Where Webvan Went Wrong

from the should-have-taken-lessons-from-others dept

Here's a column comparing Webvan to the food delivery giant Sysco pointing out that people said the same thing about both companies when they started (people - or restaurants - will never buy food without going to a market and looking at it first). However, Sysco thrived while Webvan collapsed. So, perhaps Webvan should have taken some lessons from Sysco and sold premium goods, become profitable in their first market, and set up additional services that would make people pay extra for the Webvan experience. Of course, Webvan took the "we know what we're doing" method rather than looking at what others had already done right.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    ScooterBoy, 1 May 2001 @ 5:33pm

    last mile..

    Webvan never thought of themselves as a "food delivery service". Since the beginning, they always were in the "lucrative last mile business". Maybe that's where they lost focus...

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.