shopping – Terence Eden’s Blog

Thoughts on instant grocery apps

@edent — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 12:34:42 +0000

My life isn't cool enough for most apps. I'm never wandering through a new city, waiting to be bombarded with special offers. I don't need to meet hot singles in my area. And I can't remember the last time I went to a secret last-minute gig.

But I do like eating cheap food!

London seems flooded with Instant Grocery apps right now. A dozen different start-ups which will get you a pint of milk within half-an-hour.

The other day, Getir sent me a push notification giving me £10 off a £15 spend.

That's... generous! Look, obviously they're trying to buy my loyalty and change my behaviour. But I was happy to burn some venture capitalists' cash and so picked up a cheap bunch of groceries.

But how sustainable is that?

I've been doing most of my grocery shopping online for 20 years. Every week or so, I click around a supermarket website and get a delivery a few days later. Nice! I've been doing it so long that it is rare for me to run out of a specific ingredient. Sure, sometimes the milk goes off a little early - but I'm lucky enough to have a couple of corner shops nearby.

So I only use the instant apps when they offer me a ridiculously good deal. OK, they have a higher mark-up than the supermarkets - so I wait for someone else to subsidise me.

The other day I got £15 off a £16 order. After delivery and a tip, I got a bunch of pizzas, salad, and sundries for £4. That's not sustainable.

My life isn't your life

Of course, for a lot of people, these apps must be a life-saver. Urgent need for nappies? Click! Potatoes all gone mouldy and you've got nothing else to eat? Click! Realise you have no way to unblock an suddenly overflowing drain? Click! Sick with COVID and need some medicinal ice-cream? CLICK!

And that's great.

Things I worry about

In no particular order:

How well paid are the delivery drivers? We have reasonably strict minimum wage laws, and optional in-app tipping which should offer some protection.
Data privacy. What will these companies do with the data? They know that I order an "emergency" bottle of vodka every Tuesday lunchtime.
Targetted marketing can be creepy. If I order prophylactics and wine on a Friday night, can they upsell me on Saturday mornings with aspirin and the morning-after pill?
Is having a a bunch of poorly-trained drivers scooting around the streets on tight timescales a public menace?
If local corner-shops are driven out of business, what does that mean for people without the ability to use an app?
Will people get "addicted" to instant delivery? What happens when people don't do long term planing any more?
Can multiple services be sustainable? There are multiple supermarkets I can buy from - but will this tend to monopoly?
On that note, why haven't the major supermarkets got onto this? They have warehouses, shops, and logistics - surely they'd be all over this?

I'm cautiously optimistic that these services will enhance city living. I don't know how sustainable they are - but I intend to abuse their generosity for as long as it lasts.

When a convenience subscription becomes a chore

@edent — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 12:19:36 +0000

Convenience subscriptions are huge business these days. A monthly delivery of X, to save you time, money, and effort!

The problem is - subscription living rapidly becomes a chore.

I cancelled a convenience subscription today - and I'd like to explain why.

Smol offers dishwasher tablets and laundry pods by post. Their schtick is:

Cheaper than the supermarket - and more environmentally friendly!
Fire and forget! A subscription at a rhythm which works for you.
Convenient! Fits through the letterbox in an easy to use package.

The first issue is - is this really a problem? How often have you run out of pods? Surely by the time you're reaching the end of a box you can see and add it to your regular shopping list? Like most convenience subscriptions, this is a minor problem. Therefore any bumps along the Smol journey are going to send you back to the supermarket.

Secondly, how much of your life runs like clockwork? Sometimes I do a lot of washing up. Some weeks all I eat is microwave pizza. I don't need exactly 24 pods every 2 weeks. So I had to spend time managing my subscription - adding and cancelling orders depending on my lifestyle.

At which point, the subscription becomes as much as a chore as a weekly grocery shop!

Finally, the physical convenience of the package is as important as the practical convenience of the subscription.

Recently, Smol changed their packaging from frustration-free to child safe. It is probably a good thing to stop kids from eating Tide Pods - but for those of us with dexterity issues, it becomes a real problem.

If you have to have a video to show how to open your packaging, I think it is safe to say you've failed as a product designer.

Oh, and the price doesn't seem much cheaper than a supermarket brand.

So now I'm paying the same price for a regular delivery of an irregularly used product which is markedly more difficult to use than the alternative?

In my experience, most convenience subscriptions are a chore.

Sharing is Caring

@edent — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:54:12 +0000

I can often be found wearing a T-Shirt with this logo on it:

Share this logo with your friends

But what does "Sharing Is Caring" mean? When I was growing up, my parents alway told me it was nice to share. If I had a toy - I should let my brother play with it too. If I had an ice-cream, it was nice to offer a lick to my friends. It's fun to share - and the more people you share with, the more fun you have.

Last night, I went to Global Cool Swish organised by Vikki Chowney. This was a twist on the idea that "Home Sewing Is Killing Fashion".

The idea is simple. You bring along some clothes that you never wear - you get a token for every item you bring. You get an hour to browse through everyone's contributions, then it's a mad dash to get clothes that you want. At the end, everyone leaves with some new togs and - who knows - maybe some new friends. The only downside, in this case, was the lack of men. Were I a transvestite, I'd have been awash in goodies. Perhaps I need to organise a similar sort of event just for men. Called something manly like "Fight Clothes"....

The event was great fun - and it got me thinking...

Most people have a lot of stuff. It's understandable that they want to keep some - or most - of it. But do we need "more". Can we maintain an equilibrium? One in, one out?

Your economy needs you!

I'm reminded of a "Book Swap" event I went to at The Horse Hospital. The entry fee was one book - minimum. Any book you brought along was swapped for a token and then placed on a shelf. You were then free to browse any of the books that other people had used as their entry fee. Once you'd found something you liked, you purchased it with your token. (You also had the oppurtunity to purchase books with money. £1 each. All proceeds to charity.)

I liked both events. I liked the thrill of not knowing what was on offer until I got there. I liked giving away something that was useless to me. I liked discovering hidden gems that someone loved enough to give away. I liked not buying. In short - I liked sharing. I want to share the fun that I've had. I think it may be time for me to organise a DVD swap. A book swap. A crappy-electrical-gadget-I've-been-haning-on-to-for-no-good-reason swap. What do you think - what do you want to swap today?

Sharing is caring.