Th3 Core

The next phase of the home delivery wars, post covid.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90593580/walmart-is-piloting-smart-coolers-to-let-you-receive-cold-food-outside

>Doesn't look very bear resistant.

For over a decade now, I go up to Shenandoah NP once or twice a year.  It seems like every year the trash cans keep getting more and more fortified.  The old piece of chain on a metal trash can doesn't cut it anymore. Now they look like something out of a nuclear blast testing area.

I remember the milkman and the insulated box.


In the early 1900's many upper middle class homes had an insulated cabinet cut into the outside wall of the kitchen.  Usually off the back porch.  This allowed for deliveries to be left while the homeowner was away.

For working class homes, the ice man, milk man and grocery boy just walked into the kitchen.

I think we forget how many goods and services came door to door once upon a time: iceman, grocery delivery (if you could afford it), milkman, produce man (in season), coal or oil delivery.  Plus there were the peddlers: Fuller Brush, knife sharpers, handy men selling their services, and other door to door salesmen peddling just about everything for the home, person or kitchen.

> smart coolers

I'm betting companies like Instacart or big grocery chains will come up with something like this in response.  They will want to lockin customers.

One thing that occurs to me is that right now all kinds of people who get those prepared meals and who shop with Omaha Steaks and Good Eggs and whatnot are essentially getting individual coolers delivered all the time now.

This is shifting the responsibility for ensuring the cold chain from the merchant to the delivery system.