Startups aim for a piece of the grocery market by delivery orders in about 20 minutes

Startups aim for a piece of the grocery market by delivery orders in about 20 minutes

Transcript¹

We go behind the scenes of a "dark store" to see what it takes to get groceries delivered in minutes.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Groceries are a trillion-dollar market, and right now a whole bunch of startups are hungry for a piece of it. They're promising² something new - delivering your groceries within 10 or 20 minutes. Planet Money's Erika Beras set out to see how those companies do it.

ERIKA BERAS, BYLINE³: My boss Alex Goldmark lives in Lower Manhattan, and for the last few months, he's been inundated⁴ with ads for ultra-fast grocery delivery. So a couple of weeks ago, he tried it out.

MARTINEZ: All right, let's get some groceries. Let's see how fast they can come. Bum⁵, bum, bum (ph).

BERAS: He bought broccoli⁶, a couple bagels, black-seed smoked salmon⁷, chickpeas, bubbly water. To deliver on their promise of speed, these grocery startups have built a whole new kind of store - no checkout⁸ lines, no shoppers. Instead, these stores are little warehouses⁹ hidden behind darkened storefronts in dense¹⁰ urban neighborhoods. They're called dark stores. Normally, you can't set foot inside, but the night Alex made his order, I did.

ADAM WACENSKE: Hi, Erika. I'm Adam.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Adam.

BERAS: Adam Wacenske runs operations at Gorillas¹², the place Alex ordered from. Gorilla¹¹ stores throw just about everything we know about grocery store design out the window. The aisles¹³ are very narrow to save space, and they're all one-way to avoid traffic jams, and the shelves are laid out totally differently, too.

WACENSKE: It helps in our picking accuracy. And so in the grocery store when you're looking at the shelves, you want to see all of the seltzer water together, whereas here we actually don't want to see that because, you know, it can lead to mistakes in picking. So we separate those things.

BERAS: They have to pick, pack and deliver orders in minutes. It's all about avoiding errors. So in a dark store, the spaghetti is never next to the linguine, and seemingly random¹⁴ combinations of things wind up on the same shelf.

WACENSKE: There's garbage bags. There's batteries. There's shot glasses. There's a tea towel. There's a gift bag, Reynolds Wrap and foil pans - you know, all of the sort of things that you might need for a party are on this shelf.

BERAS: It's all the things you need for a party, and they're all on one shelf because people order them together, which the store knows because they have data from the app. When Alex's order came to the store, Tyler White, the store manager, grabbed the cart pre-loaded with empty grocery bags.

TYLER WHITE: So we have LaCroix lemon here, so I'm going to go ahead and scan it. Excuse me, Ray. I am coming through, good sir.

BERAS: The bubbly water that my boss Alex added at the end of his order gets bagged first because its heaviest. Within three minutes, Tyler has picked 17 items, and a delivery person loads up Alex's order to take it to his door. In the last two years, venture capital firms have poured billions of dollars into transactions just like this one. And right now most of the companies are losing money. For every order they send out the door, they spend even more on advertising¹⁵, rent, promo codes and labor¹⁶. They're betting that once people experience superfast grocery delivery, they'll get hooked. And maybe they're right. Less than a week after Alex placed that first order, it was another cold, dreary¹⁷ day. He needed groceries. So he ordered again.

Erika Beras, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF UPTNS' "BONNY")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 bum   

n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨

参考例句：

• A man pinched her bum on the train so she hit him.在火车上有人捏她屁股，她打了那人。
• The penniless man had to bum a ride home.那个身无分文的人只好乞求搭车回家。

6 broccoli   

n.绿菜花，花椰菜

参考例句：

• She grew all the broccoli plants from seed.这些花椰菜都是她用种子培育出来的。
• They think broccoli is only green and cauliflower is only white.他们认为西兰花只有绿色的，而菜花都是白色的。

7 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

8 checkout   

n.（超市等）收银台，付款处

参考例句：

• Could you pay at the checkout.你能在结帐处付款吗。
• A man was wheeling his shopping trolley to the checkout.一个男人正推着购物车向付款台走去。

9 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

10 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

11 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

12 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 aisles   

n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊

参考例句：

• Aisles were added to the original Saxon building in the Norman period. 在诺曼时期，原来的萨克森风格的建筑物都增添了走廊。
• They walked about the Abbey aisles, and presently sat down. 他们走到大教堂的走廊附近，并且很快就坐了下来。

14 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

15 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

16 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

17 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。