shilly]

It is hilarious how parochial most Slashdot posters are.

Online grocery shopping has been a major business in the UK, the world's most competitive grocery market (competitive, not lucrative or largest), for more than a decade.

Perhaps Uber would like to study up about Ocado (and Sainsburys.com and Tesco.com and Waitrose.com etc etc) before they jump into this market. Perhaps Slashdotters might want to learn a little bit about them as well, before confidently declaring that online grocery shopping can never be a thing.

Ocado's story, in particular, has many lessons to teach about platform vs exclusivity, the role of automation, the importance of new brands for online (eg Natoora), the cognitive differences in shopping decisions online vs in-store (smart lists etc).

A few articles here:
http://www.cityam.com/264588/d...

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/ch...

Re:There's more to the world than the US

[DNS-and-BIND]

Gosh, arrogant looking down the nose at Americans - from a European. Never seen that before! Especially on Slashdot! Tell me, did you get that idea to do this yourself or did you read it somewhere?

Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't you start your own UK Slashdot? Then it can be so cosmopolitan and international, and you can ban people from using customary units. Ah, we all know that's not going to happen. All you're going to do is just continue being a little bitch and write mean little spiteful comments about Americans.