Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcasts
  • About Us
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Cold Call Podcast
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      I’ll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders
      15 May 2007Working Paper Summaries

      I’ll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders

      by Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman and Max H. Bazerman
      How do people’s preferences differ when they make choices for the near term versus the more distant future? Providing evidence from a field study of an online grocer, this research shows that people act as if they will be increasingly virtuous the further into the future they project. Researchers examined how the length of delay between when an online grocery order is completed and when it is delivered affects what consumers order. They find that consumers purchase more "should" (healthy) groceries such as vegetables and less "want" (unhealthy) groceries such as ice cream the greater the delay between order completion and order delivery. The results have implications for public policy, supply chain managers, and models of time discounting. Key concepts include:
      • Consumers spend less and order a higher percentage of "should" items and a lower percentage of "want" items the further in advance of delivery they place a grocery order.
      • Encouraging people to order their groceries up to 5 days in advance of consumption could influence the healthfulness of the foods that people consume.
      • Similarly, asking students in schools to select their lunches up to a week in advance could considerably increase the healthfulness of the foods they elect to eat.
      • Online and catalog retailers that offer a range of goods as well as different delivery options might be able to improve their demand forecasting by understanding these findings.
      LinkedIn
      Email

      Author Abstract

      How do decisions for the near future differ from decisions for the more distant future? Most economic models predict that they do not systematically differ. With online grocery data, we show that people are decreasingly impatient the further in the future their choices will take effect. In general, as the delay between order completion and delivery increases, customers spend less, order a higher percentage of "should" items (e.g., vegetables), and order a lower percentage of "want" items (e.g., ice cream). However, orders placed for delivery tomorrow versus two days in the future do not show this want/should pattern. A second study suggests that this arises because orders placed for delivery tomorrow include more items for planned meals (as opposed to items for general stocking) than orders placed for delivery in the more distant future, and that groceries for planned meals entail more should items than groceries for general stocking.

      Paper Information

      • Full Working Paper Text
      • Working Paper Publication Date: April 2007
      • HBS Working Paper Number: 07-078
      • Faculty Unit(s): Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
          Trending
            • 29 Oct 2020
            • Research & Ideas

            The COVID Gender Gap: Why Fewer Women Are Dying

            • 13 Jul 2020
            • Research & Ideas

            Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

            • 11 Jan 2021
            • Research & Ideas

            Is A/B Testing Effective? Evidence from 35,000 Startups

            • 17 Feb 2020
            • Sharpening Your Skills

            How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

            • 13 Jan 2021
            • Research & Ideas

            How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding

        Max H. Bazerman
        Max H. Bazerman
        Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration
        Contact
        Send an email
        → More Articles
        Find Related Articles
        • Online Technology
        • Food
        • Decision Choices and Conditions
        • Emotions
        • Cognition and Thinking
        • Motivation and Incentives
        • Satisfaction
        • Consumer Behavior
        • Food and Beverage

        Sign up for our weekly newsletter

        Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
        ǁ
        Campus Map
        Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
        Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
        Soldiers Field
        Boston, MA 02163
        Email: Editor-in-Chief
        →Map & Directions
        →More Contact Information
        • Make a Gift
        • Site Map
        • Jobs
        • Harvard University
        • Trademarks
        • Policies
        • Digital Accessibility
        Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College