People driving by Goods in Austin have a bit of trouble telling if it’s still open. But that’s to be expected when it’s a grocery store without the store part and has mostly robotic employees.<\/p>\n
The concept is an\u00a0interesting one<\/a>. Customers can order online from the app, choosing among thousands of popular items from actual grocery stores like H-E-B<\/a>, Whole Foods and Costco, which are stored in the adjacent warehouse. After you pull up and scan your code, the items then strap on their safety belt and careen along a robotic rail system underground until they pop out right next to your car.<\/p>\n Goods is located at 6500\u00a0N. Lamar Blvd. and had a soft opening in February. In an age of widely-available curbside grocery pickup, eliminating the browsing part and carrying an array of groceries from different stores in one space was certainly a novel approach. It seemed to be an attempt to offset those moments of frustration<\/a> when H-E-B doesn’t have that one item you like at Costco, or when Trader Joe’s doesn’t have anything that’s not a cutesy snack, like aluminum foil, for instance. And if they carried far away items from Buc-ee’s<\/a>, one could see that being a gamechanger (or maybe too much of a good thing).<\/p>\n That said, it’s just not clear if the concept caught on in the short amount of time. As weeks passed, drivers\u00a0began to notice<\/a> that the pickup spot was temporarily closed. CEO Garrett McCurrach confirmed to Chron that “we had to pause Goods for now” and they don’t know when or if it will reopen again.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the moment,\u00a0McCurrach says they’ll be focusing their resources on the main company behind Goods, Pipedream Labs, which conducts research on hyperlogistics, otherwise known as really fast delivery. The idea is to move items like groceries and other things across a city in minutes using an underground system similar to the one established at Goods.<\/p>\n “I promise that we will not do a Grand Opening until we are sure we can be open for everyone for 12+ months,”\u00a0McCurrach said in a previous statement on X<\/a>. “We should have waited until we were 100% sure we could operate for a year plus no matter what, and that is on me.”<\/p>\n