Jet Grocery Grounded in NYC: Report

Jet.com, the upstart e-commerce brand that Walmart acquired for $3.3 billion then refashioned as a grocery e-commerce destination for metro areas where its stores held little influence, is unwinding its grocery service in New York, according to a published report.

In connection with the closing, Jet will close a Bronx, N.Y., warehouse and lay off between 200 and 300 people, according to a Bloomberg report.

The move comes a little more than a year after Walmart relaunched Jet as a brand. However, signals of distress soon followed. In June, Walmart integrated a separate Jet team into its own operations, and Jet’s president, Simon Belsham, departed when that was complete in August. A deal with Blue Apron to deliver meal kits was dropped at that time as well. Multiple reports noted the brand failed to catch on with New York shoppers and was losing considerable money. Marc Lore, the Walmart e-commerce CEO who founded Jet, said in June the restructuring helped Walmart create a “smart portfolio approach where our businesses complement each other.”

“We learned a lot by testing Jet fresh grocery delivery in New York City,” Walmart said a statement to Bloomberg. “We’ll continue to test bold concepts that can offer convenience to customers.”

Walmart acquired Jet in 2016 and installed Lore as its global e-commerce CEO. Jet’s proprietary “smart cart” technology helped Walmart adapt everyday-low-price positioning for e-commerce.

Jet, which at one time had ambitions to be a nationally focused e-commerce brand, was instead used by Walmart to reach urban shoppers, particularly in New York, where the parent brand was less resonant.