RIDEGURU
That was an abrupt end to this grand plan to take over the grocery delivery market. Excerpts below, and I highlighted some of the hilarity. It's Reuter's exclusive on their ending the relationship. Apparently, they were trying to end it quietly?
(Reuters) - Walmart Inc’s (WMT.N) online grocery delivery partnerships with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have ended, according to two sources, a potential setback for the retailer’s ambitions to challenge Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) head-on with speedy delivery of groceries to people’s homes.
The end of the Walmart partnerships, which has not been previously reported and was confirmed by Walmart and Uber, undercuts a vision the ride-hailing companies laid out: a service that can efficiently deliver anything on-demand, including people and cargo, at the touch of a smartphone app.
“It is incredibly hard to deliver people and packages together,” said a source with a delivery company that works with Walmart and has direct knowledge of the matter. “They are two completely different business models.”
The decision marks an abrupt end to a business relationship that Walmart and Uber announced with much fanfare less than two years ago. At Walmart's shareholders meeting in June 2016, CEO Doug McMillon touted the company's investments in technology and spoke about the partnerships in front of a cheering crowd of 14,000 employees. goo.gl/xJdN2e
Soon after, Uber’s grocery delivery service was launched and expanded to four markets. As recently as March, just before Uber ended the arrangement, Walmart said Uber would be a partner in its plans to deliver groceries to mor…
That was an abrupt end to this grand plan to take over the grocery delivery market. Excerpts below, and I highlighted some of the hilarity. It's Reuter's exclusive on their ending the relationship. Apparently, they were trying to end it quietly?
(Reuters) - Walmart Inc’s (WMT.N) online grocery delivery partnerships with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have ended, according to two sources, a potential setback for the retailer’s ambitions to challenge Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) head-on with speedy delivery of groceries to people’s homes.
The end of the Walmart partnerships, which has not been previously reported and was confirmed by Walmart and Uber, undercuts a vision the ride-hailing companies laid out: a service that can efficiently deliver anything on-demand, including people and cargo, at the touch of a smartphone app.
“It is incredibly hard to deliver people and packages together,” said a source with a delivery company that works with Walmart and has direct knowledge of the matter. “They are two completely different business models.”
The decision marks an abrupt end to a business relationship that Walmart and Uber announced with much fanfare less than two years ago. At Walmart's shareholders meeting in June 2016, CEO Doug McMillon touted the company's investments in technology and spoke about the partnerships in front of a cheering crowd of 14,000 employees. goo.gl/xJdN2e
Soon after, Uber’s grocery delivery service was launched and expanded to four markets. As recently as March, just before Uber ended the arrangement, Walmart said Uber would be a partner in its plans to deliver groceries to more than 40 percent of the country.
“There was clearly some lack of communication there,” said one of the sources with knowledge of the partnerships ending.
Comments
They announced UberRush closing down back in April. They did it quietly, but it's the end of the gig economy. I guess the market wasn't ready for it yet?
You'd think Walmart and Uber would have deep enough pocket to stay in the race. The numbers must have been REALLY bad for them to pull out so quickly.
I posted a related article, in case you were interested in reading more about it.
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/end-of-gig-economy-no-demand-for-on-demand-means-end-of-road-for-uberrush-and-shyp
I am surprised as well, but I wouldn't call it dead. Amazon is in it full force. They bought Wholefoods, and are ready to start delivering to our homes.
Coverage: Buying Wholefoods got them within a few miles from significant portion of the US popluation.
Last Mile: From those stores to homes, they are planning to deploy those droids to keep the costs down.
So this is related to UberRUSH ending.
"Uber put a stop to the grocery partnership when it informed Walmart in March that it would cease delivery operations on June 30, Uber spokeswoman Ellen Cohn told Reuters. The retailer was Uber’s largest partner for its ‘Rush’ service, which delivered groceries as well as clothes, flowers and other goods.
Uber will shutter the entire Rush program at the end of next month."
I didn't even know what UberRUSH was. LOL.
Yeah, they announced this back in April. So this Walmart thing was imminent.
The whole idea of grocery deliveries is nothing new, but it's never really taken off for some reason. I used to get Stop and Shop Peapod deliveries years ago when I lived with a bunch of guys. I can't say we loved it but it was better than going grocery shopping at the time.
But at least with Peapod you had a dedicated refridgerated truck doing the deliveries. Having Uber and Lyft drivers do it just seems really weird.
An abrupt end? I didn't even know they had a relationship. LOL.