DoorDash and Albertsons partner on same-day grocery delivery from nearly 2,000 stores

DoorDash announced Monday it's partnering with Albertsons Cos. to offer on-demand grocery delivery from nearly 2,000 of Albertson's stores, including Safeway, Vons and Jewel-Osco.

DoorDash shares were up more than 4% on Monday, while Albertsons gained more than 2%.

The partnership shows how DoorDash can help grocery stores like Albertsons compete with Amazon and Walmart, which currently lead the online grocery delivery market.

"As expectations for convenience, speed and ease continue to grow, consumers can now order
groceries and essentials on-demand for delivery within an hour through DoorDash's top-rated marketplace with no time slot, queues or minimum order size required," the company said in a release. Albertsons will offer more than 40,000 grocery items from stores for delivery.

The companies said the partnership includes a new custom loyalty program, expanded delivery hours, a meal kit offering, prepared meals and specialty items.

Customers in select markets can order groceries through their local Albertsons store's website for same-day delivery. The service is powered by DoorDash Drive, the company's white-label fulfillment platform that provides direct delivery for any business.

Food and grocery delivery has been a bright spot during the coronavirus pandemic, with people limiting their time outside of the home. The pandemic reinforced online buying behaviors in a high proportion of shoppers, according to Coresight Research.

Over one-quarter of shoppers said they plan to buy groceries online more frequently, according to the firm's U.S. online grocery survey conducted in April.

"Grocery delivery is really at its infancy, and what the pandemic did was really accelerated the need to get more things inside the neighborhood brought to you," DoorDash CEO Tony Xu told CNBC's "TechCheck."

That trend has led companies like DoorDash to expand beyond restaurant-to-home delivery. DoorDash now also delivers flowers, pet supplies, convenience store products and groceries, for example. According to the company's latest earnings report, orders in these new categories grew 40% compared with the prior quarter.

Earlier Monday, Uber also announced it was acquiring the remaining 47% interest in grocery delivery start-up Cornershop that it didn't already own in an all-stock transaction.

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