Grocery Deliveries in Sharing Economy - NYTimes.com

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"What’s more, traditional grocery delivery services are costly to set up, requiring warehouses to store perishable food, a fleet of custom-painted trucks for delivery and a staff of full- or part-time workers to package and deliver the orders. “We were the clowns who invested in WebVan, and we are only just getting out of therapy from that,” Mr. Moritz said, referring to the first boom’s spectacular grocery flameout.

Instacart does not maintain warehouses or trucks. Instead, the service is assembled out of found parts — existing supermarkets, willing part-time workers and their cars. The model has many advantages. It creates vast selection for customers by allowing them to shop at many different stores, from large chains to specialty shops like San Francisco’s worker-owned, vegan-friendly Rainbow Co-Op. It allows for extremely quick delivery too, including an option that will deliver your groceries in under an hour."

Grocery Deliveries in Sharing Economy - NYTimes.com