I've ordered from Woolies and coles delivery for the first time a few weeks ago and was suprised that delivery cost for some time windows is as low as $2.
I don't understand how this could even be possible.
Saw this story on ABC today
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-29/amazon-flex-delivery-…
It got me wondering is there some dodgy work practices going on? Or is this going to be the next milk-gate with price undercutting? It doesn't seem sustainable.
Ah, I see you're still raving about them, even from this post you made. Haven't tried them yet, am I really missing out?
I couldn't tell you. Still have not managed to get one. I was down the aisle and I saw these two guys also checking out the empty shelf, so we got talking. He resells them on Ebay. Nearly flattened him down Aisle 6.
ahhh same mate… i passed on buying 35g packs for $2.50 still trying to get the 150 gram packs
They are profitable because of the ridiculous markups on the food. Australia used to be really expensive for food compared to say England in the pre pandemic world. Now in the pandemic world, where supermarkets have been steadily increasing their prices for months, the cost of food is ludicrous. My shopping bill is easily 30% more than it was 1.5 years ago.
Then they use the "Due to Covid-19, we are trying our best to supply the products you love" just at a higher price. Bastards.
The price of everything seems to have been jacked up 10% or more in recent months, that's probably to help subsidize the cheap/affordable delivery, keep the diseased out of the stores…
Fair question, but the model suits for them to make bags of money regardless…
a 10 second google mentions the next coles being built is 2,400sqm citation, and a new shopping on the outskits of perth is "from" $530/sqm citation. That's over a 1.2 million dollars a year for rent. They also have to deal with staff, customers, theft, risk etc.
If they can put it all in a warehouse, they can save a boatload of cash. Example: this is nearby to the above, 2000 sqm for 2.6M or rent for 140k/year.
Simply the cost savings are huge, and they can subsedise their own shipping. Also, they run it all themselves, so theres no profit margin on top from a 3rd party contractor.
The $2 delivery windows are quite large, e.g 1pm-8pm
More specific times are closer to $8-$12
I would say its just like people who pay with cash and debit cards who subsidize the people who pay with credit cards (coles and woolies charge no surcharge with CC's).
everyone who shops in store subsidizes the cost of colesworth delivery that's why its so cheap.
for those who shop at colesworth, delivery is a no brainer, so convenient, stops any impulse buying, helps you keep a tight budget.
and then the people who are on a "real" budget, we shop at aldi :)
I would say its just like people who pay with cash and debit cards who subsidize the people who pay with credit card
cash requires a 2 key safe and armed guard pickup.
they charge a counting/processing fee.
They are making $1-2 dollars a item, some homebrand items are near pure profit
I bet they still make profit on those brand name items they sell for 50% off.
From what I have heard a lot of the homebrand stuff is made at a loss, as its part of the deal for other items.
example: coles brand shapes may be $2 a box, but only costing coles 50c a box. Yet Aldi sell arnotts made "snacko" Shapes for $1.80, but Aldi has to buy them a 80c each.
so similar to milk, bread and hot chickens - sold at a loss to get people into the store to then purchase other shit they dont need?
Going to Coles has become a thing to look forward to these days…. ;/
What I don't get, especially after reading that ABC article, is why Amazon doesn't give you the option to group orders with different ETA dates into one delivery. I don't want 5 small things to be delivered one by one over 3-4 days, I just want to get it all at once even if it means waiting a couple extra days. Such unnecessary waste of plastic padded bags and huge boxes, plus more work for the driver…
amazon are notorious for sending a MASSIVE box for a tiny little usb stick (for example)
It's not logistically easy to do that for separate orders when you're processing extremely high volume daily orders and far more efficient to send you multiple deliveries than wait for all to be collated.
For single order deliveries, some items do allow you to nominate a "Prime Delivery Day" to get multiple items delivered on single day if currently showing 2 items Tuesday and 1 item on Thursday then you can pick all on Thursday. It's quite limited at the moment as it does create stock issues.
The other part of this is you don't always get all orders/items from the same warehouse. 1 item might be shipped from a Sydney warehouse, another from Melbourne to you in Adelaide.
If you really want some insight on why the "random" process works, here's an hour long tour overview video of how fulfillment works behind the scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6OusrTxwxA
They used to have that option where you could wait for the items to be delivered together. But I think as they grew bigger and have more warehouses it didn't make logistical sense. I've got so many boxes scattered around my home too
Woolworths sent me delivery in a cab!
Seemed expensive lol
They are doing all that they can to gain the advantage in sales, sooner or later, if not already now, delivery will be included in the price of your shopping so you do pay for it, prices are slightly tweaked up for everyone to cover their costs.
They make their billions off selling Tasty Toobs!