Raley's enlists DoorDash for grocery delivery

DoorDash, widely known for its restaurant deliveries, is continuing to gain traction in the grocery retail sector, with its latest partner being The Raley’s Companies.

Same-day grocery delivery is now available from 213 locations across multiple cities, including 117 Raley’s stores in Northern California and Nevada and 90-plus Bashas’ locations in Arizona. Specific banners are Raley’s, Bel Air, Nob Hill Foods, Raley’s O-N-E Market, Bashas’, Food City and AJ’s Fine Foods stores.

All participating stores will employ DashPass, the San Francisco-based company’s membership program that offers free delivery on all eligible orders of $35 or more from restaurants, grocery and convenience stores nationwide.

Earlier this week, Southeastern Grocers announced an expanded version of its partnership with DoorDash to include in-store prices and promotions. Other food retailers teaming up with DoorDash and its delivery format this year include Grocery Outlet and its 398 stores last month, Loblaw Cos. (where it is called PC Express Rapid Delivery) in June, SpartanNash’s 100-plus corporate stores and 2,100 independent retail customers in May, and B.J. Wholesale Club’s 226 locations in March.

Albertsons first partnered with DoorDash in June 2021 before offering express delivery starting in February 2022 to nearly 2,000 stores, including Safeway, Vons, Acme Markets, Jewel-Osco, Tom Thumb and other Albertsons Cos. supermarkets. And Schnuck Markets launched the service in March 2021, with a major expansion in July 2022.

Related:Southeastern Grocers readies enhanced DoorDash delivery

Other retailers partnering with DoorDash in recent months include Coborn’s, Dollar General, Hy-Vee, Lowes Foods, Meijer, 7-Eleven, Sheetz, Shoprite, Weis Markets and Woodman’s. DoorDash also has provided meal delivery service for such chains as Big Y Foods, Food City, Gelson’s Markets, Lucky/Lucky California, Save Mart, Village Super Market and Wegmans Food Markets, among others.

However, DoorDash’s four-year collaboration with Walmart was scheduled to end this month. Walmart has been actively building its own delivery system.

At Raley’s/Bashas’, DoorDash data show that the most ordered grocery items at Raley’s are fruits and vegetables with limes and cucumbers as the top-selling items. At Bashas’, they are fruits with bananas and limes as the top-selling items. Consumers place the most Raley’s orders from 4 to 8 p.m. and Bashas' orders from 3 to 7 p.m. The most popular ordering days are Sundays and Saturdays.

“This suggests that consumers are using DoorDash to skip the weekend grocery shopping trips, saving time on parking and waiting in long checkout lines,” DoorDash stated. “This also suggests that consumers are using DoorDash as they’re cooking dinner and are in need of fresh ingredients for their nightly meals.”

Related:Walmart, DoorDash partnership coming to close