Correspondence on Grocery App Loyalty
Reconstructed search history from a person who keeps using one grocery service because the saved address and previous basket feel more valuable than a better price elsewhere.
Search History: Grocery App Loyalty Recovered from device, December 2021
"[Competitor app name] vs [current app name] delivery time"
"is [current app name] faster or slower now"
"[current app name] saved address not updating"
"can I transfer order history to another grocery app"
"[competitor app name] first order discount"
"[current app name] customer support chat"
"do loyalty points expire if I don't use them"
"is it worth switching grocery apps for 10% off"
"[current app name] dark store near me 2021"
"why do I keep using [current app name] when [competitor] is cheaper"
The search history reveals grocery app loyalty: the practice of staying with a service because the accumulated infrastructure of using it feels more valuable than the cost difference of leaving it. The saved address. The previous basket. The payment method that is already linked.
A small inconvenience leads someone to adopt grocery app loyalty for the next attempt. The next attempt works, so the behavior receives more credit than the circumstances. After enough repetitions, the household or group protects grocery app loyalty from evidence that it is no longer useful. The evidence arrives as a notification from the competing service. The notification is dismissed.
The grocery app loyalty is not irrational. It is a calculation in which the value of the saved address and the previous basket exceeds the value of the discount elsewhere, and the calculation is correct, and it is also the calculation that all switching costs are designed to produce.
Routine is considered proof even when nobody remembers the original reason for choosing the app. The reason was a sign-up discount that expired in 2020.
Most recent search, December 30:
"[current app name] new year offers"