I think there's a space for something in between Ocado and Uber Eats, in the 2010s I worked for a …

>the biggest pain there was that we were relying on a bunch of third parties to pack an order, and if any of them got something wrong we ended up with an unhappy customer on the phone and needing to deal with it. Why not have drivers verify the order with the store? Like have the store folks walk through the pick ups. It might be slower up front, but it would save lots of time and money for everyone in the long run. One of those slow is smooth and smooth is fast situations. Alternatively, the drivers should have a book they could match pics to items perhaps The other thing I wonder if it would be possible, would be to reduce revenue share for stores that routinely had issues with accuracy, but that means you'd need leverage, and you simply may not have it.

I worked in this business for over 15 years on the tech and business sides and I can say that the traditional VC-funded startup regime is fundamentally incompatible with the basic realities of the food industry. What is sort of funny about it is that in many areas there are local companies that have been around for many years doing this fantastically. As other commenters pointed out, this is essentially the milkman model. There are a number of extremely difficult problems that are definitionally insurmountable on the timescales that VC operates -- paramount among them being the establishment of trust and mutualistic relationships with your vendors/stores, customers, and employees. You are right that there is such a space, it just won't happen in the context of a startup taking VC cash.

FC's can have very efficient fundamentals if done right. Sharing shops with direct customers is very problematic - while appealing, the scaling just doen't work for them very well. They're also subject to a lot of variability due to contention with said customers.