JackBe, a curbside drive-thru grocer, opens 2nd location

JackBe, the Oklahoma-based drive-thru grocer that scored more than $11 million in funding earlier this year, opens its second location Wednesday. A third store is scheduled to open by the end of 2023, the retailer said.

The grocer’s newest location is at 2121 W. Danforth in Edmond, Oklahoma. The 22,000-square-foot store will also serve as the retailer's headquarters, with a total of over 42,000 square feet, including a test kitchen and other amenities.

"We are thrilled to be opening our second location and to expand our mission to introduce a new way to shop, providing high-quality products with fast grocery service, which equates to the ultimate convenience for our customers," said Alex Ruhter, JackBe CEO, said in a statement. "Every industry is subject to disruption, and grocery is no different. After researching the market, we knew that the traditional business model of in-store shopping didn't fit with convenience-minded, tech-savvy shoppers. What we offer, an app-driven, curbside drive-up grocery model, is resonating." 

With JackBe, shoppers place an order on the grocer’s mobile app, drive to the location and have groceries delivered to their car in minutes with no membership or delivery fees added.

With the ability to fulfill up to 200 orders per hour, the 22,000-square-foot location will carry a curated selection of the most frequently purchased products from all the categories, the company said in a statement. 

JackBe opened its first store in January at 18001 North May Avenue, also in Edmond. And in the “first few months of operation, over 50% of the people who tried JackBe returned to order more groceries, bucking a trend in the industry,” the company said in a statement.

Edmond is a city of just under 100,000 residents, about 14 miles north of Oklahoma City.

In March, JackBe announced it had raised $11.5 million in capital to fast-track development and expansion of the business. The funding has came from various individual investors and strategic partners such as GP Investments, LLC, as well as a successful WeFunder crowd-funding campaign.

According to the 2023 Brick Meets Click/Mercatus 5-Year Grocery Sales Forecast released earlier this year, e-grocery sales are expected to increase from 11.2% of the overall U.S. grocery market in 2022 to a 13.6% share in 2027.

“JackbBe is building stores around solving traditional grocery drawbacks: limited availability, dictated pickup time slots, lack of quality products and substituting out-of-stock items,” the company said in a statement.

The grocer's third store is slated to open in the fourth quarter of this year in Mustang, Oklahoma, about 30 miles south of Edmond.