Ask HN: Why not prepay groceries?

[typicaljoe]

Standing in Costco I suddenly had an idea that seemed like good fodder for a Hacker News thread. To put it simply, why not prepay groceries? I know my food budget each month and I know where I liked to shop. Why not simplify things a little bit? I"ll pay up front each month and maybe in return I get better prices, special programs, etc. Thoughts?

Prepay groceries seems like it could be an ideal solution for grocery stores. They then have predictable fixed income, they eliminate credit card fees which eat away their profits, they increase customer loyalty, and they have the ability to potentially offer more customized and personalized service to consumers. I'd imagine it working one of a couple of ways:

1. I sign up and I setup an automatic withdrawal for 75% of my grocery budget each month ($300). If I don't spend all of the $300 it rolls over to the next month, but I can't get a refund. Funds that roll over could either reduce the current month's withdrawal or perhaps a 5% bonus could be added to the amount as incentive.

2. I sign up for set my $300 withdrawal and the store gives me a bulk buyer discount (say 10% off any prepay purchase).

As additional incentive the company could provide highly customized newsletters (exotic fruit month, come in for free samples and discounts), interactive website, in store and online classes, ask a grocer Saturdays, etc etc. Basically specialize in quality, variety, and geek services rather than marketing and loss leaders.

[sidsavara]

I had the same issue which I think is, you don't want to waste time standing in line shopping. I found this (shopping for food) was a huge waste of time in my cooking workflow, so I hired someone to cook for me (won't spam it here, it was on hacker news before when I blogged about it - much to my happiness and genuine surprise)

One thing I have been wondering about is a grocery delivery service, and make it very specific - Costco groceries only, on a certain day a week, and perhaps say no especially bulky items (case by case basis). It seems to me if I could get maybe 5-10 people interested, it would be worth someone's while with a truck (and a couple friends) to go do our shopping while they are shopping anyway.

In my mind, shopping takes time as follows: Driving + Physically walking around store to get items + waiting in line + Payment + load car + Drive home

If one person did all the shopping for multiple people and had a close by rendezvous point (for the clients to pay/pick up their food), both driving times and time waiting remain constant. Walking around the store will increase slightly, as would payment and load time (since more items must be rung up and loaded)

It seems to me though that this increase in time required may be on the order of 10-15 minutes per client. If I am willing to pay 5-10 bucks for this service, you could make an easy 20-100 bucks an hour, or probably ~50ish on average.

[timf]

I like the general idea, we shop at the same place every week and would use something like that. Value cards are coming pretty close to all this (including customized newsletters).

People are still trying online, too:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/subscribe-and-save/details/index.ht...

http://www.alice.com/

[newy]

For the budget conscious - having to commit a set figure each month might not be an appealing option (they're already locked into rent, electric bills, etc). For the not-so-budget conscious, the discount might not be worth the effort to set up this system and lock yourself to one grocery store chain (people like variety - one week Safeway, the next Trader Joe's). The grocery-space does need improvement though - who knows maybe it could work?

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Wouldn't work for me because I shop at different places depending on when I have time to do the shopping: over lunch, after work, on the weekend, etc. Even then, "after work shopping" varies depending on if I go straight home, or have to pick up my son from after school daycare.

The store would have to offer pretty steep discount before I give up that flexibility.

What kind of "geek services" would a grocery store offer?

[ambition]

Good idea. Grocery chains love loyalty programs. Though, grocery margins are thin. It would be difficult to profitably give substantial-enough discounts to lure people into the program. The numbers you've cited like 10% are too high.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

On a related note, how many of you still have value cards? In the MSP/Twin Cities area, they're unheard of from what I can see.

[sachinag]

You can have pre-set baskets in PeaPod.