Amazon Fresh....it's no Home Grocer, but it's on it's way

So Amazon Fresh finally delivers to our house. I have to say, I've been in mourning ever since Home Grocer sold to WebVan who drove the company into the ground. So the minute I heard about Amazon Fresh, I started checking the site regularly to see if they would deliver to my house. After a year of "I'm sorry, we don't deliver to this location yet", I finally received "what time would you like us to deliver your groceries?"

OK - so you have to realize that I compare every bit of this experience to Home Grocer, because they truly set the standard for excellent customer service, and easy site to maneuver and a fun shopping experience. I'd say that I'd give Amazon a good solid B. They did the job, but I wasn't pleasantly surprised by anything.

Website:

• Fairly clean. They are still somewhat limited by their product list, but I assume that this will grow as customers make requests.
• The search isn't great. I had to search 3 different ways to find the soda water I wanted. I knew I'd seen it, but my search for soda water gave me tonic, club soda gave me plain only. Finally I had to search under Canada Dry and found what I was looking for.
• They seem to do a nice job of allowing you to set up a standard shopping list and also make available your previous purchases for easy access. This will come in handy.
• Time selection was a breeze and I liked how they gave me all my options and allowed me to pick hour windows.

Delivery:

• It has to be said....Home Grocer brought my groceries in to my kitchen and put them on the counter...this was one of my favorite things. I didn't have to carry groceries into my kitchen, I just put them away. Now I know it's all of 10 steps from my doorstep to my kitchen...but still - it's the little things.
• Home Grocer used to always bring little treats. Sometimes it was a bouquet of flowers, sometimes a loaf of fresh french bread. Often they would bring new products to try. The first time they came they brought me a mousepad....that little peach mousepad got used a lot! Amazon used to do this in their early days. I have an old Amazon t-shirt they sent after their 1st year to thank me for being one of their first customers. Also had an Amazon mousepad now that I think of it. The little surprises made me a happy customer definitely, but more important - they kept me coming back to the site. I'd be excited to order again wondering what surprise might be in store for the next delivery.
• The delievery men themselves were a joy. And yes, WAY back in the late 90's they were mostly men. But they were happy to be part of Home Grocer and happy to bring me my groceries. It was all about service and they were extremely good about making sure the customer had a wonderful experience. They would chat, get to know you a bit, without ever overstaying their welcome. This changed almost immediately after WebVan bought the company (part of my theory about why the company went under!)
• The Amazon Fresh delivery woman was very nice. She gave me my receipt, brought me my groceries (to my doorstep) in many trips and was happy to immediately take back the strawberries I refused (who wraps fresh Washington strawberries in plastic and then puts them on their side in a flat???) She even arranged for a replacement with a pre-dawn delivery. So the customer service was certainly very good. I guess I just missed the whole excitement of Home Grocer, when everyone knew that the start of something amazing was happening right then, with us.

Product:

• The produce looks good. Personally, I like my limes a little darker green, but I'm sure they will be wonderful in the Sangria.
• I have to say that the avacados are PERFECT! They arrived a nice large size and are the perfect ripeness to make my quacamole tonight, but can last until Friday as well.
• Other than the strawberries mentioned above, the produce looked good. Haven't eaten it yet, so I'll have to update this if for any reason I don't get the results I expect, but I think that so far they seem to understand that a home delivery means you have to bring the very best produce around.
• If anything they under packed the bags - but they are all recycleable, so I'll let that pass and it certainly meant that my groceries weren't all bent out of shape.

All in all, it was a very pleasant experience. I was really hoping to be surprised, or blown away, but in all honestly it's a bit like going to see a sequel. When the first experience is wonderful, it's almost impossible to delight and surprise the second time around. However, being the eternal optimist that I am, I continue to hope! Oh, and in the meantime - I'll send a little note to Amazon Fresh customer service as well! (who knows, if they're smart, maybe they are trolling the blogs to see how they are doing!)