Albertsons tapped to pilot DoorDash DoubleDash

Albertsons Cos. will be the first grocery retailer to test DoorDash’s DoubleDash add-on delivery service.

Also on Monday, San Francisco-based DoorDash said it has begun on-demand delivery of alcoholic beverages from restaurants, grocery stores, local retailers and convenience stores.

The DoubleDash service, announced in early August, enables DoorDash users to add items from nearby merchants to their original order without being charged an extra delivery fee or subject to an order minimum. Starting today, customers of Albertsons Cos. supermarkets can place online grocery orders for delivery via DoorDash and, after checkout, have the option to “DoubleDash” a meal or other consumables from selected local restaurants and retailers, such as ice cream and boba shops, DoorDash said. Add-ons available through DoubleDash also include hot and prepared meals from Albertsons Co. supermarkets’ Deli Marketplace.

DoubleDash works as follows: Customers order groceries on DoorDash, check out and then look for the DoubleDash option on the map to add items from nearby stores. From the page of the selected retailer, they pick food, beverages, snacks or other items and them to their cart. A Dasher delivery person then receives both orders and delivers them together. Customers with a DashPass subscription pay no delivery fees on grocery orders over $25. 

Related:Albertsons to kick off DoorDash delivery at nearly 2,000 stores

Announced last month, the DoubleDash service enables DoorDash users to add items from nearby merchants to their original order.

At the time of its announcement, DoubleDash was available at 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Wawa, QuickChek, The Ice Cream Shop and DashMart, a DoorDash-exclusive store.

“With this new feature, consumers can not only get their weekly groceries topped up, but also treat themselves to something extra from their favorite local merchant,” DoorDash said in a statement. “DoubleDash will be the new way to shop on DoorDash and is the next step toward getting everything you want from your neighborhood delivered together in a one-stop shop experience.”

The DoubleDash pilot expands Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons’ partnership with DoorDash. In June, the companies said DoorDash will provide last-mile grocery delivery from nearly 2,000 Albertsons Cos. supermarkets, offering more than 40,000 products — including fresh and prepared foods, grocery, floral and convenience items — for delivery via the DoorDash online marketplace and app.

Overall, Albertsons Cos. operates 2,278 retail food and drug stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia under such banners as Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market.

Related:DoorDash delivery can now include products from multiple stores

DoorDash has steadily expanded in the grocery retail space. The company said its first foray into the grocery market came with Walmart in April 2018, followed by a partnership with Wegmans Food Markets in April 2019 to power the Wegmans Meals 2Go service. DoorDash officially signaled its entry into the grocery arena in August 2020 with the launch of an end-to-end online grocery marketplace solution — encompassing ordering, fulfillment and delivery — as well as the DashPass subscription program. Previously, the last-mile specialist provided grocery retailers only with last-mile delivery of groceries and meals through its white-label DoorDash Drive service, through which retail partners fielded, picked and packed the orders.

Weis Markets and Cardenas Markets are two of the latest chains to join DoorDash's growing roster of retail partners.

Initial retail partners for the full grocery service included Smart & Final, Meijer, Fresh Thyme Market, Hy-Vee and Gristedes/D’Agostino. Grocery retailers that have used the Drive white-label fulfillment solution for last-mile delivery include Walmart, Hy-Vee, ShopRite, Coborn’s, Woodman’s Market, Kowalski’s Markets and independent grocers under the Piggly Wiggly banner. DoorDash also has provided meal delivery for such chains as Wegmans, Hy-Vee, Gelson’s Markets, Kowalski’s, Big Y Foods, Food City, Village Super Market, Save Mart, Lucky/Lucky California and Coborn’s.

And on Monday, DoorDash said two more grocery chains have begun offering on-demand delivery through its online marketplace and app: Sunbury, Pa.-based Weis Markets (at 173 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia and Delaware) and Ontario, Calif.-based Cardenas Markets (at all 59 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona).

Grocery stores, too, will be participants in DoorDash’s latest service: alcohol delivery. Consumers in 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Canada and Australia, can now order beer, wine and liquor from restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores and other retailers for same-day delivery where local regulations allow. The company said that adding alcohol can boost average order values up to 30% for restaurants and grocery stores and over 50% for convenience stores.

To use the alcohol delivery service — which DoorDash said reaches over 100 million consumers worldwide — customers toggle to the “Alcohol” tab on the DoorDash online marketplace or app to browse selections from local merchants and place their orders. DoorDash noted that it has built an alcohol catalogue of 30,000 SKUs available across thousands of retailers and restaurants nationally. Through DoubleDash, customers in selected markets also can add alcoholic beverages to their restaurant meal for certain orders. 

DoorDash added that the alcohol service incorporates “rigorous” identification verification before checkout and includes multiple ID check points during the delivery process to ensure customers are of legal age.

“Over the past year, many cities where we operate evolved their legislation in order to permit the delivery of alcohol to residents’ homes. Over that time, we worked tirelessly to build a trusted alcohol ordering and delivery experience for merchants, customers and Dashers,” Caitlin Macnamara, director of alcohol strategy and operations at DoorDash, said in a statement. “We’re committed to providing new earning opportunities for merchants and Dashers, a safe, high-quality experience for customers, and being a responsible leader in compliant alcohol delivery.”