Grubhub Launches Grubhub Goods to Challenge DashMart, Gopuff

As Uber Eats taps a range of celebrities to bring its non-food offerings into the mainstream, and as DoorDash leverages holiday anticipation to drive adoption of its retail options, Grubhub is joining the push to guide consumers toward non-restaurant categories with the expansion of its digital convenience store.

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See also: DoorDash to Drive Adoption of Non-Restaurant Categories with Valentine’s Day Flower Deliveries

The Chicago, Illinois-based restaurant aggregator announced in a Tuesday (Feb. 15) press release that it is launching its Grubhub Goods digital convenience store, which delivers convenience items on-demand, nationwide. The initiative presents the aggregator with a way to bring in additional revenue through its existing network of drivers, offering the opportunity to run a more profitable business.

“Diners have come to expect more choices when they land on Grubhub, including convenience options, which we see as a natural extension of our marketplace and a way to bring more value to the entire Grubhub ecosystem,” said Grubhub Director of Growth and New Verticals Kyle Goings in the release.

The launch includes 3,000 locations nationwide and is being carried out through a partnership with convenience retail giant 7-Eleven. The two companies piloted the model in the New York City borough of Manhattan with “more than a dozen” such locations, according to the release. Now, with this large-scale rollout, the digital convenience store will be available to “the vast majority” of Grubhub customers across the United States.

The model of a restaurant aggregator launching an in-house digital convenience store is not a new one. DoorDash, for instance, launched its DashMart digital convenience store back in the summer of 2020.

Read more: DoorDash Launches Digital Convenience Stores

Instacart and Uber Eats also both have convenience options on their marketplaces. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based on-demand food and essentials delivery service Gopuff has the digital convenience store model as the core of its business.

See more: Gopuff Taps Banks for IPO Amid Rush of VC Interest in Food Delivery

The news comes just two days after Jitse Groen, CEO of Grubhub’s parent company Just Eat Takeaway, denied rumors that the company was selling Grubhub. Those rumors emerged after Just Eat announced its plan to delist its shares from the Nasdaq. Groen contended in an interview with Dutch television news show “Business Class” that he still believes that food delivery will only prove profitable for top players in each market.

In the U.S., Grubhub is one of the top players, but it is far from the category leader. In fact, it is consumers’ third choice, according to data from PYMNTS’ November report “Digital Divide: Aggregators and High-Value Restaurant Customers,” created in collaboration with Paytronix.

View the report: Aggregators and High-Value Restaurant Customers

The study, which drew from a census-balanced survey of more than 2,200 U.S. adults, found that 57% of restaurant customers had ordered from DoorDash in the previous 15 months, 50% had ordered from Uber Eats, and 48% had ordered from Grubhub. By expanding its convenience offerings to be better able to compete in the crowded category, the aggregator could have a shot at improving its position in the ranking.