How Convenient is Convenience
As a county that loves convenience, where do we draw the line? Google is starting to experiment with online shopping for groceries, and offering same-day delivery. While this may be a great deal to offer to the elderly or the handicapped, is it really necessary? We live in a world that allows us to buy things online from the comfort of our own house. Soon groceries could be delivered, for a fee of course, right to your home on the same day you order them. As someone that purchases most of the things I want from Amazon, I'm not necessarily opposed to this. And I certainly don't enjoy shopping on Black Friday. But this is another reason not to leave my house. A service such as this is completely optional, but it will be difficult for some to not give in and use it. At the moment this service is located in San Francisco, but knowing Google, they'll expand as much as they can if this becomes successful.
This is certainly an interesting idea, although certain local grocers offer a similar service already (such as ordering groceries by phone), but the main concern comes from the nation's "we want it now" mentality, and now we don't even want to leave our house to get it.
-Mark Abrams
Liedtke, M. (2013). Google to deliver goods quickly to online shoppers. Associated Press,
Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/google-deliver-goods-quickly-online-shoppers-213009918--finance.html
I haven't read anything about Google shipping yet so I will have to look into it. I do a lot of my online buying on Amazon as well because I know what to expect. They are pretty fast and the comments on the products are pretty trustworthy. I've yet to have a problem with a purchase from Amazon and it does let you do more research on something before buying it unlike the compulsive purchases I would make at a store. I'm interested to see what Google can do in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis definitely sounds like an improvement on the convienence of purchasing and attaining the goods we want, but I think it may have some side effects. One being that we are already becoming a socialy independant society because with the invention of the interenet there are much less face to face interactions. I also believe that this would put a huge strain on small local buisnesses due to the fact that they most likely wouln't be able to incorporate this into their own buisness. Although I am all for making things easier, but I think this could have some pretty negative outcomes as well.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who works in the retail industry, I'm constantly seeing ways in which retailers attempt to ease the shopping experience for their customers. Retailers are aware that the typical American consumer values convenience to a large degree and they will continue to roll out new services tailor-made for these consumers. Whether or not these practices are positive or negative is another question and I believe there pros and cons to this concept. Obviously as Mark stated in his post, this service would be extremely beneficial for people who may not necessarily be able to make it to the store as often as they would like. However, its possible that this could almost too convenient for consumers. As I've noticed with other posts concerning internet consumption, certain items simply cannot be feasibly purchased online.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that groceries would offer that same day delivery option. As someone with family in Manhattan, I can speak to the necessity for grocery delivery. Have you attempted to carry 10 grocery bags 12 blocks, up 5 flights of stairs and all while surrounded by bunches of people and possible inclement weather conditions? I have and it is not ideal. This comes down to simple supply and demand in my opinion. If there is an available market, someone will always fill it.
ReplyDeleteThe concept that Google is working on is nothing new to the Grocer industry. It may be difficult for us to remember, but at one time, home delivery of food from grocer's was available to almost any American that wanted to take advantage of it. I think, however, the experience of picking out your own produce and having control over that is part of what limited this service's lifespan. Not to mention, getting a few too many bruised apples that you didn't select yourself probably soured the market. So how will Google fair in this market? I can't say I expect it to end up being a huge market changer. If Billy from the next door grocery store cant get you a perfect melon or pear at exactly the time you expect it, how can Google attempt to succeed? I think that the convenience of shopping is going to be the future, but until they can beam it directly to my kitchen table, I don't think I'll trust someone else to shop for me and trust that it won't melt on my doorstep.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you, but I would love to have someone bring me my groceries! I know that probably would not be good for everyones communication skills. There would not really be a lot of effort put into it either.
ReplyDeleteI still think that it would be a good idea.
Having groceries delivered to your house is not a new concept: we used to have milk men and other people deliver groceries to the elderly or families would pay for the service. However, with the technology we do today, this may be an entirely different concept. You can shop for groceries on the Web or an application and you never have to leave the comfort of your home. What a wonderful idea! It would make for quick shopping and it would cause a lot less hassle to most. However, there are those people that use grocery shopping as their "thing to do", and you also have those people who never adapt with the technology that stick with the old, traditional ways. So, I don't think this will be on the up and coming anytime soon, at least not until our generation grows old and all people will have a better grasp on technologies than do our older generations now. It would be a great, handy idea but I don't see it happening soon. However, in regards to how convenient everything is, I agree; everything is at the tip of my fingers. I can order pizza by telling my phone to do so. It is absolutely nuts how technology is expanding and growing. I hope, though, that we can keep some things to ourselves, like grocery shopping or else everything will be done for us.
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