It seems Google’s mission right from the start has been to disrupt as many conventional businesses with its technology as it can. One of those changes happened August 10, as the company formed the Alphabet holding company and spun off its core internet search business. CEO Larry Page reached out to investors in a letter on their website regarding the transition:
“As Sergey and I wrote in the original founders letter 11 years ago, ‘Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.’ As part of that, we also said that you could expect us to make ‘smaller bets in areas that might seem very speculative or even strange when compared to our current businesses.’ From the start, we’ve always strived to do more, and to do important and meaningful things with the resources we have.”
A new part of that disruption includes delivery services. Although Google is not in the same league as Amazon when it comes to local delivery logistics, the company plans to test a fresh food and grocery delivery service in two test markets later this year. One city will be San Francisco, while the other test locations remains to be revealed. The company has shown an interest in the food industry in the past, including calorie count technology, so this move is not completely out-of-line with their previous efforts.
The program will find Google partnering with Whole Foods Market and Costco Wholesale Corp, among others, in its attempt to deliver fresh groceries directly to the consumers’ home. This comes as part of a larger initiative in delivery services for homes and businesses to lure in more traffic to its websites. The company is said to be competing directly with Amazon’s AmazonFresh service in several U.S. cities. As online groceries grow into a $10.9 billion industry in the U.S., the market is only expected to expand.
Will you use this new service from Google? Do you think it can outperform Amazon in established markets?