[Spooky23]

Pantry was actually sold by Amazon and met expected retail parameters. The coffee beans I used to buy through pantry would have a typical expiry date - 18-24 months out.

Once that product moved to normal Amazon, it transitioned to the standard jobbers and hucksters... you’d buy a can of coffee whose best by date was 30 days out.

I think this segment is really being replaced by Whole Foods, it is somewhat constrained by the more limited selection of Whole Foods vs normal grocery.

Also, I think Amazon is getting a run for its money with Target and to a lesser extent Walmart. The target drive-up service in particular is best in class. Every mom is hooked to it, and you see people waiting for drive up orders ordering more in the car.

[tssva]

The Walmart vs Target experience can be store specific. In my area Target moved in before Walmart which means their stores and their parking lots were designed before pickup services were started. This means the pickup experience at the Targets in the area is less than ideal. Walmart on the other hand built their stores and designed the traffic flow around them specifically to support large scale pickup service. As a result the Walmarts in the area seem to do a much bigger pickup business. I know many people that have switched from using Target to Walmart because of the vastly better pickup experience. This is all specific to my area and anecdotal. The original comment was also anecdotal, so I feel less bad about it.

[Spooky23]

It’s a hard problem for sure and there will be regional variance.

The overall point is that both companies have to some extent enveloped every US population center and have figured out how to use their real estate in a competitive way.

I called out Target because they seem to have gone from 0-60 quickly in my region. Walmart seems to roll out features slower, but is more comprehensive in what they offer.