Online Grocery Shopping?

[Krit]

I'm trying to find an online grocery store with home delivery in Bangkok.

Some supermarkets seem to offer free delivery, however it is apparently necessary to go there and pick the items up in the shopping cart first. Also I've found a service to order food from several restaurants the restaurant in my house has delivery as well. But no online supermarket, is there? I like to click, click...

If there aren't any, perhaps we should start one? I'd be interested.

(Or should I just hire staff to go to the shop for me?)

[Guest Reimar]

I'm trying to find an online grocery store with home delivery in Bangkok.

Some supermarkets seem to offer free delivery, however it is apparently necessary to go there and pick the items up in the shopping cart first. Also I've found a service to order food from several restaurants the restaurant in my house has delivery as well. But no online supermarket, is there? I like to click, click...

If there aren't any, perhaps we should start one? I'd be interested.

(Or should I just hire staff to go to the shop for me?)

How you want to do such service? With Messenger Boys?

What do you think about which margin you would or need to ad?

What product line?

And what is about the required licenses?

There will be a lot of questions and one will be: how to deliver in Bangkok Metropolitan Area?

[CalicoConsulting]

The nice thing about Bangkok is that it's only an hour away from Thailand.

(OH, that was an old one! Older than me!)

Actually, I live in Chiang Mai. Jumping on my bicycle and riding to some place or other, even with no reason to even be there, is one of the joys of living here. The other drivers aren't sane, but neither am I, so it all works out.

Years ago, I spent a day in Bangkok, and I know it's very different there. Gridlock! I rode to some place in a taxi, then walked back to the hotel, and the return trip was faster. I only needed the taxi because I didn't know where I was going. That's so screwed.

In Hong Kong, I ordered pretty much all my groceries via the Internet. In mainland China, it wasn't possible. In Chiang Mai, it's neither possible nor desirable. Bangkok. If shopping is that bad, hmm. I'm not gonna say any more.

I only read your message because my lawyer's name is Krit. I'll go away now. No need to thank me.

[alaina]

The food by phone menu has a few grocery items that aren't listed online. You have to call to get them, but they are pretty reliable in delivering to most if not all areas of Bangkok.

[Krit]

Just got home from Big C, couldn't find the online shop so went there. We needed two taxis to get all the stuff home, luckily the security guards came to help get everything in through the service elevator (again). Let's just say that I like to shop for clothes and such, not groceries... So when I go I usually buy LOTS of stuff in quite large boxes. (And those are not beer boxes I'm buying, believe it or not. Well, not all of them anyway.)

The food by phone menu has a few grocery items that aren't listed online. You have to call to get them, but they are pretty reliable in delivering to most if not all areas of Bangkok.

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to ask. I've ordered meals from them already.

Regarding this kind of online shop as business idea, possibly it hasn't been done because it just wouldn't work here. I only know about e-commerce and online marketing (actually I've done marketing for an online grocery shop too), logistics is strange to me and while that might even be interesting, Thai bureaucracy is something I really don't want familiarise myself with. Still, I guess there has to be some feasible solution to the delivery problem as several supermarkets already offer free home delivery - the only problem being that I have to get my lazy ass there first and put everything in the cart, pay for it and then get home to wait for the stuff to arrive.

Having said that, perhaps I should stop whining and move to Chiang Mai.

[lanny]

If you know what you want, in some detail, I think you can fax your order to the Tops/Central Food Hall stores that deliver. You need to specify brands and sizes, I think, buy they will pick the order and deliver just as any other home delivery.

I don't know about payment for such service, though. Because I like to pick my own fresh produce and meats, I don't think I'd care for this service. But, that's my personal opinion.

[Krit]

It seems they just opened it for me.

According to Bangkok Post, "True Corp has broadened its online shopping services to include the high-end Villa Market stores, with the aim of increasing revenue from its digital transaction business unit to eight billion baht this year. The Weloveshopping.com service now enables True Move mobile-phone and broadband Internet customers to order more than 1,500 items of fresh food and other products from 10 Villa Market branches in Bangkok through mobile handsets and computers."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/31Aug2006_biz36.php