Today in Food Commerce: Deliveroo to Trial Ultrafast Delivery; Aggregators Take a Hit

Today in food commerce, Deliveroo gears up to try out ultrafast grocery delivery, and major aggregators struggle to make the economics of the model work. Plus, a New York City burger chain gets ready to launch a location in the metaverse.

Deliveroo to Test Rapid Grocery Delivery in London

Deliveroo plans to trial its “Deliveroo Hop” rapid grocery service with supermarket chain Waitrose, Reuters reported Thursday (Feb. 10). Later this month, Waitrose is opening a delivery-only store in Bermondsey, London, which will be the first location that the service is offered from. For those living around the dark store location, the Hop service will cut delivery times to around 10 minutes — half of the time that traditional Waitrose deliveries take.

AMZN vs WMT Weekly: Waiting on Earnings, Betting on Health

The food fight between Amazon and Walmart shifted overseas this week, after a recent decision by the U.K.-based Competition and Markets Authority to force the eCommerce giant to abide by the same rules and regulations as other supermarkets was seen as “chilling.” The decision means that Amazon, whose U.K. sales amount to just $1.3 billion, will now be monitored by the Groceries Code Adjudicator to make sure it is treating its suppliers fairly.

Delivery Aggregator Losses Point to Economic Value of Platform Model  

As food delivery services in the United States and abroad struggle to make the model work, Uber stands out at as a rare success story, at least for now. Indian food delivery group Zomato announced Friday (Feb. 11) third-quarter losses lower than the previous quarter, but still sizable at $36 million. Similarly, Swiggy, another Indian food delivery giant in the midst of a major sales decline, also saw losses narrow considerably, per multiple reports on the company’s recent regulatory filing, but these losses still came in at about $215 million.

Restaurant Roundup: NYC Burger Chain Buys NFT Restaurant; DoorDash Launches Flower Delivery

This week, two days before major restaurant brands McDonald’s and Panera Bread made headlines for their trademark filings showing plans to open metaverse restaurants, New York-based online ordering solutions provider Lunchbox actually beat them to the punch.