????在另一邊海岸上舊金山的初創公司Gold Eggs內，類似的高科技與食品快遞之間也擦出了火花。那里的工程師花費了超過18個月的時間來設計后臺軟件，管理舊金山、布魯克林、洛杉磯和新奧爾良的400家當地生產商制造的食品的遞送。從面包、雞蛋到酸奶、牛排，一應俱全。

????Good Eggs并沒有采用批發食品，把它們存在倉庫，然后希望產品能夠賣出去的方式，而是采用即時生產的清單模式。當地的面包師只烘烤當日訂單中要求的面包量，漁場也只捕捉確定要購買的那些魚。這家公司獲得了投資者1,300萬美元的贊助。他們為當地的食品制造商如Prather Ranch Meat Co.設計了專門的網站。

????每周二，Prather Ranch的董事長道格?斯通布雷克都會收到來自公司在加利福尼亞北部的牧場的新鮮豬肉和牛肉。在Good Eggs網站上，他可以更新和管理存貨清單，上傳產品圖片，設定價格，觀察產品趨勢數據，比如什么商品賣得最好。

????Good Eggs的內部軟件會在每天下午分析當日訂單，確定次日的員工配置、快遞路線和產品需求。軟件會給斯通布雷克這樣的制造商發送自動生成的電子郵件，通知他們顧客需要多少肉制品。

????次日上午，斯通布雷克和其他食物生產商會打包這些商品，把它們送到Good Eggs舊金山市中心的食品中轉站。在那里，許多Good Eggs的員工會手持平板電腦核對貨物，分門別類地把它們裝進不同的溫控儲藏區。

????平板電腦的應用會在四個小時之內將訂單轉化為快遞，而員工們會用紙袋和保溫桶為顧客包裝食物。之后，這些員工會跳進自己的汽車，利用智能手機上的GPS導航軟件送貨。抵達目的地之前，顧客會收到短信提示。

????顧客在網上按下“購買”按鈕的36小時內就能收到食物包裹。加利福尼亞州索薩利托的退休抵押經紀人朱迪?夏柏就是顧客之一。盡管夏柏對快遞費用感到懊喪——有時高達8美元，因為她家周圍的顧客較少——但她仍是這項快遞服務的狂熱粉絲，因為她沒辦法經常去逛農貿市場。

????她說出了每位食品快遞服務經理都渴望聽到的話：“我收到的菠菜是這輩子見過的最棒的。太新鮮了。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正

????

????On the other coast, a similar high-tech twist on food delivery is playing out at the San Francisco startup Good Eggs. Engineers there spent more than 18 months developing the back-end software to manage the deliveries of everything from local bread and eggs to yogurt and steaks from 400 local producers in San Francisco, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and New Orleans.

????Rather than buying food wholesale, stocking a warehouse, and hoping product will sell, Good Eggs uses just-in-time inventory, where local bakers only bake the amount of bread ordered that day or fisheries only pull the number of fish purchased. The company, backed by $13 million from investors, designed a separate website for local food producers like the Prather Ranch Meat Co.

????Each Tuesday, Prather Ranch chief executive Doug Stonebreaker receives new cuts of pork and beef from the company's northern California ranch. On his Good Eggs website, he updates and manages inventory, uploads product photos, sets prices, and views product trend data, like what's selling best.

????Each afternoon, internal software at Good Eggs analyzes the day's orders to determine next-day staffing, delivery routes, and product needed. It sends an automated e-mail to producers like Stonebreaker, telling him which cuts of meat customers ordered.

????The next morning, Stonebreaker and other food providers pack up their pre-sold goods and drive to Good Eggs' downtown San Francisco food hub. There, a dozen Good Eggs workers wait with tablet computers in hand to check in and sort food in various temperature-controlled storage areas.

????Tablet applications help organize orders into waves of deliveries that go out in four-hour windows, as workers pack food in paper bags and cold sleeves for each customer. Those same employees then jump in their personal vehicles and use GPS routing software on their smartphones to make drop-offs. Before an order arrives, a customer receives a text message alert.

????Within 36 hours of clicking the "buy" button online, customers like Judy Shaper, a retired mortgage broker in Sausalito, Calif., receive a bag of food. Although Shaper is frustrated by the delivery fee -- which at times has hit $8, because there are not yet enough customers in her neighborhood -- she is a big fan of the delivery service since she can't always get to the farmer's market.

????"The spinach I've gotten is the best I've had in my life," she says, uttering the words that every food delivery service executive is dying to hear. "It's so fresh."

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