Timing: Why Now, Not Why Ever

Online grocery delivery was tried at enormous scale during the late-1990s dot-com boom — Webvan famously built its own warehouses and delivery fleet, burned through hundreds of millions, and shut down in 2001. A decade later, companies like Instacart built large businesses on what looks like the same idea.

Same idea. Same customer wish ("groceries without the store"). Wildly different outcomes.