I've been spending thousands a year on Amazon. Last year that changed dramatically. I probably spent half what I used to on Amazon, and the majority of that redirected spending is now spent at GSX.

Initially the prices favored Amazon, but as of late, I've been finding things (search: "training pants 3t") where Amazon is 50%+ more expensive than the local stores through GSX. The same day experience is mind-blowing; I don't stop off at the local hardware store, I search for my garage door opener battery model and it's on my back porch by the time I get home.

Everyone's had a guffaw about Amazon's automated pricing agent and the $23M book [1], but Google is in a position to really trip them up, unless Amazon gets a reign in on it's pricing. And then there's the fact that "2 day shipping" pales in comparison to Google's same-day experience.

I was lucky enough to be in an an area that Google serviced, and would probably have also tried Amazon Fresh, but honestly, the free beta was too good to pass up (and I would have thought twice about the $299/y Fresh subscription though I'm sure it's worth it).

My only concern is that the deliveries are made from stores nowhere near me really and I'd be much less guilty if the same brand stores were more local (they're losing my business as well right now).

[1] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384102,00.asp

(edit clarity)

Out of curiosity - what kind of more "local" stores would you like if GSX is coming from chains anyway? (I live in the Bay Area, so you can give precise names, and I might know them). Thanks!

First off, Google includes some non-chain stores like Palo Alto Toy & Sport (which I've bought plenty from).

My concern about locality, even with chain stores, is that my money is shifting from say, the San Jose Walgreens near me and instead going to the one up the peninsula that actually fulfills the order - at some inflection point, if GSX takes off, does that mean less stores?

Been using this for a little over a year now and I can honestly say it's become almost a dependency for me. It really is amazing being able to order something and most of the time have it arrive within 3-5 hours or worst case scenario the next morning. I can ship things to work or my home (for free currently), etc. I'm guessing I may hold back on it when they start charging as I could do things like Instacart for quicker service, but at free delivery it is amazing.

It's funny that you would switch to Instacart if they (=google) charged you, when Instacart is already 20-30% more expensive of Google Shopping Express on most items already (this is how they make money).

It's not obvious that this is their business model until you browse their selection and realise the prices seem high.

Plus a minimum and a delivery charge on top.

It's not available in my area, but looks interesting. How does it work?

  * Who delivers?
  * Is it just local stores, or can it tap into warehouses?
  * Can you get books?

Google operates GSX. They have cute little vans with "Google Shopping Express" painted on them which drive around and deliver the products.

It's whichever local stores agree to partner with Google. As far as I know, the process works like this:

1. Google partners with a store. They place some subset of the inventory of that store online.

2. As a user, you browse that inventory and buy.

3. The store receives the order, places the item into a storage bin in the back and waits for a GSX van to come pick it up.

4. Every so often, a GSX van will swing by, pick up the goods, then deliver.

Yes, you can get books. As far as I know, the only real product you can't get is fresh produce. I think produce has far too low of a volume-profit ratio (and of course, produce spoils if left sitting inside of a hot van for hours on end).

You also can't get alcohol. They've been pretty smart with what they do and don't allow - makes it much more flexible than Instacart in terms of logistics on their end. It means they can just dump everything on your doorstep if you're not home.

I've noticed they do have some "fresh" things now, like bread, but that's it - no refrigerated things or other things that may spoil. I did have an issue one time ordering fresh bread and they missed the delivery window and delivered it the next day, by which time it was stale. A minor glitch though, but shows why they're so conservative about what they deliver.

Actually - http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/06/23/booze-express-google...

Do you know why they don't deliver alcohol?

Probably because alcohol requires an above-21 person to sign and receive the delivery, which adds complications to GSX if no one is home when they deliver.

They do now. I've ordered it. If I had to guess, I imagine it's not a legal requirement you want to tackle right away when you're just getting started.

So they do! That's interesting. Did you have to be home to take delivery for it?

Also it doesn't look like they've added it for Costco which is a shame.

Actually, you forgot one step: 4. GSX vans pick up the goods and deliver to GSX warehouse 5. GSX van #2 pick up at warehouse and delivers to consumers. GSX vans have to do 5 deliveries per hour minimum (which is no too hard to do in a city like SF once you have enough volume).

The warehouse piece is probably why they cannot do fresh produce.

Does Google "partner" with each store? I know Ebay Now does not. They get inventory feeds via a variety of methods but ultimately just make a regular purchase at the store and then deliver it to you.

Ebay Now's tip thing really screws it up. You're not sure if you're really supposed to tip or not and how much. Then you feel awkward almost no matter what when you meet the courier.

Actually, Google does not operate the core of GSX logistics. The people and vehicles are outsourced to a company called 1-800-courier.

I have the same sentiments. Currently live on the Westside of Los Angeles and the closest Target is pretty far away. Google Shopping has become clutch.

What kind of stuff are you buying?

As far as I can tell, there's no way to determine what this is if you're not in a zipcode that they serve. I'm not, so I remain in the dark... not the best user experience.

There is a "Just curious? Browse our San Francisco stores" link below the zip-inputfield

So there is! Thanks for pointing it out; I missed it on first browse. Still, an explanation of what the offering is before asking me for information about myself would be nice.

94109 got me in.

I remember Matt Cutts from Google describing how he was putting up Christmas Lights, standing on a ladder and ordered more masking tape so he could hang more lights. Shortly he apparently had a delivery of masking tape, and the delivery guy even brought it up to him on by climbing the ladder.

Its an awesome service but I can't imagine it being successful until Google has self driving cars or something. Seeing the drivers sitting around smoking waiting for an order to come in by Target reminds me that these guys were pulling down $10+/hr for essentially no economic activity. Hard to spread that over the cost of deliveries.

I chatted with one of the drivers. He said that he was an independent contractor, and he only got paid when he was actually doing deliveries.

So, sadly, this might be a case where un/underemployed people are keen to make whatever money they can.

I'd love to see a driver chime in on this thread.

For those who have been using this - how is the pricing? The reason I ask is that I don't see how Google can make money (especially with free shipping for 6 months) without putting a markup on items. Perhaps they are just trying to gain traction and are willing to bite the bullet for the first 6 months.

I did a quick comparison between a random product: LG 42" Class 1080p 60Hz LED HDTV. Target's direct online store offers the TV for $379, while Google Shopping has it listed for $449.99. I haven't done other comparisons, but this seems to confirm my belief that Google is marking the products up to some extent.

They claim that they match in-store prices: https://support.google.com/shoppingexpress/answer/4559805?hl...

Essentially, you're paying them to go to the store and pick up the item for you.

As others state, they do not seem to mark up. In fact, sometimes prices are adjusted after placing the order to reflect a discount.

I've never seen them mark anything up. Sale prices are reflected as well. They must be losing money on each order currently.

There was another article stating they got a cut of each sale from the store in the single percentage digits.

guess I'm puzzled why this is on the front page today. Been using this for months. It's fabulous though.

I hadn't checked it out until now. Has anything changed recently that may have prompted this post? (did it go from private to publicly available, for example?)

Do people use this in San Francisco? The selection seems awfully limited. I typically get everything from Amazon and Postmates - except foodstuffs which I pick up myself.

I use it constantly. I've ordered 3 times from them in the last 3 days You see their little vans all over SF.

The free delivery and fast turnaround makes it incredibly convenient. You even get better prices since you can comparison shop before you order.

I stock up on bulky and non refrigerated items from Costco through GSX. Paper towels, cases of Mexican Coke, cereals and snacks, shampoo, and whatnot. It's doubly better that I can use my 2% back Costco membership and get Costco coupon book deals too - like the Frozen bluray for $15-ish the other month.

I'd easily pay $3-400/year plus delivery fees to get perishables and alcohol too. I don't use Postmates for this because I don't know what's available at the store, and Amazon is okay but the pricing isn't the best. Instacart is the closest to GSX in terms of convenience but then I can't use my membership, which is a bummer.

i use this all the time and love it. this is definitely the future, once you start using it (and services like it) you cannot go back.

same day delivery has the same magic feeling that amazon once had with prime. it just feels too good to be true.

I order paper towels, deordorant, toothpaste, blue bottle coffee, salad spinners, etc. Great for drug store items that come to you.

yes, people absolutely use this - and seems to be loving it.

What I really need is a service that can deliver milk and eggs and other staples in a day, seems like most cant do that.

In Sweden we've had this since 2010 or 2011 I think. Not as in: "You go to an online store, add milk and eggs to the shopping cart and get it delivered".

The way most of these online stores do it in Sweden is that they have different types of "bags" you subscribe to. Each week you'll get a bag of the stuff you'd need for five meals. With that bag, you'll get recipies for food they think you should cook with the groceries.

This was (might still be, I have no idéa tbh) widely popular in Sweden.

One of the most popular is Linas matkasse and a (bad-ish) google translate is available here: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...

---

This developed to others opening up business. I know of a guy who started a night-shop-delivery kind of thing. Basically, when all the stores are closed, you could go to his site and order stuff (milk, candy, condoms, tampons or other things someone could need at night) and he'd deliver it to you (in Stockholm).

How about in an hour?

Check us out: http://instacart.com

Would love to use this service, but instacart does not service my neighborhood yet! Zipcode 95123 in San Jose.

Instacart has been a game changer in Chicago. (I knew peapod existed but have been following instacart since they launched). Nothing like not having a car and needing 24 packs of pop for a party.

I totally agree. I was really excited about GSX when I first heard about them from Costco. However when you dig deeper into what they will deliver from Costco (or other stores for that matter) perishable items like milk, eggs, etc. are for some reason not on the list. It essentially makes the service useless for me since I'll have to go to those stores to get my regular perishable items anyway.

I'm in San Jose, incase anyone knows of a service that does deliver?

Amazon Fresh (https://fresh.amazon.com) is in Northern CA, but I don't think they service the south bay yet.

They do as of today!

Safeway delivers. Pretty sure it's not free, but not sure if they have a delivery fee or a minimum order.

Safeway usually has deals like "buy x of these items for free delivery", so I never paid for delivery using them. They're pretty good, but not same day.

...at reasonable prices.

I think you're just lacking in a realization that being in the "wealthiest, most populous town in the richest county in the United States" does not guarantee you get to be the first to try new services. I don't know if living in that town means you also have any sort of intelligence, but if you didn't notice, this kind of service requires a lot of local overhead (trucks, delivery people, contracts with stores, etc). Obviously, Google is going to launch it on their home turf first.

Maybe if you move from the "richest county in the United States" to an area with more common folk, like Mountain View (sarcasm), you'll have better luck with trying products.

Yes. I wouldn't expect the richest county to be the target... it's probably not very dense because of large houses/yards, and everyone probably owns a car. I'd expect them to go with urban areas first, both because the higher density would make such a service more cost-effective to operate, and because car-free people are going to get the most use out of this, since there are lots more things that are hard to buy without a car.

Of course there is an urban advantage to services like this. In high density areas, the economics of the delivery service can make financial sense.

This isn't sour grapes, I probably wouldn't use the service anyways.

But consider this, the Bay Area (the premier delivery zone) has less than half the density of my town, which is on the edge of the principle tech corridor of the entire East Coast, which carries 70% of all the world's internet traffic, has more telecom and satellite companies than any place else on the planet, the national hub for data storage facilities, relatively low taxes, the highest educated and most affluent workforce in the U.S. and an astonishing number of high density business clusters.

If you consider the metro area I'm in (D.C.), the metro area is almost exactly like that of the entire Bay Area. Similar area, similar population density, centered on a major city with a similarly sized population. Both have extensive traffic issues, highly educated, affluent and mobile workforces, etc. Arguably has better transit infrastructure, logistics infrastructure and other supports. We also have far worse weather, making a service like this make far more sense.

But as we've seen time and again, the Bay Area desperately wants to be NYC (or rather, Manhattan) yet has characteristics no better than a #10 metro area and is only willing to take on the Bay Area and just one borough of NYC. San Francisco itself is just #20 in terms of density and only 1/10 the population of NYC.

SV needs to start acting like there's more to the U.S. than the Bay Area and Manhattan. I can almost guarantee that if it comes to my metro region, they'll center it only in D.C., it won't do well (because of the regional demographics) and once again the D.C. metro region will miss out on some of these interesting consumer offerings because nobody from the West Coast can be bothered to learn about different places.

Funnily enough, I live in DC, in the city, and I'm part of the car-free urban demographic I described, as are many of my friends and coworkers, and I could see a lot of us making pretty heavy use of this kind of service... and comparing myself/my peer group to, e.g., Gaithersburg or Loudoun County, was exactly what I had in mind with my comment, where I think the former is much more likely to be successful.

Totally agreed, though, that the focus shouldn't just be on NYC and SF, and that the DC metro area and the Bay are demographically similar.

Honestly, I'm always curious why we don't see Chicago in these kinds of services as well. I totally get why NYC, but there's a lot of cities in the country between NYC and the Bay Area that have better characteristics for this kind of service. (there's lots also, for demographic reasons, wouldn't be ideal as well).

I try not to spend much time in D.C., but I'm conflicted if the demographics are good enough yet, in the city proper, to support something like this. I recognize the city is changing very rapidly and might be at a point where this makes sense now.

I can tell you that at least in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, there's enough work-at-home and stay-at-home folks, and good road infrastructure, and suitable density, that this would probably be successful. Most of the local grocery stores and restaurants stay pretty busy running things around.

This is great, looks like they have expanded their coverage across the bay.

if you want to see what is offered zip code 90211 works

Count down to GSX self driving cars?

Looks like a clone of postmates.com . Unfortunately, Google can pretty easily get more users than them just using their already existing traffic. Some Google services have even gotten full page ads when visiting gmail.com like Google Wave and forced user enrollment like Google Plus.