DoorDash Expands Its Grocery Delivery With Regional Favorites
Something only DoorDash's most devoted following may recognize is how much the company owes its very existence to a French pastry, according to Medium. It was, in fact, a Palo Alto macaroon store manager who put the idea in the heads of the four DoorDash founders that food delivery could be its own industry, apart from the food, itself. When the company got its start in January 2013 as Palo Alto Delivery, it was a local food delivery service, and by local, we mean mostly throughout Stanford University's campus and surrounding neighborhoods.
By October of that year, its footprint was growing rapidly, Palo Alto Delivery had been redubbed DoorDash, and the four founders of the company, Andy Fang, Evan Moore, Stanley Tang, and Tony Xu, were declaring they saw themselves not so much as a food company, but rather, as a logistics company (via Business of Business). A logistics company makes its money by moving things from one place to another and performing related and ancillary services for its clients, per Full Tilt Logistics.
In other words, DoorDash envisioned itself as being in the same category as UPS and FedEx. In fact, DoorDash's founders went so far as to say that, ultimately, it envisioned becoming an "on-demand FedEx." Actually, the exact words they used were "local, on-demand-Fex." As things went, that was something of an underestimation. Even today, DoorDash is announcing expansions to its delivery service to include several favorite regional grocery retailers, as well as some major national non-grocers.
DoorDash's latest expansion would appear to exceed even its own wildest dreams
By September 2022, DoorDash has already expanded its partnerships to restaurants and retailers all across the country, according to a company press release. That includes more than 75,000 non-restaurant retailers and national chains such as Albertsons, Walgreens, BJ's, Dollar General, and Wawa. Today, via the aforementioned press release, DoorDash is announcing that it has added several more jewels to its crown.
These include the regional favorite food retailers, EG America, Giant Eagle, Weis Markets, and The Raley's Companies. The partnership with EG America, which owns Cumberland Farms, Kwik Shop, and QuickStop, among other grocers and convenience brands, will comprise 1,300 locations. Giant Eagle is a leading regional food retailer in select states, and DoorDash will be working with it to make deliveries in the Columbus, Ohio area via DoorDash Drive. The Raley's Companies owns Raley's and Basha's grocery stores, and the DoorDash partnership will extend to 213 locations across Northern California, Nevada, and Arizona. In addition, DoorDash's portfolio has also expanded to include partnerships with 375 Sprouts Farmers Market stores.
On the non-food side, DoorDash's latest partnerships also include one with BigLots (a big box-style department store) and one with DICK's Sporting Goods (the sporting goods and apparel retailer). The BigLots partnership will encompass 1,400 Big Lots locations across 48 states. The partnership with DICK'S Sporting Goods marks DoorDash's first with a sporting goods and apparel store. It will encompass 700 stores across 47 states.