This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, Quorso, and Veloq, breaks down Kroger’s nationwide rollout of grocery delivery through Uber Eats, Uber, and Postmates... putting nearly 2,700 stores on yet another major platform.

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss why Kroger is embracing every delivery channel, how this strategy compares to Walmart and Amazon’s owned networks, and whether expanding third-party delivery is a smart hedge in a post-Ocado world or a long-term road to being squeezed.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here.

#Kroger #UberEats #GroceryDelivery #RetailStrategy #OmniChannel #RetailTech #RetailFastFive #OmniTalk

Kroger has launched fast, convenient delivery through Uber's apps nationwide, making nearly 2,700 stores available on Uber Eats, Uber and Postmates.

God, remember Postmates and geez, it's been a long time since they came up.

According to a joint press release, customers can now shop from Kroger banners including Ralph's, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Smiths, Fry's, Harris Teeter and Mariano's with on demand and same day delivery.

To mark the launch, Uber is offering customers discounts of up to 50% off their first order.

Uber One members will receive $0 delivery fees on eligible orders.

Kroger already expanded its partnership with DoorDash to 2,700 stores nationwide last fall and has offered delivery through Instacart for several years, showing the grocer is aggressively pursuing all delivery channels.

This also intensifies competition among major grocery delivery platforms and comes as Kroger looks to expand its digital footprint.

While food prices remain the most frequently cited source of stress for consumers and distribution, does KRoger need both DoorDash and Uber?

How do you think about that?

Yeah, I don't see why they wouldn't be on every platform possible, especially with the changes that they've been making with Ocado and their, their distribution centers with them.

I think, you know, look, it gets people access to groceries and to food delivery and to essentials delivery.

They, it's, it's really just beefing up the Uber platform.

It's a reason for me as a consumer to join u now what I think is going to be interesting about this is what kind of adoption they're seeing.

Do they start to see beyond fill in trips like are are people going to the, to their Uber platform to do full on grocery orders?

And is this something that makes sense for, for Kroger to keep in operations and have to manage having multiple delivery drivers working with them.

But I do think it's valuable and it's certainly worth the test.

This is something they could turn off at any given time if it's too complicated or not working.

And I also like that it opens up Kroger to a larger pool of drivers that are on the Uber app because you're not just limited to the one company that you have contracted with.

If somebody wants to get groceries delivered.

I mean I have uber, I have DoorDash, I have all the apps.

If I can't get it on one, I'm going to the next one.

So I think as that becomes, I think an increasing problem for a lot of retailers, who are you Know, just using, you know, Target, just using Shipt or you know, Walmart just using their own third party, you know, white label drivers that, that causes some potential friction if you can't find those drivers.

And now I think Kroger's got, you know, any Uber driver can take any order at this point in time and that's giving them the most flexibility.

So I think it's a really smart move from, from Kroger and shows that they're going to experiment across the board.

But what do you, would you, what would you recommend for Kroger to be doing when they're kind of evaluating this situation in the post Ocado world?

Yeah, I mean I, I think I, I think I agree with you in, in the short term, I think I agree with you in the short term.

I mean I think it's a smart short term play.

In reality 100, you could be on as many of them as you want.

And I want to be careful how I say this.

I mean who gives a shipped and shipped with a, with a T or actually with a P?

With a P because like, you know, be on ship too if you want, like I don't care.

Or be on any other random1 Beyond GoPuff, who cares?

You know, like at the end of the day you're just putting your products on more marketplaces for you to sell.

So I don't see, you know, if you're on one, you might as well be on them all in a lot of ways.

I mean, I don't really see the downside.

And I get why they're doing it because they're still feeling the sting of the Ocado announcement.

And for that reason it's a safe move.

No, and here's the other thing that someone said to me at nrf.

No one is going to lose their job over expanding third party delivery, but they are going to lose their job for deploying billions of dollars in capital and failing like they potentially did with Ocado.

But long term, Walmart.

Here's the thing though, long term, this is still a road to nowhere because Walmart and Amazon will beat them and are already beating this strategy.

And Kroger is eventually going to get squeezed if it doesn't evolve.

And I plan to ask Richard McKenzie of the Lock that exact question when I have him on Confessions of a Supply Chain podcast with me next month is like, you know, how should people like Kroger, the regional grocers be thinking about this when Amazon and Walmart are going directly at them through their own means, so that's the fascinating question to me.

All right, well, I'm excited to hear what Valak has to say.

They are the only ones doing this profitably, so they should have a good perspective on the best route to online grocery delivery.