How Jeff Bezos Became the King of E-Commerce
Amazon.com Inc.’s
expansion into the grocery industry may be pushing more supermarket
chains into the arms of Instacart Inc., a delivery service that helps
retailers fill online orders.
Albertsons
Cos., the second-largest traditional grocer in the U.S., is the latest
to team up with the startup on same-day delivery. Instacart will provide
its service at more than 1,800 of the chain’s stores by the middle of
next year, Albertsons said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Kroger Co., one of Albertsons’ chief rivals, said it was starting a pilot test with Instacart at some of its stores in Southern California.
The
grocery industry has been roiled by Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods
Market, a deal that’s expected to encourage more shoppers to order food
online. For traditional supermarkets, third-party services such as
Instacart and Shipt are seen as a way to protect their business.
The
Whole Foods deal also put pressure on Instacart to make friends in the
industry. The startup has served as the exclusive delivery partner for
Whole Foods, but with Amazon in the picture, there’s been speculation
that the agreement won’t last. As it adds more partners, Instacart now
operates in more than 150 geographic markets.
Instacart,
founded in 2012, still has a few years left on its contract with Whole
Foods, which invested more than $30 million in the San Francisco startup
in 2016.
Albertsons,
meanwhile, has been struggling to rebound from a stalled initial public
offering. The grocer had considered going public by the end of 2017,
but the plans were delayed after Amazon announced its deal to buy Whole Foods, a person familiar with the matter said in July.
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