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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

In-home delivery

Walmart Launches In-Fridge Delivery, Will Shoppers Let Them In?

Today, Walmart announced Walmart InHome, a new service today that not only delivers your groceries but also puts them into your fridge while you’re away.

InHome will be available this fall for 1 million customers across Kansas City, MO, Pittsburgh, PA and Vero Beach, FLA (Florida gets everything). Walmart shoppers at participating stores will be able to select the InHome delivery when they place an order. Delivery people will be granted access through a homeowner’s existing smart home/lock set up. The Walmart delivery people will also be wearing connected cameras, and will livestream their delivery, which the customer can watch on the Walmart app.

There are some things Walmart didn’t call out specifically with today’s announcement. We don’t know how much an InHome delivery fee will be as opposed to standard delivery. And Walmart said the delivery drivers would undergo an “extensive training program,” but didn’t mention anything specifically about background checks. And the company didn’t say whether the livestream of the driver includes audio or two way communication.

This isn’t the first time Walmart has tried to go from grocery aisle to home fridge. About two years ago, the company partnered with smart lock maker August and third-party delivery provider Deliv for an in-home delivery service, but that obviously didn’t pan out as people can now use whatever smart locks they have to grant home access.

Walmart’s persistence however, comes at a time when its arch rival, Amazon, is trying to make deliveries into your home as well with its Key program. Rather than having drivers wear cameras, Amazon works with a series of approved smart locks and connected cameras to stream deliveries. Perhaps seeing that people were squeamish about letting strangers into their homes, Amazon has also launched delivery into a shopper’s garage (one step removed from the actual house), as well as into car trunks.

The question remains, however, for both Amazon and Walmart, exactly how many people will let strangers in their house (even while livestreamed) and into their fridge.

Amazon Key Adds More Connected Lock Options from Yale and Kwikset

Amazon Key, the in-home delivery service that allows packages to be dropped off inside your home while you’re away, added compatibility with five new smart locks from Kwikset and Yale today. This brings the total number of Amazon Key compatible connected locks to eight different models.

Amazon Key uses a combination of smart locks and connected cameras to allow delivery drivers to drop off packages inside your home while you’re away. It’s available to Prime members in 37 different U.S. markets and with today’s announcement, customers can customize their Key set up with an expanded variety of touchpad and keyway locks.

While this isn’t major news, increased lock compatibility for Key is another sign that Amazon really wants to get in your front door. Giving people a little more flexibility when choosing their front door lock provides potential Key customers with a teeny bit more control when contemplating the idea of letting delivery people into their unattended homes to drop off packages or groceries.

And right now, customers are wary of giving strangers access to their houses. According to a recent survey by Insurance Quotes, only 31 percent of respondents were willing to use Amazon’s in-home delivery service, with theft and privacy breaches being their top concerns.

Amazon seems to be well aware of this, and is assembling the pieces for a broader security solution that it controls. In March Amazon bought Ring, maker of the connected doorbell camera, which was a move that came just months after the company bought cloud security camera company Blink. It’s easy to see how live video of a delivery person walking up to your door, ringing your doorbell, placing a package inside and leaving could help calm people’s fears.

Still, earning people’s trust with Key is an uphill battle for what is essentially just another way to get you to buy more stuff. But we’re slightly more optimistic at The Spoon. And while there are definite concerns with in-home delivery, when it comes to food, it also allows more people to act on inspiration. If you stumble across an amazing recipe while you’re at work, you can order all the ingredients and they’ll be sitting inside your home–and not out in the elements–ready to be cooked that night. (Or, if you’re feeling super lazy, you can order from your favorite restaurant and have food ready to eat right as you walk in your house.)

August Home Expands In-Home Delivery Platform, Adds Deliv as Partner

Not long ago, my mom ordered a box of tea online, which a guy in a pizza delivery car tried to steal from her front porch while she was at work. Obviously, she’s not the first person to ever experience this. In her case, a neighbor happened to catch the guy in action and set the cops on his trail, recovering the package in process. Most folks, though, aren’t so lucky, and lots of them are ordering much more than a $20 box of tea.

All the same, risk of theft doesn’t deter most who order goods via same-day delivery. As we get busier and more mobile, we rely more and more on the convenience factor for anything from stereos to dental floss. And since this is as unlikely to change as mankind’s need to steal, it makes sense that that same-day, in-home delivery is rapidly becoming an option for both consumers and retailers.

News from August Home should help accelerate that option. The smart-lock maker just announced that it is opening up it’s in-home delivery platform to any retailer, and that it has formed a partnership with same-day delivery service Deliv for last mile delivery fulfillment.

It’s a pretty straightforward operation. August owners can order at a participating retailer and choose “same day” at checkout, along with their desired time window. Once the transaction is completed, they can opt to authorize “secure in-home delivery.” If no one answers the doorbell, the delivery driver can access a one-time-use passcode to unlock the door and leave the package. Users are notified via phone, so they know a delivery is occurring, even if they’re up the block folding the last of their laundry. If they have the equipment, customers can also choose to watch the delivery in real time through the August app (or view a recording of it later).

August’s move to expand its platform comes after Amazon launched Amazon Key in late 2017, which uses its own combination of smart lock and cloud camera, and helped make the concept of in-home delivery more prominent with mainstream consumers. Just last month, Amazon also purchased the maker of Blink security cameras, in a move that could bolster Key offerings.

August and Deliv partnered with Walmart this past September to test drive their new service. Not only did consumers have the option of in-home delivery, they could also get “in-fridge” delivery, where the driver enters your pad and puts any perishables in the fridge or freezer. Presumably, the same option will exist for this wider rollout of the August-Deliv service.

I’d love to say I’m weirded out by the idea of some dude walking into my house and opening my fridge, but I’m not. People open their homes to strangers all the time— cleaning services, maintenance work, and pet care, for example. And while a camera and a one-time passcode don’t guarantee complete security, they beat having your groceries swiped off the front porch by, of all things, the local food delivery guy.

Will Amazon Key Open the Door to In-Home Delivery?

“I don’t think so.” That was my mother this morning upon reading that Amazon officially launched Key, its in-home delivery service. With Key, Amazon Prime members can have packages delivered directly inside their homes, rather than having boxes left out in the open on a porch or stoop.

For smart-kitchen fans, this means groceries or, one presumes, same-day meal-kit delivery, can be left in the safety inside your house. This sidesteps the issue of leaving food out in direct sunlight or other inclement weather, as well as preventing dastardly thieves who might abscond with unattended packages left outside.

That is, if you are comfortable letting complete strangers into your house while you are away.

Amazon Key - October 2017

We knew this was coming, and Amazon seems well aware of the immediate trust issues in-home delivery brings up and has gone to great lengths to put nervous nellies at ease.

First, Amazon Key only works with Amazon Key-smart locks ($199 – $249) and Amazon Key Cloud Cameras ($149 each). Amazon sends an alert to your phone the morning of delivery with a specific time window for your package’s arrival. Amazon tells you when the delivery van arrives so you can start watching the livestream of the person entering your house to monitor their activity. (You can watch a recording if you miss the delivery.)

Drivers are instructed to knock first, just to make sure they don’t accidentally walk in on someone. If no one answers, they request the door to unlock with their handheld scanner. Amazon verifies the package and delivery address and unlocks the door. No codes are given to the driver. The door is opened just enough to slide the package inside and the delivery person asks Amazon to relock the door. After which, you receive another notification that the package has been delivered.

If you live in an apartment building or have a front gate, it’s a little more complicated, but Amazon says you can securely share any necessary main entrance code via the Amazon Key app.

Amazon is hoping you’ll use this wholistic approach to remote entry to go beyond package delivery and bring other Amazon-related services directly into your home. According to the Key site, “In the coming months, Amazon Key will provide customers with a convenient way to provide unattended access to professional service providers. This includes services from home cleaning experts Merry Maids and pet sitters and dog walkers from Rover.com, as well as over 1,200 services from Amazon Home Services.”

Amazon’s announcement follows Wal-Mart’s announced partnership with August smart locks and Deliv to offer fridge-to-fridge delivery. And while both Amazon and Wal-Mart are definitely cognizant of the security concerns, they both sense a bigger opportunity. As we wrote previously:

According to a survey conducted by NextMarket Insights on behalf of Comcast/August Home in early 2016, about 30% of online consumers said they would give temporary access to a service professional such as a house cleaner or delivery person. While that’s well below a majority, it’s probably enough to encourage Amazon and Walmart that there’s a market for this.

Amazon Key is starting off is small, with availability in only 37 cities across the U.S..

Which brings me back to my mom. I don’t imagine people her age will plunge into letting complete strangers into their home, but that reluctance seems like it might fade with successive generations (plus, she’s retired and home more often). Personally, I’m skeptical, but after reading all of the measures Amazon has put in place, I might be willing to try it. I imagine younger generations for whom riding in a stranger’s car or staying at their house will be even more open to the idea.