<story><title>Amazon struggles to find its coronavirus footing</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-struggles-to-find-its-coronavirus-footing-its-a-time-of-great-stress-11585664987</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crispyporkbites</author><text>That would not be very efficient though, instead of a chilled single truck carrying a days worth of deliveries targeting one geographic area you’d have 20 times as many uber drivers turning up at random times. All of whom have to be paid, not to mention the burning of fuel.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think uber have the right setup for this and even if they did I can’t see how they have a competitive edge.</text></item><item><author>somethoughts</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious if Lyft and Uber will attempt to work with national grocery store chains to handle delivery.  Most grocery stores have some sort of pick-up at store.  It seems like Lyft&amp;#x2F;Uber could be used to then convert that pick-up at store into grocery delivery if they were integrated into the grocery stores checkout process.&lt;p&gt;That way Lyft and Uber wouldn&amp;#x27;t have to necessarily create their own storefronts like Instacart has and the grocery chains would be less worried about being commoditized since the grocery chains would control the customer relationship.&lt;p&gt;I would definitely like to use multiple grocery delivery services  so as to keep multiple grocery stores in business to avoid having Amazon&amp;#x2F;Whole Foods be a single point of failure, but the grocery chains&amp;#x27; delivery is backlogged.&lt;p&gt;It seems counter intuitive for Lyft and Uber to not be finding ways to keep their drivers.  Otherwise they will end up working for Amazon doing Whole Foods delivery.  In fact, IIRC Lyft was actively encouraging them to go work for Amazon&amp;#x2F;WF [1].&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;21197699&amp;#x2F;lyft-amazon-coronavirus-ridership-decline-job-referral-warehouse-grocery-delivery&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;21197699&amp;#x2F;lyft-amazon-coro...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dan_quixote</author><text>We don&amp;#x27;t need efficiency right now, we need resiliency.  Stock is inconsistent and smaller suppliers&amp;#x2F;grocers are at serious risk.  I don&amp;#x27;t care if necessities cost a little more or take a little longer to show up.  I do care that my family stays fed and healthy.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon struggles to find its coronavirus footing</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-struggles-to-find-its-coronavirus-footing-its-a-time-of-great-stress-11585664987</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crispyporkbites</author><text>That would not be very efficient though, instead of a chilled single truck carrying a days worth of deliveries targeting one geographic area you’d have 20 times as many uber drivers turning up at random times. All of whom have to be paid, not to mention the burning of fuel.&lt;p&gt;I don’t think uber have the right setup for this and even if they did I can’t see how they have a competitive edge.</text></item><item><author>somethoughts</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious if Lyft and Uber will attempt to work with national grocery store chains to handle delivery.  Most grocery stores have some sort of pick-up at store.  It seems like Lyft&amp;#x2F;Uber could be used to then convert that pick-up at store into grocery delivery if they were integrated into the grocery stores checkout process.&lt;p&gt;That way Lyft and Uber wouldn&amp;#x27;t have to necessarily create their own storefronts like Instacart has and the grocery chains would be less worried about being commoditized since the grocery chains would control the customer relationship.&lt;p&gt;I would definitely like to use multiple grocery delivery services  so as to keep multiple grocery stores in business to avoid having Amazon&amp;#x2F;Whole Foods be a single point of failure, but the grocery chains&amp;#x27; delivery is backlogged.&lt;p&gt;It seems counter intuitive for Lyft and Uber to not be finding ways to keep their drivers.  Otherwise they will end up working for Amazon doing Whole Foods delivery.  In fact, IIRC Lyft was actively encouraging them to go work for Amazon&amp;#x2F;WF [1].&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;21197699&amp;#x2F;lyft-amazon-coronavirus-ridership-decline-job-referral-warehouse-grocery-delivery&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theverge.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;21197699&amp;#x2F;lyft-amazon-coro...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>somethoughts</author><text>As far as I know Instacart shoppers are using personal cars for their deliveries.  I don&amp;#x27;t believe they require refrigerated trucks.&lt;p&gt;Agreed Uber&amp;#x2F;Lyft might not be setup for groceries just yet but it seems like it&amp;#x27;d be pretty easy to provide Kroger and Safeway with an API hook to schedule an Uber&amp;#x2F;Lyft driver for pick-up and delivery (versus setting up a store front and sync&amp;#x27;ing up all the inventory with Kroger and Safeway like Instacart did&amp;#x2F;does).</text></comment>