Would you pay for a grocery delivery service?
Posted by admin | Under Grocery Delivery Services Tuesday Sep 29, 2009if so would you find a 5$ delivery charge plus a 10% charge fair? would you rather order your groceries online or over the phone? if the service was good would you continue to have your groceries delivered?
thank you all for your answers
and especially porterhouse while I had thought through most of the things you talked about I had not thought about "local and state food handler laws, insurance and bonding" and I’m definately going to have to look into these areas
Yeah, that would be cool to have someone go get my food for me =P
sure online and yes
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ONLINE.
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Yeah, that would be cool to have someone go get my food for me =P
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I have done this. It is a major convenience for me. At the time I was doing it I was a housewife and it really helped me get my stuff done plus get dinner ready if I did not have to stop what I was doing to go to the store. I prefer to shop for a week at a time and no more than that so things are really fresh. I would rather go online – because it’s like knowing the aisles of your store. If it were still available in my area I’d be doing it.
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No, I wouldn’t pay for that service. I am EXTREMELY particular about my food, grooming products and also like to find interesting ingredients when I’m out shopping. I think that for families, it would be detrimental to the development of good eating habits of children as they would not be exposed to food in a store setting at a young age… (Yes, I can understand why we’d all like to leave our kids at home sometimes)
From a business aspect, $5 plus 10% probably won’t really be enough to cover your operating expenses should this idea take off in your market. I would strongly recommend that you only accept online orders at least 24 hours in advance with NO ADD ON items. You would have to find some manner of "pre-purchasing" the grocery goods in order to avoid being "stuck" with hundreds of dollars worth of food should you have a non-paying customer…. Secure website?? I would also suggest leasing a small refrigerated truck and find a legitimate system to keep all of your orders separate. The logic behind the truck is to appease the Department of Health, and should you have a customer who is not home, their food can be keep refrigerated and fresh until delivered.
There are actually quite a few more logistics involved than what I’ve covered here, such as fuel taxes, delivery timing for when your customers are home, how to optimize your routes/fuel efficiency, local and state food handler laws, insurance and bonding in the worst case event that someone feels that a product had been tampered with… general liability.
Hope this helps some, I didn’t want to come off sounding like it is a bad idea, which it isn’t…. there is a LOT involved though.
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My credentials include: Professional commercial driver 11+ years exp. Foodservice logistics specialist 4 years, ACF certified chef and culinary degree.
Hi!
In theory..it is a wonderful idea. In reality..it’s a very tough business to setup and make money in. There are multiple problems..one being the fact most grocery margins are razor-thin..normally 15-20%.
I still think it could work..but you would have to charge a lot more the $5+10%. I also think it would work better in a small rural town vs a big city.
Still..it’ is a logistics nightmare..oh! And let’s not forget gas prices! And vehicle maintenance and insurance..
See..I think it’s one of those seems like a nice idea but in reality it just isn’t workable over the long term ideas.
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