News

San Francisco

Instacart out to deliver: Grocery delivery and pick-up service Instacart will be breaking into the “ultrafast” delivery market over the coming months, says Laura Forman in The Wall Street Journal. Rapid delivery is a fast-growing business in some of America’s largest cities, “but it hasn’t been kind to all platforms”. Stiff competition has prompted platforms to give out discount codes to “vie for business”, which has led to heavy losses. As well as the expense of contracted workers, some rapid-delivery platforms have also turned to “darkstores” – small warehouses from which to quickly source and deliver goods. Rapid delivery service 1520 shut down after “burning through its funding” and Fridge No More also collapsed after talks with DoorDash fell through, despite its growing popularity. Even $15bn Gopuff failed to turn a profit last year.

This doesn’t bode well for Instacart, which recently