Amazon plans major move into grocery business

[marble falls]

Source: Reuters

The company has been testing AmazonFresh in its hometown of Seattle for at least five years, delivering fresh produce such as eggs, strawberries and meat with its own fleet of trucks.

Amazon is now planning to expand its grocery business outside Seattle for the first time, starting with Los Angeles as early as this week and the San Francisco Bay Area later this year, according to the two people who were not authorized to speak publicly.

<snip>

"Amazon has been testing this for years and now it's time for them to harvest what they've learned by expanding outside Seattle," said Bishop, chief architect at Brick Meets Click, a consulting firm focused on retail technology.

Still, groceries have proven to be one of the most difficult sectors for online retailers to crack. One of the most richly funded start-ups of the dot-com era, Webvan, was a spectacular failure as the cost of developing the warehouse and delivery infrastructure proved overwhelming.

<snip>

(Reporting by Alistair Barr Editing by Jonathan Weber and Tim Dobbyn)

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/net-us-amazon-grocery-idUSBRE95311Q20130604

[maddezmom]

1. When I lived in the UK all the majors delivered

I loved it for staples. Fresh stuff I was able to walk and purcase daily or every other day.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. These fuckers pay people less than Wal-Mart and work them harder...

and have closed more businesses than any big box store could hope to, but nobody calls them on it.

Now they want to expand into your local grocery store and farmstand market to put them under and everyone will think that's just fine.

[marble falls]

3. First I heard of this. Must explain the little bit unsettle I feel whenever I order.

[onehandle]

4. Amazon is the Wal-Mart of online sales.

It's a sweatshop, playing the long game of small profits, until they have killed off all competition.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Well, they put Borders out of business, and possibly tried to...

kill Netflix.

Books? Publishers who didn't do as they said found their books were no longer available.

The real money doesn't seem to be in selling stuff, although they are admittedly very good at that, but in selling server space. That's how they killed Borders--gave them a deal they couldn't refuse to handle their online business and then cut them off at the knees. They ran Netflix's servers and when they announced their own movie business, wouldn't you know it, Netflix suddenly had issues.

And their warehouse workers... bust your ass for that 12 bucks an hour or less with no benefits or security.

All of this is difficult to find documentated-- you have to catch it as it happens. Makes you wonder if Amazon is the outfit really controlling the press.

But, hey, cheap stuff gets delivered on time so keep Wal-Mart as the bad guys and all hail Amazon.

[dothemath]

5. those meanies ........

force everyone to leave their suppliers and buy from them. How do they do it? Why isn't Treasonous Bastard standing before a firing squad? He is a self-admitted treasonous bastard. Go get him, Eric. Slamdunk.

[Nye Bevan]

10. They also round people up at gunpoint and kidnap them to work in their sweatshops

with low wages, no benefits, and a big mean boss who yells at people.

[Politicalboi]

6. Will this include

Marijuana

[newblewtoo]

8. The postal person,

not the regular person I see, was struggling with an armload of Amazon packages. Amazing the amount of their stuff that goes through the Post Office. Does anyone know if those parcels are a net plus or minus for the USPS? I know I always feel sorry for the postal person who has to deliver all the glossy paper fliers. I dare say most days they are the only thing I get in the regular mail and they transit straight to the trash, a waste of time and money for everyone involved.

[Nye Bevan]

9. You should feel sorry for your mail carrier

when he or she has *nothing* to deliver, and is laid off as a result.