Amazon Raises Prices On Groceries -- January 29, 2023

When I see the following "words" in one sentence, it's not good: Amazon delivery $10 $150.  

At almost $10 for deliveries under $50, Amazon is telling its customers: we're done with this craziness. I've heard folks with Amazon Prime tell me they didn't think twice about ordering four bananas as their complete grocery order. Absolutely crazy. 

Link to The Verge.

It would be surprising if Target and Walmart didn't follow suit, as they say. 

Link here.

This is a huge story. I'm not exactly sure how it plays out, but I'm sure everyone will have an opinion on it. 

I think it's one of the bigger news stories of the week and it seems to be getting no attention. So, we'll see. 

Amazon must have been losing a lot of money on groceries to "sock it to" its Prime members at the amount. It makes one wonder if Amazon will look at its other delivery costs.

But back to food.

Are there three broad areas of food delivery?

• grocery delivery, like Target, Amazon, Walmart, Costco?
• meals-to-prepare at home (meal kits), like Blue Apron?
• meals-ready-to-eat, like DoorDash and Grubhub?

The last category can be divided into three sub-categories:

• fast food delivery: McDonald's, Starbucks
• pizza; and,
• restaurants more upscale than McDonald's;

So, the first one, grocery delivery: this business will grow significantly but the business model will also be tweaked significantly; costs will go up.

Meals-to-prepare at home (meal kits)? Perhaps more than a passing fad, but not for me. Perhaps best purpose: date night. Plan a Friday night "date night" and order early in the week. 

By the way, one would think that this would be a huge competitor to "mail-order steak services" like Omaha Steaks and/or ButcherBox. Costco has really, really good steak options at a much, much better price than "mail-order steak services" and it's easier / less expensive to buy steak for two people / one meal (Costco) than buying the typically much larger order from a "mail-order steak service" (Omaha Steaks).

DoorDash and Grubhub: will definitely get more expensive. Interestingly, pizza delivery might be the beneficiary, as folks tire of wilted Fries and other fast foods that don't travel well. Does sushi travel well at all?