Profit margins are thin and delivery is expensive. Smaller players like Hello Fresh and Sun Basket may be transformed into much bigger companies.īut if online grocers continue to stumble and fail to protect their employees, customers likely won't stick with them and instead will rush back to their old habits when it's safe to go outside again.ĭavid Glick, a former Amazon executive and the chief technology officer at logistics company Flexe, is skeptical that the online grocery world will get a long-lasting bump, saying the business was always tough and coronavirus won't change that. That could give shoppers even fewer reasons to leave the house to buy stuff, hurting local brick-and-mortar businesses and strengthening already huge retailers like Amazon and Walmart, which are two of the biggest online grocers. It's possible Americans will come out of the coronavirus crisis having drastically changed the way they buy food, possibly permanently, as a large slice of the $1.2 trillion grocery market moves from supermarket aisles to phone and laptop screens. "It is their moment, and they can't handle it," said John Trammell, a Manhattan resident who's used online grocer FreshDirect since early 2012. Workers for both Instacart and Whole Foods staged prominent demonstrations this week to protest what they see as unsafe working conditions during the crisis.Ī recent photo of Steve Rainwater, of Irving, Texas, and his wife during the coronavirus pandemic. But the increased attention has brought new and painful problems, such as out-of-stock items and frustrated customers and employees. This severe and sudden change in lifestyle has brought a surge of new orders and customers to these companies, which have been trying for years to convince shoppers to buy more of their food online. Millions of people across the country have turned to online meal kit providers like Blue Apron and delivery services like Peapod and FreshDirect to get their regular groceries as the pandemic has forced them to remain at home, fearful of going to the local supermarket or convenience store.
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"Provided all these services keep delivering, I'm sure I could do this indefinitely," Rainwater, a software developer in his 50s who lives in Irving, Texas, outside of Dallas, said last week. Now his family - Rainwater, his wife and two cats - are getting food using Instacart and Whole Foods deliveries. Like most Americans, Steve Rainwater never used online grocery services.
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