We started and operated a grocery delivery service like this for some 15 years as a sideline to our normal delivery business.
It was an operational nightmare.
Picking one order for a customer at a grocery store quickly is hard enough. Two orders requires using two carts and care that you don't mix up the orders. Picking more than two orders at a time is almost impossible, which limits your productivity.
We routinely had customers who would order more than a cart worth of groceries at a time. Offices would order 20 cases of soda pop and several boxes of munchies. Picking, transporting, and delivering these orders often took well over an hours' worth of time each.
If the average customer is ordering once a week, the $2 they receive won't be enough to cover their costs, and they'll have to charge significantly more than shelf price for the groceries if they are to be profitable. But this will discourage customers who believe they are paying an annual fee in return for "free" delivery.
It was an operational nightmare.
Picking one order for a customer at a grocery store quickly is hard enough. Two orders requires using two carts and care that you don't mix up the orders. Picking more than two orders at a time is almost impossible, which limits your productivity.
We routinely had customers who would order more than a cart worth of groceries at a time. Offices would order 20 cases of soda pop and several boxes of munchies. Picking, transporting, and delivering these orders often took well over an hours' worth of time each.
If the average customer is ordering once a week, the $2 they receive won't be enough to cover their costs, and they'll have to charge significantly more than shelf price for the groceries if they are to be profitable. But this will discourage customers who believe they are paying an annual fee in return for "free" delivery.