The Friday Checkout is a weekly column providing more insight on the news, rounding up the announcements you may have missed and sharing what’s to come.
Instacart’s agreement to be acquired by DoorDash in a roughly $17 billion deal is not a surprise.
Speculation that Instacart would consider being acquired by Uber or DoorDash has swirled for years. And now, the timing of Thursday’s announcement is just the latest from Instacart in its effort to capitalize on the ever-changing forces of grocery e-commerce and technology.
Now that Instacart is exiting stage left, it’s DoorDash’s game, but there are several key questions looming: What will happen to Instacart’s in-store technology push? Will store-based fulfillment continue to reign supreme after the companies combine? How does the frenzy over artificial intelligence — the cautionary and championing perspectives — shape services going forward? What will happen to DashMart?
Instacart’s store technology may be under the microscope in the near term after the company opted to shutter its smart cart division earlier this week.
Instacart and DoorDash have carved out their roles as the grocery and restaurant delivery space leaders, respectively. Now, together, it seems like they’re gunning for Amazon and Walmart’s broader e-commerce turf.
“The biggest online retailers and grocers are racing ahead, building their own delivery fleets, warehouses, membership programs, and AI shopping assistants,” the joint Thursday announcement said. “A grocer or retailer running on thin margins cannot build all of that alone, and with AI, the playing field risks being tilted even further away from local commerce.”
Perhaps the biggest question of all: Can their combined scale deliver on their stated goal of helping retailers and restaurants that don’t have the resources to build their own e-commerce services compete? Or will it just raise antitrust issues?
In case you missed it
NGA declares support for ‘fair and transparent pricing’
As states and cities move to prevent retailers from using data to determine what they charge individual shoppers and federal regulators examine the issue, the trade group released a statement that says technology used to set prices should be used “responsibly and transparently.” According to the statement from the National Grocers Association, independent grocers are opposed to techniques that use shoppers’ data to set higher personalized prices.
The statement also says that the organization believes customers should not be compelled to enroll in loyalty and membership programs, have access to information about how they can benefit from participating and be able to opt out.
“There’s an important distinction between technology that helps grocers lower prices and practices that use personal information to charge shoppers more,” NGA Head of Government Relations Stephanie Johnson said in a statement.
Lowes Foods brings Flashfood to 5 stores
The North Carolina-based grocer said Thursday it has launched the food-waste reduction service, which allows shoppers to get a discount on meat, produce and other foods nearing their “best by” dates, in five supermarkets in the Columbia, South Carolina, market. Lowes will consider bringing Flashfood to other markets if the arrangement is fruitful, the retailer said.
H-E-B gears up for expansion in North Texas
The supermarket chain announced this week that it intends to build a new store in Ennis, Texas, that will be more than twice the size of its current location in the Dallas-area city.
The 112,000-square-foot store will include a bakery, craft beer and wine and general merchandise as well as a healthy living department with bulk foods, sports nutrition items and supplements. H-E-B plans to begin building the new location, which will replace the retailer’s existing one in Ennis, in mid-2027 and complete it by late 2028.
Impulse find
Tally turns its attention to trick-or-treating
BJ’s Wholesale Club adopted Simbe’s Tally robots to help it keep track of items on its store shelves, but as Halloween arrives, the retailer has given at least one of the autonomous inventory-management vehicles in its fleet another mission.
In a Wednesday LinkedIn post, a robotics and automation manager for the club retailer shared a photo of a child decked out as a miniature Tally robot standing next to one of the actual vehicles in a BJ’s location. According to the post, “Tally, affectionately known in our house as ‘Mama’s robot,’ spends its days collecting shelf intelligence. But this little Tally has one mission this Halloween: collecting candy!”
Here’s hoping Tally spots plenty of sweets as it goes shelf to shelf looking for goodies.
