[shams93]

Yeah as somebody who was a personal shopper before the internet getting requested items can be really tricky there is no guarantee they won't run out of something there is no Ralfs API to plug into to give real-time inventory information.

[philwelch]

> there is no Ralfs API to plug into to give real-time inventory information

Which is why "send people to grocery stores" is going to lose out to more vertically integrated models.

[octernion]

  there is no Ralfs [sic] API to plug into to give real-time inventory information

[citation needed] :) there are many ways to "vertically integrate" with retailers (and yes, some do in fact offer a real-time API of what is in store, and our availability information for those is fantastic)