[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)