Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

grocery delivery

Uber Eats Bulks Up Grocery Delivery Internationally with New Partnerships

Uber Eats is expanding its grocery delivery operations with new partnerships across France, Spain and Europe, according to various reports.

In France, Uber Eats has teamed up with Carrefour, which made the announcement today. Starting on April 6, fifteen Carrefour convenience stores in Paris will be available via the Uber Eats app and website. Shoppers can order groceries as well as hygiene and cleaning products and have them delivered within 30 minutes. Delivery fees for Carrefour deliveries will be waived for the month of April, and the two companies plan to eventually roll the service out nationwide.

Techcrunch reports that Uber Eats is also expanding its grocery delivery operations in Spain through a partnership with Galp service stations. Delivery of food and other items will be available at 25 stores in fifteen cities across Badajoz, Barcelona, Cádiz, Córdoba, Madrid, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca and Valencia. Delivery can be ordered through the Uber Eats app or by phone for those without a smartphone or internet.

Techcrunch also writes that Uber Eats has partnered with Pague Menos pharmacies and Shell Select convenience stores to deliver food and other supplies in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In this time of global pandemic and social distancing, delivery has become a lifeline for people stuck in their homes. Here in the U.S., The Information reported last week that Uber Eats has seen a surge in demand, with a ten percent week over week bump in sales and a 30 percent jump in the number of people signing up to deliver food.

Grocery delivery has been on the roadmap for Uber Eats for awhile. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowashahi talked up his interest in the grocery space back in October of 2018, and in October of last year Uber announced it was acquiring a majority stake in Cornershop, an online marketplace for on-demand delivery from supermarkets across Chile, Mexico, Peru and Toronto.

But with restaurants being forced to shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak, Uber’s moves into grocery are probably being accelerated. We can expect to see more of these types of delivery deals around the world as this pandemic continues to shake out.

Updated: Instacart Announces (More) New Gig Worker Protection Measures, But Strike Still On

Instacart announced new work and safety measures for its gig workforce, also known as Instacart shoppers. The announcement comes on the eve of what could be a nationwide strike of its Shoppers, who are protesting conditions they are working under during this coronavirus outbreak.

The nationwide strike was called for last week by Vanessa Bain, an Instacart Shopper in response to what she said was a lack of safety precautions the company was providing, a lack of hazard pay for the Shoppers (who are braving public interactions during this time of shelter-in-place), as well as pay for workers afflicted with or isolated by COVID-19.

On Friday, Instacart announced a number of new initiatives for its Shoppers, most of which addressed issues around pay, but did not address concerns around hygiene and physical safety. Bain, however, was not swayed by Instacart’s new moves and still called for the nationwide to happen tomorrow, Monday, March 30.

Today, Instacart announced even more new measures for its gig workers, including addressing issues around safety. Instacart, for instance, is getting into the hand sanitizer business, writing:

…Instacart worked with a third-party to manufacture its own hand sanitizer for Instacart shoppers to overcome the existing inventory delays and global supply chain scarcity, without taking away resources from healthcare workers. The product is a liquid spray ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer, which will ship in the next week. The independently-developed hand sanitizer that Instacart is providing meets CDC guidance for alcohol-based hand sanitizer and can be used when soap and water are not readily available.

Instacart is also revising its tip policy:

Beginning today, all existing customers’ completed orders will now default to the customer’s last tip amount, instead of the previous 5% tip default setting. The new customer tip default feature leverages order recollection technology, which remembers a customer’s previous tip and automatically sets it as their new default tip for all future orders. For example, if a customer tips 15% to their shopper for great service, their next Instacart order will automatically default to a 15% tip as well, versus defaulting back to the previous 5% default tip. Instacart is also removing the “none” option in the customer tip settings, requiring customers to manually change their tip to $0 if desired and making it less likely that a customer will remove the shopper tip altogether. Additionally, if a customer lowers the tip below 5%, the default will reset to 5% to ensure shoppers continue to have a baseline tip amount. 

Will these new steps be enough? We reached out to Bain to see if Instacart’s moves will be enough to avert the strike. With grocery delivery thrust into the spotlight and suddenly more important than ever, it’s in everyone’s best interests (Instacart, it’s gig workers on the front lines of this pandemic, and customers) to keep things rolling.

UPDATE: In a Medium post, Bain has called these new measure “a sick joke” and says that the strike is still on.

We will be following this developing story.

UPDATED: Instacart Launches New Benefits as its Gig Workers Planned to Strike

Update: This post has been updated with a statement sent to the Spoon by Vanessa Bain.

Grocery delivery startup Instacart today announced a number of new benefits for its Shoppers (the gig workers who actually go into the stores and deliver food). The new benefits come as Instacart shoppers were planning a nationwide strike this coming Monday, March 30, as first reported by Vice’s Motherboard.

The proposed strike was called in response to what was being called Instacart’s insufficient response to the dangers its Shoppers face during this COVID-19 epidemic. Vanessa Bain, an Instacart Shopper who has spearheaded previous gig worker stoppages at Instacart over its pay structure, laid out demands in a post on Medium:

On Monday, March 30, Shoppers will walk off of our jobs, and will not return to work until our demands are met. We demand that Instacart meet the following conditions:

  1. Safety precautions at no cost to workers — PPE (at minimum hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes/sprays and soap).
  2. Hazard pay — an extra $5 per order and defaulting the in-app tip amount to at least 10% of the order total.
  3. An extension and expansion of pay for workers impacted by COVID-19 — anyone who has a doctor’s note for either a preexisting condition that’s a known risk factor or requiring a self-quarantine.
  4. The deadline to qualify for these benefits must be extended beyond April 8th.

As Bain rightly points out, gig workers are on the front lines of this pandemic, venturing into public grocery stores on behalf of others, and making deliveries to strangers’ front doors. They are putting themselves at risk so people like you and me don’t have to venture out.

In a corporate blog post today, Instacart launched a number of new measures and benefits it was adding to help its Shoppers, including:

  • Extending pay for those unable to work because they are stuck with COVID-19 or placed in isolation or quarantine because of the disease
  • Additional bonuses for Shoppers ranging from $25 to $200
  • Additional pay boosts through batch promotions
  • Contactless alcohol delivery

Instacart also provided this statement via email to The Spoon:

“The health and safety of our entire community — shoppers, customers, and employees — is our first priority. Our goal is to offer a safe and flexible earnings opportunity to shoppers, while also proactively taking the appropriate precautionary measures to operate safely. We want to underscore that we absolutely respect the rights of shoppers to provide us feedback and voice their concerns. It’s a valuable way for us to continuously make improvements to the shopper experience and we’re committed to supporting this important community during this critical time.”

Will Instacart’s new moves be enough to ward off the strike? We reached out to Bain on Twitter, and will update this post as soon as we hear back. UPDATE: Bain sent us the following response:

Instacart’s response lacks any real substance. While I am glad they agreed to our fourth demand to extend the eligibility period for COVID-19 pay, they’ve provided no meaningful concessions to our demands in full. It’s far too little too late. We are still calling for an emergency walk off/work stoppage until our demands are met in full.

Instacart is busier than ever, thanks to people sheltering in place and social distancing, and to better accommodate its surge in demand, the company is looking to bring on an additional 300,000 shoppers in the coming months.

With unemployment spiking amid business closures, a lot of people will be looking to Instacart for some kind of steady paycheck. Ensuring that its growing workforce is fully prepared to face the challenges of this outbreak seems not only reasonable, but the morally correct thing to do. On a more personal note, I literally just got my parents to start using Instacart, and I’m sure they aren’t the only elderly (read: more at risk) people who are doing so. So here’s hoping Instacart and its Shoppers can iron all this out and truly be a force for good in these trying times.

Grocery Chains Hy-Vee, Woodman’s and More to Offer Free Delivery for the Elderly

The ability for folks over the age of 60 to get groceries is a big concern during this pandemic. Stores are creating special shopping hours for the elderly, I’m Instacarting my septuagenarian parents, and starting today, more than 2,000 grocery store locations across the country will offer free grocery delivery for those over 60 years old.

According to a press release emailed to us this morning, Hy-Vee, Woodmans, Kowalski’s Markets and “hundreds of independent grocers” such as Piggly Wiggly, LifeThyme Natural Market, Le District and Matherne’s will all be waiving delivery fees on orders fulfilled by DoorDash for those 60 and older.

DoorDash is leading the effort with participation from grocery solutions Freshop, GrocerKey, Mercato and Rosie. Customers will have the option of no-contact delivery. It’s not quite a blanket solution as there are some holes in coverage and some fine print, as outlined below. Here are the specifics from the press announcement:

  • Hy-Vee:  Starting March 31, Hy-Vee will offer free delivery to individuals who are 60 and older as well as expectant mothers and those who are considered high risk for illness in communities where Hy-Vee Aisles Online delivery orders are fulfilled by DoorDash. These customers will be able to use a designated promo code at checkout when they place their order through hy-vee.com/grocery. The promotion with Hy-Vee will cover up to 20,000 deliveries. 
  • GrocerKey: Partnering with market leading retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada, GrocerKey provides a full stack retailer branded eCommerce platform built for independent and regional grocery chains. GrocerKey also provides full service solutions, including in-store labor to pick and pack orders for fulfillment. In partnership with DoorDash, Kowalski’s, and Woodman’s, GrocerKey is extending free delivery to customers throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois (details below on how to receive free delivery).  

    Woodman’s: Log in to your account on ShopWoodmans.com. If you are a new customer, please create an account first and then start shopping. The discount will be available through May 1. 

    Kowalski’s: Log in to your Kowalski’s On The Go account. If you are a new customer, please create an account first and then start shopping. The discount will be available through May 1. 
  • Mercato: Mercato provides online ordering and same-day delivery from high-quality independent grocery and specialty food stores across the country. To sign up for unlimited free delivery from any one of Mercato’s 900+ participating stores until May 7, visit Mercato.com, input your delivery zip code, and choose products from any of the stores in your delivery area. During checkout, you can sign up for a free trial of the Mercato Green delivery membership program, input the promo code OVER60, and you will be prompted to put in your date of birth. When the delivery arrives, you will also need to show ID verification to the delivery driver. [Ed. Note: This does not seem like no-contact, come on, Mercato, relax.]
  • Rosie: Rosie is the preferred eCommerce partner to independent retailers such as Rosauers Supermarkets, Super 1 Foods, Macey’s, and Gourmet A’Fare and many more. Find a full list of stores here. To sign up for free delivery through May 7, head to Rosie and use promo code “DDFREE” at checkout for nearly 200 participating retailers.
  • Freshop: Freshop builds eCommerce platforms for over 2,000 of the nation’s leading grocers and specialty retailers including Foodtown, Fisher’s Foods, Brookhaven and Hays and is adding 300+ stores a week in support of COVID-19 efforts. DoorDash has enabled many Freshop stores to start offering delivery during these challenging times. Learn more at https://www.freshop.com.

Today’s free delivery announcement follows the announcement earlier this week from ridesharing company, Lyft that it would be providing meal deliveries to the elderly and school kids.

Hold on to these bright spots, the dark times aren’t over yet.

Mercato Can Get Independent Grocers Online and Delivering in 48 Hours

There is a conundrum in this time of COVID-19. While you’re supposed to shelter in place, you also want to support local businesses by getting groceries from your area market. But at least in our town, the local grocers don’t have online ordering or delivery. As a result, I turn to the big retailers (with decidedly mixed results).

But as with so many other segments of food tech landscape right now, startups are stepping up to help. Mercato is an online platform that enables independent grocery stores to have their own e-commerce and delivery operations. The Mercato platform takes care of all the order management and processing as well as online marketing, and connects stores with an independent network of 100,000 delivery drivers across the country.

Last week, Mercato launched a rapid on-boarding process with reduced setup fees that promises to get indie grocers online and selling in 48 hours. And yesterday, Mercato announced a partnership with wellness data company SPINS to provide stores with a more robust and customizable online shopping experiences.

I spoke with Bobby Brannigan, CEO of Mercato today, and he said that Mercato launched 20 grocers on its platform yesterday, and will launch another 40 stores today. By the end of this week, Brannigan said Mercato will be serving more than 1,000 stores.

“We help independent grocers compete,” Brannigan said, “They’re dealing with a massive surge in volume, it’s absolutely insane.”

The partnership with SPINS will integrate SPINS’ expansive product database into the Mercato system. This will allow independent grocers to broaden search and profile capabilities based on product attributes and nutrition content. For example, shoppers could search a corner grocery store on Mercato and filter products by items that are gluten-free or keto-friendly.

Though pricing depends on the number of stores and volume, Brannigan said that for the time being, Mercato has cut its setup fees in half, and that a subscription for it software starts at $349 a month.

As we’ve said before, the coronavirus outbreak is forcing the food industry to speed up the adoption of new technologies. Perhaps Mercato can be a lifeline to mom and pop grocery shops struggling to survive this outbreak, and create a great alternative for those of us stuck at home that want to shop locally.

Thank You, Walmart and Safeway, for Keeping Us Fed. Now Fix Your Confusing and Misleading E-Commerce

Grocery stores have been a bright spot in this otherwise dark time of global pandemic. Store workers are braving an on-edge public and risking infection to stock shelves or come out to our homes to deliver groceries. I appreciate and thank them for all their hard work.

So it’s not on the front lines where grocery stores have an issue right now. Instead, it’s on the back end, in the way big grocery retailers manage and communicate about e-commerce orders, where the problems seem to be happening.

Like millions of others, my family has been self-isolating for a couple of weeks, which means more grocery shopping online. I’ve used Safeway for delivery and Walmart for curbside pickup. Both have problems with the way they relay information about out-of-stock items.

Before going off on too much of a rant, I should note that I’m extremely lucky. My wife and I are still employed, we are sufficiently stocked with food, and if need be, we can easily and safely go to an actual grocery store. But there are a lot of people in worse off situations, and those people need a consistent and reliable method for ordering groceries from home.

I also understand that we are in unprecedented times, and as such, people are stocking up/hoarding, so some items are just aren’t available. I have yet to find toilet paper anywhere online, and evidently everyone is baking loaves of sourdough, so there’s a run on flour.

The problems I’ve encountered with Safeway and Walmart is that those platforms accept and process my online order, leading me to believe all items are in stock and that I’ll get everything I need/want. Then, literally a couple hours before the scheduled pickup or delivery time, I get notifications telling me some items are out of stock and I won’t receive them.

In the case of the Safeway, it was a delivery order that had been placed a week and half prior. So during that time, I assumed my entire order would arrive and didn’t make any other plans to get groceries. Thankfully, the only things the store was out of were flour and yeast (to make bread, he admitted, sheepishly), and not more necessary staples like eggs or milk. But there was a gap of a week and a half in between the time I placed the order and the delivery date. At some point in there, Safeway should have communicated that items are out of stock so I could figure something else out.

The same thing happened with Walmart when I ordered food for curbside pickup. The system accepted my order the day before, leading me to believe everything was a-okay! Then the next day, shortly before I drove to the store for pickup I got an email from Walmart that basically said, “Just kidding! We’re out of a bunch of stuff you ordered.” Some of the items, like toilet paper, I kinda figured might disappear, but there were also things like fruits and vegetables in there that suddenly couldn’t be fulfilled. This was more baffling because Walmart is a logistics and supply chain monster. Why, then, was the online ordering so far off from reality in the 24-hour period between when I placed my order and when I picked it up?

Again, the reason for this whole rant is that as we are told to shelter in place and avoid crowds (especially if you’re older), e-commerce will become increasingly important, depending on how long this outbreak lasts. It’s critical that people can feel confident in the online orders they place. I’m fortunate in that I have the time and means to compensate if something goes awry. But there are lots of people who don’t, and lots of people who can’t go into the store because they have young kids, or are sick who will rely on online grocery shopping. If it’s too difficult to align store inventory with demand at a store, then retailers should improve and clarify messaging around orders so that people understand that what they receive may change, and if it does, give them ample time to either prepare for the outage or make substitutions.

For the most part, online grocery shopping is great! And I really do appreciate all the work Walmart and Safeway are putting in quickly to make it happen. We just need to make some changes to make sure we aren’t worse off in these worst of times.

We’re spending every day tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the world of food. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our analysis and hear stories from the front lines.

Instacart to Add 300,000 Shoppers

Instacart is bulking up. The company announced today that it is responding to the surge in demand for its grocery delivery services by adding 300,000 shoppers to its platform over the next three months.

Instacart shoppers are the workers the company uses to go into stores, pick out the items customers order and deliver them. In a corporate blog post, Instacart Founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta wrote:

Today, we have more shoppers on the Instacart platform than ever before. Given the continued customer demand we expect over the coming months, we’ll be bringing on an additional 300,000 full-service shoppers to support cities nationwide. As more people look for immediate, flexible earnings opportunities during this time, we hope that Instacart can be an additional source of income for those looking to earn while also delivering for the communities in which they live.

Instacart operates in more than 5,500 cities. In a press release announcing the news, Instacart said that in the past few weeks, it has seen order volume grow by more than 150 percent year-over-year, with average customer basket size also increasing by 15 percent. The additional 300,000 full-service shoppers will more than double the size of its shopper workforce.

That the company is seeing such a spike in demand is not surprising. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people into stocking up for what could be a long haul indoors. Many people adopting social distancing find it easier to have food delivered rather than interact with the (potentially contagious) general public at the grocery store.

I count myself among that surge in Instacart traffic even though it’s not available where I live. Instead I used it to order food for my elderly parents who are in a high-risk population and still stubborn about going to the grocery store in person.

Anyone who has tried to order groceries online recently has assuredly run into lengthy delays (I ordered from Safeway a week and half ago and it arrives tomorrow)(hopefully) and out-of-stock error messages. Instacart is among a number of companies looking to hire a lot of people immediately. Amazon wants to bring on 100,000 people for its delivery operations, Kroger is hiring 10,000 across the country, and Walmart plans to hire 150,000 new workers.

With COVID-19 decimating the restaurant industry and estimates that five to seven million service and kitchen jobs could be lost, any job could be a lifeline for those in need until this pandemic passes.

Just remember that all these Instacart, Amazon, Kroger and Walmart workers are on the front lines, putting themselves at risk going into stores and to your homes. So be kind and tip them generously.

Uber, DoorDash and Others ‘In Talks’ to Compensate Drivers Affected By Coronavirus

Under pressure to offer more protection to workers, major gig economy companies are considering setting up a fund to compensate drivers affected by the coronavirus, according to The Wall Street Journal. Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash, and Postmates are “in talks” to see how they can come together to set up a fund to pay workers infected by or quarantined with the virus.

Food delivery drivers are in high demand right now as more Americans are working from home or simply staying away from restaurants in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Postmates and Instacart have responded by implementing contactless delivery options where drivers simply leave food on the doorstep instead of handing it off directly to the customer.  

Those measures mitigate some risk. However, they don’t account for the fact that gig economy workers are classified as contractors in most states, which means they don’t get paid for time off, including sick leave. In some cases, taking time off for illness could drastically affect workers’ livelihoods. One worker told the WSJ that “staying home won’t pay the bills.”

That puts delivery drivers in a tough position: stay home and miss earning essential income, or work even when you’re feeling sick and potentially risk further spreading coronavirus. While this conundrum is true of many, many types of workers right now, gig workers are in especially high demand as more people order food in, rather than go out to restaurants. 

The aforementioned companies are expected to make a decision about this potential fund in a few days.  Uber has already said it will compensate up to 14 days for both rideshare drivers and delivery drivers diagnosed or quarantined with coronavirus.

Compensating affected drivers is just one of many issues around worker treatment for which delivery companies have come under fire recently. Uber, Lyft, and Postmates are on the list of gig economy companies currently fighting California’s Assembly Bill 5 — also known as the “gig worker bill” — which reclassifies those workers as employees and entitles them to certain benefits — including paid sick leave. DoorDash and Instacart famously made a lot of enemies in 2019 over their worker tipping policies. Meanwhile, advocacy groups like Gig Workers Rising and Gig Workers Collective are putting pressure on tech companies to enact better labor policies.

One possible result of the current outbreak is that it could prioritize the issue of gig workers’ rights and spur both regulators and tech companies into action faster. Coronavirus isn’t the last public health crisis we’ll see in our lifetimes. As gig economy jobs become the norm for a growing number of the population, ensuring better protection for workers’ health needs to be built right into the job description. 

Postmates, Instacart Join No Human Contact Delivery Efforts in the U.S.

Food delivery service Postmates today announced what it’s calling Dropoff Options, a function that lets customers choose how they want to receive their deliveries. According to a company blog post, users can “choose to meet their Postmate at the door, as they have before, meet curbside, or go non-contact and have deliveries left at the door.” 

Postmates customers order their meals as usual then select their delivery method during the checkout process (see image above).

The post itself doesn’t mention coronavirus, but it doesn’t have to. Around the world, delivery services now offer various forms of this contactless delivery, where couriers and customers have no physical contact and in some cases don’t even see one another face to face. 

The bulk of the efforts so far have been in China, where the outbreak originated. Restaurant chains and delivery services — Ele.me, Meituan, McDonald’s, and KFC, to name just a few — are working together to limit the amount of human contact that happens during food delivery dropoffs. Drivers and couriers must wear masks, have their temperature taken, and disinfect their hands and delivery bags before and after each run.

South Korea’s top two delivery services, Baedal Minjok and Yogiyo, have also seen an uptick in food delivery orders and requests for couriers to leave packages on the doorstep.

Stateside, Postmates isn’t alone in its efforts to introduce more contactless delivery. As Business Insider noted, Instacart has also implemented contactless delivery with a service called “Leave at My Door Delivery.” The grocery delivery company told BI that it has actually been testing this service for several months and decided to make it available to all customers after seeing a “surge” in demand for it.

With “Leave at My Door Delivery,” Instacart customers can opt to have their grocery orders left at their doorstep during the designated timeframe for their order. 

Other food delivery companies, including Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats, have not yet implemented any kind of contactless delivery for their operations.

These new services from Postmates and Instacart so far only address the issue of one human getting close to another. They do not yet address steps like disinfecting the insulated delivery bags couriers use or taking workers’ temperatures — actions that are as much about the safety of drivers and couriers as they are about customers. One Instacart worker told the Financial Times that the company still wasn’t providing items like hand sanitizer or disinfectants. While Instacart’s new contactless delivery is “a step in the right direction,” it doesn’t “reduce our overall risks of exposure because most of our risks we actually encounter while shopping,” the worker said. 

Instacart workers in particular are exposed to more germs because part of their job involves moving around a grocery store, touching a shopping cart, and picking up items from shelves. But all gig economy companies should be factoring in the safety of their workers as they implement contactless delivery services.

Which is where the robots may come in. My colleague Chris Albrect has written more than once, we live in a time when delivery robots and driverless vehicles are actually available. Undelv has already said it would make its driverless delivery vans available to deliver food, medicine, and other supplies to quarantined areas. And as Chris pointed out, rover bots like those from Starship or Kiwi “could be an easy humanless way to deliver meals and medicines around the clock in densely populated areas.” I would add drone technology to that list of possible solutions.

Granted, outsourcing delivery jobs to drones would eat into gig workers’ pay. As well, a number of regulatory issues around autonomous delivery vehicles have yet to be addressed, which limits how widely these technologies can even be used. But whether by robot, masked workers, or some other solution that’s yet to be thought of, the contactless delivery method will get way more popular in the next few months — and probably alter the food delivery landscape for good in the process.

Online Grocery Shopping Surges Amidst Coronavirus (So Tip Your Delivery Drivers!)

The Spoon is headquartered just outside of Seattle, and with a rise in coronavirus cases here over the weekend, things are understandably a little… tense. This tension was on full display at my local Safeway last night, where the cleaning supply and dry goods sections of the store were picked over and barren.

The rapidly spreading virus has sparked a rash of panic buying here and across the U.S. as concerned citizens stock up in the event of a societal collapse. The Washington Post writes:

Shelf-stable and frozen foods were in high demand. At a Trader Joe’s market in Mountain View, Calif., the freezer section was cleared out of pizza and most ready-made meals by Sunday evening. There was no pasta or rice left. One woman’s cart was piled to the brim with frozen mushroom ravioli. Another cart was filled with six gallons of milk.

Facing empty real world stores and an increasing fear of being in public places, there’s a surge in online shopping. According to MarketWatch:

In the past 30 days, 21% of U.S. consumers ordered perishable, edible groceries online, [NPD Groupd analyst David] Portalatin said. That’s up from 18% at the same point last year.

All this online shopping has taxed even the biggest of delivery players. Bloomberg reports that Amazon’s Fresh and Prime Now delivery services have been overwhelmed, and yesterday Amazon said delivery from both of those services would be impacted as it strains to meet up with demand.

As people find comfort in shopping from home, however, it’s important to remember that human beings are still making those deliveries. The Seattle Times notes that the boon in shopping means drivers can make more money, but they are definitely putting themselves at risk:

Some drivers have begun using hand sanitizer before and after ID checks, while some customers are applying disinfectant to grocery bags, said the gig-economy driver, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the companies.

Faced with an amorphous, invisible threat that does not discriminate, could literally be anywhere, and will only get worse, our current delivery and logistical systems are going to be pushed to their limits. But as we’ve noted before, this outbreak could also help push forward technological solutions that require less human-to-human contact.

Robots like those from Starship could be an easy humanless way to deliver meals and medicines around the clock in densely populated areas (they’d still need to be sterilized). And self-driving delivery vans like those from Udelv could bring people bulkier items like groceries.

That’s still a ways off, especially since we haven’t had to lockdown any U.S. metropolitan areas (thankfully) yet, and the safety tradeoffs of autonomous vehicles must still be considered. So for now we’re still reliant on humans to make our deliveries. Those delivery drivers aren’t just bringing packages, they are serving as a lifeline to the food we need to eat. If you need to panic grocery shop to feel better, we can’t stop you. Just be sure you tip your delivery driver generously.

Report: Walmart+ to Take on Amazon Prime

Walmart is working on a new membership offering to take on Amazon Prime. Recode was first to report on the forthcoming Walmart+, which will broaden Walmart’s grocery Delivery Unlimited service and include perks like discounts on gas and prescription medication, as well as a Scan & Go service so members wouldn’t have to wait in line.

Recode writes that Walmart has been looking at this for the past 18 months, and the first public tests of Walmart+ could happen as soon as next month. It’s easy to see why Walmart is looking to launch this type of program soon, especially in light its fierce ongoing grocery battle with Amazon.

For its part, Amazon has been making very aggressive moves recently to expand its shopping dominance into the grocery aisle, including:

As you, and Walmart, can see, Amazon has an army of Prime members, and is quickly putting in place the real world means to grab more of their grocery dollars.

I mean, Walmart hasn’t exactly been slacking in the innovation department. It’s experimenting with self-driving delivery vehicles, robot-powered micro-fulfillment, has built out the AI-powered IRL store which uses cameras for real time inventory, and is making a big marketing push for its in-store pickup service.

But Walmart’s Delivery Unlimited, which the company started rolling out in earnest across the US last year, costs $98 for a year. But that’ll only get you free delivery of your groceries. At $119, Amazon Prime is pricier, but you also get music streaming, Prime video, two-day shipping from Amazon and a bunch of other stuff.

So it’s smart for Walmart+ to leveraging what infrastructural advantages it has, pharmacies, gas stations, etc., to fight off Amazon.

One thing is for sure. Walmart+ is just going to be one salvo in a big battle between the grocery retail giants this year.

Peapod Shutting Down Online Grocery Shopping and Delivery in the Midwest

Ahold Delhaize USA announced this week that it is shutting down the Midwest division of its Peapod online grocery business. Starting Feb 18, customers in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana will no longer be able to place online grocery orders through Peapod.

As part of this move, Ahold said it will close distribution and food preparation facilities across Illinois which will cause the loss of 500 jobs. According to Milwaukee News and Events, 50,000 people use Peapod in the Midwest, placing 10,500 orders weekly. Ahold said that Peapod’s Midwest operation accounted for $97 million of the company’s overall $1.1 billion in revenue.

Selma Postma, President of Peapod, told Milwaukee News and Events that the issue for Peapod in the Midwest was that it was online only, so there was no network of physical stores for its supply chain or for customers to visit and get to know the brand.

Ahold’s Midwest contraction comes at a time when grocery retailers are aggressively expanding their online, delivery and pickup operations. Kroger is building out automated fulfillment warehouses. Alberstons is placing robotic micro-fulfillment centers in the backs of its stores. Walmart is rolling out its Delivery Unlimited service nationwide. And Amazon waived its grocery delivery fee for its Prime members (oh, and it’s building out its own chain of physical supermarkets).

Ahold said it closing down Peapod’s Midwest operations to focus on the East Coast, where it is actually trying out different e-commerce-forward store formats. Last year, Ahold subsidiary Giant Foods opened up a physical hub powered by Peapod that services delivery and pickup of e-commerce orders.

There’s a saying that vertical cuts are better than horizontal ones. So while we never applaud people losing their jobs, the decision to lop off the Midwest to strengthen Ahold’s position on the East Coast makes sense. Now Ahold will just need to keep innovating and pushing to keep up with the grocery delivery competition.