[conductr]

I see distinction between what I consider shipping and delivery (UPS, Fedex vs Postmates, Grubhub). But UPS/Fedex doesn't care (within laws) what you are shipping. It's not like you can be the Fedex of Birthday cards, that makes no sense but it's exactly what is happening in the delivery world.

Maybe this is natural as consumers are getting used to on demand delivery so companies need to focus on something and be known for it. But, eventually I'd expect to just have one app where I could get anything delivered without having to use app A for groceries and app B for restaurants and...

[code_duck]

For shipping, we certainly have what you describe. Amazon and Walmart can get you about everything delivered via parcel service. The important things for that type of business are procurement, storage, and order fulfillment.

Same day delivery of a locally available product is rather different. Typically, it has been tied it to the provider of a service directly – such as FTD delivering flowers, or Pizza Hut delivering pizza. Of course this is most useful for products from companies that don't have their own local delivery service. For a third party deliverer in this local situation, warehousing and that sort of logistics is not necessary. Procurement is very different as well. How do you picture the customer ordering something? An open ended delivery service that you tell them to go anywhere in the city and bring you anything you want? That seems like a different type of business, and a somewhat risky one as well, which already exists as various courier services.

I think specialization is more likely. The value from the services is that they have a some sort of menu on an app or website that provides a consistent, curated selection of whatever product, and trusted vendors that not only do you trust, but they trust.

Anyway, the legal situation in the cannabis market illustrates the need for this specialized service to exist.