Grocery Delivery Digest

July 21, 2020

Peter Cook, Publisher

While the big third-party delivery companies continue to dominate the news (law suits, new partnerships, etc.), I have found the ghost kitchen news even more intriguing. Read through the articles below and let me know what you think about the long-term viability of ghost kitchens. I look forward to hearing from you!

Issue #13

Instacart Is Suing Uber Over Its New Grocery Delivery Service

Instacart is suing Cornershop, a rival grocery delivery service majority owned by Uber, for allegedly stealing its product images, descriptions, and pricing data in what amounts to intellectual property theft, the Information reports.


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Uber Eats Waives Pickup Commission Fees through 2020

Under a U.S. pilot program, Uber Eats will allow restaurants to add online ordering to their websites for either pickup or delivery. Uber will waive pickup order commissions for participating restaurants through year's end.


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DoorDash Partners with Walgreens to Deliver Over-the-Counter Drugs and Other Health Products

DoorDash announced a partnership Thursday with Walgreens Boots Alliance to deliver over-the-counter medication and other products from the drugstore chain.


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Uber To Provide US Health Agencies With Contact Tracing Data

Uber Technologies Inc. has agreed to give public health agencies access to data on drivers and riders who may have come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19, the company told Reuters.


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Uber, Stop & Shop Add Grocery Delivery Services, with Seafood Continuing Sales Increase Streak

Grocery e-commerce sales spiked, and fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable seafood sales grew again in June, as U.S. consumers continued to shift their food buying from foodservice to retail.


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Food Lion Makes Grocery Shopping Easier For You Through Delivery

Food Lion Expanding Instacart Delivery Service to More Than 300 Stores.


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Portillo’s Plans to Create Own Delivery Team

Portillo’s Hot Dogs LLC, parent to the 62-unit fast-casual sandwich chain, will be launching its own in-house delivery program, the company said Monday.


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Uber Eats Adds $3 Portland Customer Fee on Food Delivery Orders After City Approves 10% Commission Cap

Uber has added a $3 customer surcharge on all food delivery orders from Portland businesses in response to the city’s new 10% limit on how much third-party food delivery apps can charge restaurants in commission during the coronavirus pandemic.


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Noodles & Company Expands Safety Commitment And Strengthens Digital Offering With Extension Of Free Delivery

Company successfully navigating current environment with relentless focus on safety, food quality, and convenience.


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Delivery Wars: How will DoorDash Maintain its Third-Party Delivery Lead

Chief Revenue Officer Tom Pickett addresses the company’s relationships with restaurants and its position on COVID-19-spurred commission caps: ‘We just don't think that arbitrary caps are the right way to go.’


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Uber Eats Reveals the Food Cravings That Hit Each State During Quarantine

“EXTRA PICKLES AS MANY AS POSSIBLE I REALLY LIKE PICKLES.”


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Ghost Kitchens Could be a $1T Opportunity

The facilities will help make delivery cheaper and faster, taking share from other models, the researcher said.


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Singapore Property Tycoon Kishin RK to Open 1,000 Cloud Kitchens across Asia, Europe, US

His company TiffinLabs plans to have more than 30 restaurant concepts serving over 15 cuisines in at least 10 countries within the next 12 months.


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New Venture Looks to Acquire Vacant or Closed Restaurants

Cordia recently launched a division called Virtual Dining Brands to consolidate its virtual concepts. The company’s virtual restaurants are intended to scale aggressively. The company already has two active online restaurants—Vegas.Pizza and KO Sports Bar and Grill—operating now. It also has a burger restaurant called Supreme Burger that is slated to launch soon.


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The Pandemic Hit Restaurants Hard, but Experts Say the "Ghost Food Hall" Concept Might Save Them

Ghost food halls combine “ghost kitchens” — which serve meals exclusively by delivery — and food halls, both of which have become popular in recent years, said Alex Susskind, associate dean for academic affairs at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. With the pandemic making indoor dining less safe than before, he said many people who were skeptical of takeout and delivery are suddenly using those services frequently and finding themselves hungry for new food options.


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Franklin Junction Partners with Grubhub

The digital-first restaurant innovators at Franklin Junction announces a new agreement with Grubhub.


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Meet The Entrepreneur Whose Ghost Kitchen For Hotels Just Raised $15 Million

In 2015, he started Butler Hospitality, an on-demand platform for room service and amenities, that serves as a ghost kitchen for hotels.


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‘Ghost Kitchens’ Gain Traction Amid Pandemic Takeout and Delivery Surge

If a disruptive event like the global pandemic is indeed an accelerator of trends that were coming anyway, this one might be in for the long haul. In Los Angeles, Colony’s “ghost kitchen” framework is making it easier for restaurants to create takeout and delivery — without the unnecessary overhead for dine in.


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Independent Restaurants Turn to Ghost Kitchens as New Pandemic Revenue Stream

The delivery-only trend began before the crisis, but has been embraced by dine-in-deprived guests


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Ghost Kitchens: Reimagining Restaurants and Filling CRE Dead Space in Sacramento – Part 2 (podcast)

Ghost kitchens aren’t a brand-new concept, but they’ve been on the rise during Covid-19. What is a ghost kitchen, anyway? It’s a kitchen that has no storefront and no inside dining, explained Joe Blanton, director of sales and leasing at Capital Rivers Commercial and co-founder of Krush Burger International, in this podcast.


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Ireland: Interview with Devan Hughes, Founder and CEO of the Grocery Delivery Platform Buymie

While 2020 has been a difficult year so far for many businesses, the Irish startup Buymie seems to have enjoyed the opposite fate.


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UK: Asda Teams with Uber Eats for Grocery Home Delivery Trial

Asda has become the first of the big UK grocery chains to join a throng of retailers partnering with Uber Eats for rapid food delivery in a trial in Leeds and Birmingham.


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UK: Co-op and John Lewis Extend Click & Collect Partnership

Co-op and John Lewis have announced Friday that its fast track, Click & Collect delivery and returns service will be available in over 500 Co-op food stores by the end of the summer, offering customers access to John Lewis products in more convenient locations.


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Hungary: SPAR Hungary Expands Successful Online Grocery Platform

SPAR Hungary has recently expanded the catchment area of its successful e-grocery platform to the INTERSPAR Hypermarket Tatabánya, in the Northwest of Hungary, as well as nine communities around the popular holiday destination Lake Velence.


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India: Milkbasket Reports an EBITDA Positive Quarter

Milkbasket, the world’s first micro-delivery and contactless grocery delivery service, reports a profitable first quarter with positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).


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Indonesia: Bukalapak Partners with HappyFresh to Launch e-Grocery Service

The partnership comes at a late time as other Indonesian e-commerce platforms have launched grocery services since April.


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UAE: GoFood Launches Next-Day Grocery Delivery Service

Offering a wide assortment of everyday essentials, including baked goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat, frozen food, household essentials, pantry items and so much more.


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Hyperlocal Grocery Delivery Sales Surge During Coronavirus Pandemic

Perhaps no companies operating within the online grocery sector have seen the shift in demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as much as hyperlocal delivery services that focus primarily on the grocery space, as consumers in many markets have turned to these companies to have groceries delivered from their favorite local supermarkets.


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Latest Deals Prove Grocery Delivery is a Necessity

“Over the last six months, it’s become increasingly clear that grocery delivery is not only popular, but often a necessity,” Uber writes. “We expect to see this trend continue as people across the world look for new ways to save time and stay safe.”


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Delivery Apps Become Essential for Restaurants to Survive During Pandemic

As an Uber Eats-commissioned study revealed, we're chowing down on a lot of delivery and takeout while the coronavirus pandemic surges.


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Building Better Online Grocery after COVID-19; Webinar Now Available to View On Demand

Building better online grocery after Covid-19, The Grocer’s webinar on the pandemic’s lessons for e-commerce, is now available to watch on demand.


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The Impact of Consumer Behavior on Grocery Store Foot Traffic

Back in April, we analyzed how grocery stores were faring at the start of COVID-19. Now, we are taking a closer look at four leading grocery stores, Wegman’s, Whole Foods, Safeway, and Publix, to see how foot traffic has changed through June 2020.


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The Delivery Robot Revolution Is Not Quite Ready for Primetime

Robots large and small appear poised for a breakthrough moment, but even with a surge in demand and accelerated growth, there are still a few hurdles that robots of all sizes face in becoming commonplace, and not all of them have to do with the manufacturing base required to produce them.


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From Farm to Phone: A Paradigm Shift in Grocery

For the consumer, online grocery generally starts and ends the same way: They place their order on an app or website, and hours later it shows up at their door. But the ways those orders are being fulfilled run the gamut.


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What More are We Willing to Sacrifice at the Altar of e-Commerce?

What is the price we will pay for the convenience of not leaving home when it is time to stock up the refrigerator, or to satisfy a craving for your favorite restaurant? The previous waves of digital saw the demise of neighborhood bookstores and video rental stores, among others, changing the character of communities everywhere.


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