Uber is in the Grocery Business Now

There’s a lot of competition going on among rideshare businesses and delivery businesses. Everyone is trying to offer everything to be the best one-stop-shop for their consumers. Uber has now joined the ranks of rideshare companies offering grocery delivery in select locations.

Uber Breaks Into the Grocery Delivery Market

This grocery service has rolled out in most of Manhattan and is due to be available city-wide as the year concludes. People who live where this option is available will have a grocery option within their Uber or Uber Eats apps. Depending on their location, the stores available in the app may vary.

If you do not live in a location that supports grocery stores, you’ll see something like below when you click on this link to search for nearby grocery locations:

The concept of grocery delivery through Uber was introduced on the Uber website in their Newsroom on July 7, 2020. It started in select locations within Latin America and Canada before branching into the United States.

Before starting in New York City, Uber grocery delivery has been available in Miami, FL and Dallas, TX where Eats Pass and Uber Pass members receive free grocery delivery on orders over $30.

How Will this Impact Drivers?

It likely won’t; at least not directly. The grocery delivery service is available because of the recent partnership between Uber and Cornershop. The deliveries themselves are being completed by Cornershop delivery drivers, not by the Uber fleet.

Cornershop is a global delivery service that allows you to shop at multiple stores at once and sends a shopper to shop for your items and deliver them.

If you’re interested in applying to shop/deliver for Cornershop, you can sign up here. They are currently available in the U.S. in Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Houston, Austin, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Phoenix, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington DC, Seattle, Portland and Denver.

My Take

It’s an obvious move that I think everyone was expecting Uber to take eventually. Uber needs to keep up with Instacart and other delivery services, plus this gives them a leg-up on Lyft, which doesn’t currently offer any kind of delivery services.

But is it the right move? It’s possible that with Uber focusing more on delivering food, as the rideshare business remains slower than before the pandemic, that Lyft might be able to bump themselves up in terms of being people’s first choice for rideshare.

Granted, it’s always possible that people will stay loyal to the brand they know and just use Uber for all of their needs—ridesharing, restaurant delivery and grocery delivery.

Remember, that Uber is also poised to acquire Postmates, to even further expand their delivery services and options for customers.

Readers, are you driving for Uber in any of those above markets (via Cornershop)? Have you used Uber grocery delivery?

-Paula @ RSG