Grocery Delivery Digest

September 29, 2020

Peter Cook, Publisher

Third-party delivery companies have been in the spotlight this week as legislators become concerned about just treatment of their restaurant partners. The big three that are dominating the delivery scene are Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash; but what these court cases will mean for them we’ll have to see.

OnTrend Concepts also had the distinct pleasure of hearing firsthand from Ray Blanchette, CEO of TGI Fridays, about collaborating with third-party delivery companies. Please enjoy all of this week’s news and trends in your Delivery Digest; and stay alert for a big announcement at the end of this week!

Issue 23

Kroger Reveals Ocado Site Location in Michigan As Part of CFC Expansion

Kroger and Ocado announced Monday that the customer fulfillment center (CFC) in the Great Lakes region will be located in Romulus, Michigan.


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Costco Earnings Show It Is Still in a Retail League of Its Own

Costco's management was asked why it doesn’t offer online ordering for in-store or curbside pickup of groceries and other general-merchandise items.


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Delivery Is in the Details: an Interview with TGI Fridays CEO Ray Blanchette

In an OnTrend Concepts interview, Ray Blanchette, CEO of TGI Fridays, underlines that a key factor to success is taking care of the small details.


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Olive Garden Parent Darden Says Digital Accounted for More Than Half of Off-Premise Sales

Darden Restaurants reported on Sept. 24 that over half of its combined off-premise sales at its three largest brands during the company’s fiscal Q1 were completely digital.


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Instacart and Sephora Partner To Launch Same-day Delivery Across North America

Instacart, the North American leader in grocery delivery, and Sephora, the largest prestige beauty omni-retailer, today announced a new partnership to offer same-day delivery in as fast as an hour from nearly all Sephora store locations across North America.


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Uber Now Delivers Winn-Dixie and Fresco y Más Groceries in Tampa

Uber is entering Tampa’s grocery delivery scene via a new partnership with Winn-Dixie parent company Southeastern Grocers.


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Mercato, NYC Offer Grocery Delivery to Underserved Communities

Mercato and New York City have partnered to connect underserved NYC communities to local grocery stores. Through the partnership, select stores in all five boroughs will offer their inventory online for local delivery, a service these stores weren’t previously able to offer.


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U.S. Reps Call for Investigation of Delivery Services

Market concentration has given the companies unfair leverage over restaurants, the officials wrote in a letter to the FTC.


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DoorDash Accused of Providing 'Deceptive Information' About Non-Partners on Its Platform

Lona's Lil Eats in St. Louis accused DoorDash of driving business away from restaurants not listed on its platform by falsely claiming they're either closed or out of delivery range, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.


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California Puts End to Questionable Third-Party Delivery Practice

Third-party delivery companies in California will no longer be allowed to list a restaurant on their platforms without the restaurant’s consent.


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Patrick Stewart and Mark Hamill Go Head-to-Head in Food Delivery Commercial

Whether the force is with you in a galaxy far, far away or you want to boldly go where no man has gone before, you've likely never seen a face off quite like the latest offering from Uber Eats.


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Dunnes Stores Set To Enter Grocery Delivery Market

Dunnes Stores is set to shake up the Irish grocery market in the run-up to Christmas with a move into online retailing that will see it put up to 70 dedicated home delivery trucks on the road as early as next month.


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Premium Italian Grocery Delivery Lands in Toronto with the Launch of Bottega by Speducci

From the farm to your front door, GTA residents can now enjoy award-winning Italian gastronomy in the comfort and safety of their own home with the launch of Bottega by Speducci online grocery delivery.


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Merrymart Partners with FoodPanda for 15-Minute Grocery Delivery Service

Merrymart Consumer Corp., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Merrymart Grocery Centers Inc., has inked an agreement with FoodPanda Philippines to operate and pioneer the 'dark grocery' store which aims to be the country's first 15-minute grocery delivery service.


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Dine-in Traffic Improves in August, but Off-Premise Still Preferred

A new report from The NPD Group finds the rate of restaurant traffic and dollar declines for August has eased a bit from June and July, down by 10% and 9%, respectively, compared to the year-ago period.


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An Insider’s View on Ghost Kitchens and Delivery

Interview with Meredith Sandland, Author & Advisor, Deliver the Dish.


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Grocers Are Primed To Compete with Amazon’s Free Grocery Delivery

Traditional grocers need to regain their confidence and compete with Amazon. It certainly isn’t the only business to provide online ordering and delivery of fresh groceries, but its significant investments and assets give the impression of being unbeatable.


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3 Unique Delivery Models To Watch

These companies aim to be more restaurant-friendly, with lower fees and more focused service.


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5 Restaurant Trends That Have Defined COVID-19

Operators find themselves trying to decipher the new normal’s lasting or fleeting impact—which parts will stick and which will vanish.


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Why Curbside Pickup Is Here To Stay—Even After the Pandemic Ends

Curbside is now everywhere as restaurants, including those with drive-thrus, sprint to find more points of access to make up for closed dining rooms.


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COVID’s Accelerative Impact Limited for Autonomous Food and Grocery Delivery

The same can be said for autonomous food and grocery delivery, but significant, business, technological, social and political challenges remain which the accelerative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic do not ameliorate.


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Factors To Consider Before Offering Retail or Restaurant Delivery Services

As retailers and restaurants continue to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, some have considered expanding their business model to include delivery services of food or merchandise.


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