Grocery Delivery Digest

November 3, 2020

Peter Cook, Publisher

This week has provided a wide assortment of various looks into the food delivery industry. Some players like Sam’s Club, Fajita Pete’s and Nestlé are making big waves through new partnerships and expansions. In a different vein, two big court cases have developed involving major third-party delivery companies Grubhub and Uber Eats. In the meantime, grocers and restaurants have their eyes set to the winter to see how they will need and want to adapt.

In light of the election, this is a big week for the United States; but with everything going on, it’s always good to have simple things to return to. We hope that this newsletter can be one of those simple things for you. We hope you enjoy the rest of your week, and we hope you enjoy your Delivery Digest.

Issue #28

Nestlé Buys Freshly, Valuing Meal Delivery Firm at $950M

Nestlé purchased Freshly in a deal valuing the company at $950 million, the companies said in a statement. The transaction comes with potential additional payouts of $550 million, contingent on successful growth of the business.


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Sam’s Club Taps DoorDash for Same-Day Prescription Delivery

Sam’s Club is launching on-demand delivery of prescription drugs via a partnership with last-mile delivery provider DoorDash.


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Last-Mile Tech Firm Onfleet Raises $14M As Interest Surges in Delivery Services

Onfleet, a supplier of delivery management software to grocers and other retailers, has raised $14 million in Series A funding, the company announced Friday.


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Yum Brands Sells Grubhub Shares for $206M

Yum Brands sold its 2.8 million shares in Grubhub for $206 million during Q3 2020, according to an earnings release. In 2018, the company bought these shares for $200 million.


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Grubhub Sued for Adding Restaurants to Its Delivery Platform Without Permission

Class-action suit accuses Grubhub of using “bad” delivery experience to pressure restaurants to sign up; the tactic is widely practiced in the delivery sector by rivals, including market leader DoorDash.


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Uber Launches Grocery Delivery in NYC

Uber has begun delivering groceries in parts of Manhattan and will expand to the rest of the New York City area in the coming weeks, the company announced Wednesday.


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Uber Eats Accused of Discrimination Over Free Delivery for Black-Owned Restaurants

Uber Eats is being accused of discrimination after it waived delivery fees for some Black-owned restaurants over the summer.


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Fajita Pete's To Open Five Locations in Denver

Fajita Pete’s, the “fresh off the grill” fajita delivery and catering restaurant founded by Colombian-born immigrant and entrepreneur Pedro “Pete” Mora, continues to prove its business model with its latest franchise deal to expand into a new market, Denver.


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Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse Have the Most Satisfied Guests

What diners valued was no longer so straightforward. Last year’s study showed a decline in overall customer satisfaction for limited-service chains.


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Texas Roadhouse Expects To Hold onto To-Go Sales Increases

Off-premise sales continued to make up 20% to 25% of Texas Roadhouse Inc.’s revenues into the coronavirus-impacted third quarter, and CEO Kent Taylor expects the casual-dining brand to hold onto most of those as dine-in capacity returns.


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With Digital Surging, Panera Joins the Pizza Category

Some brands have considered joining the sizzling segment, either from a fresh entrance or product extension. But for Panera Bread, it’s actually a sentiment that began more than two years ago. The timing, however, has arguably never been better.


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Wingstop Spices Up the Holiday Season with Free Delivery Offer

Wingstop is teaming up with delivery partner DoorDash to offer free delivery October 30 through November 13, and again November 27 through December 4.


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Chili’s Parent Brinker International Inc. Eyes Virtual Restaurant Options Beyond Wings

Brinker International Inc. is looking at other brand possibilities and hinting that the chicken-wing concept might have a role outside the virtual world.


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3 Takeaways from Restaurant Brands International's Q3 Earnings

The restaurant operator's revenue was down, but it's well-positioned to benefit from off-premise and value-priced dining.


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Lunchbox Raises $20M To Help Restaurants Build Their Own Ordering Experiences

Lunchbox is a startup that allows restaurants to build ordering experiences on their own websites and apps. Today, it’s announcing that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding.


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Chowly Partners with Grubhub To Help Restaurants Grow

Chowly today announced it has entered into a partnership with Grubhub to bring independent restaurants a frictionless menu management and order fulfillment solution, helping restaurant owners more easily leverage Grubhub’s marketplace to drive more orders online


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Amex Expanded Its Partnership with Uber To Include Enhanced Food Delivery

American Express expanded its partnership with Uber to include enhanced food delivery and ride-hailing rewards for some US cardholders.


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Vallarta Supermarkets Teams with Postmates To Deliver Prepared Foods

Vallarta Supermarkets is now offering home delivery of its La Cocina menu of prepared food through Postmates food delivery service.


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Roche Bros. Partners with Local Supplier Platform Forager

Regional Boston grocery chain Roche Bros. Markets has partnered with Forager, an online and mobile platform that connects grocers and local suppliers, the company announced Tuesday in a press release.


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Asian-American Grocer 99 Ranch Market Expands Delivery with Instacart

Asian-American and international grocery chain 99 Ranch Market is teaming up with online grocery giant Instacart to grow its delivery capabilities.


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Delivery Hero’s CFO Says Food Delivery Will Attract More Attention From Competition Watchdogs

The chief financial officer of Delivery Hero said he expects antitrust authorities to ratchet up their attention on food delivery services as more businesses consolidate.


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Impossible Foods Launches Major Canadian Grocery and Home Delivery Alliance

Plant-based-meat maker Impossible Foods, continuing its market share race with its chief rival Beyond Meat and other faux meat manufacturers, announced a new partnership with Canadian supermarket chain Sobeys.


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The Amazing Ways Ocado Uses Artificial Intelligence and Tech To Transform the Grocery Industry

While many know UK company Ocado as an online grocery retailer, it's really one of the most innovative tech companies in the world.


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Drone Delivery Start-Up Manna Raises Further Funds

Greenman Investments, a property investment firm and asset manager with its headquarters in Dublin, has made its first foray into the tech sector after backing Irish drone delivery start-up Manna in a new funding round.


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Deli on Your Doorstep and Fresh Baked Goods To-Go

The Czech Republic’s largest online grocery store is keeping its customers and front-line workers well-fed during the second wave.


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Alibaba-Owned Lazada Suffers Data Breach for Its Grocery Delivery Business

Southeast Asian e-commerce firm Lazada said last week it detected a data breach that exposed personal details of many users in Singapore.


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To Own or Not To Own Delivery? Grocers Reassess the Instacart Dilemma

Third-party e-commerce services pose a challenge for food retailers as they seek to balance their online strategies with efforts to maintain their brands.


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Renewed Shopper Focus Key To Boosting Online Grocery Business

With the coronavirus pandemic driving more U.S. consumers to shop online, it’s time for grocery retailers to take a closer look at how to retain and grow this segment of customers.


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Operators Believe Curbside Changes Will Be Most Permanent

A new study from Raydiant shows that nearly 40% of restaurant operators said they would not have been able to stay in business during the COVID-19 crisis without their third-party delivery partnerships.


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Grocery Stores Want To Make It Less of a Nightmare To Order Online This Winter

In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, finding an open slot for grocery delivery was like winning the lottery.


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Economic Recovery for Restaurants Remains Uncertain

The uncertain economic recovery for restaurants in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed in recent months, posing more hurdles for operators.


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The Pro's and Con's of Third-Party Online Grocery Providers

As online grocery continues to grow during the coronavirus pandemic, retailers are faced with the challenge of expanding their digital services — whether that be on their own, through a third-party fulfillment provider or, more frequently these days, a combination of both.


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Farm-Fresh Produce Delivered to Your Door? A Growing Number of Services Are Offering Just That.

The pandemic-driven decline in dining out has had a silver lining for home cooks: The high-quality produce and meats typically destined for restaurants are increasingly finding their way to people’s kitchen tables.


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How Third-Party Delivery Saved an NYC Burger Chain

Virtual restaurant helps owner of Brooklyn's Gerizim Burger Factory find his delivery groove.


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How This B Corp Went from Clothing to Food and Is Hiring More Now Than Pre-Pandemic in Its Stores

Philadelphia-based United By Blue had to shut down its stores like so many businesses across the country. But it also lost 1200 wholesale accounts, almost over night.


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Same-Day Ethnic Grocery Delivery Provider OjaExpress Connects People with Food, Each Other

Difficulty in finding the right ingredients to cook traditional meals served as the inspiration for OjaExpress, which connects local ethnic grocery stores with customers who want to cook traditional foods.


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Zero Waste Grocery Delivery Comes to the Bay Area

Zero Grocery buys in bulk and packs the food and other products into glass jars, boxes and reusable containers.


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