Uber Eats to deliver groceries at home?

Uberis in talks with several European supermarket chains to deliver groceries at home using its network of drivers and bicycle couriers. An initial collaboration may be at hand between Uber Eats and Sainsbury in the UK.

Uber in talks with Sainsbury

If they can deliver sushi at home, bicycle couriers might just as well deliver groceries – that is the reasoning of a growing number of meal delivery providers, including Uber Eats. Uber claims to be in talks with some “major supermarkets in Europe” on home deliveries of food and grocery wares.

According to Bloomberg, Uber is talking to British supermarket chain Sainsbury, – although this is yet to be confirmed by either of the two parties. Rival company Deliveroo is currently already delivering Sainsbury pizza’s, straight from the supermarket to consumers’ homes. Uber does have the advantage of a fleet of cars in addition to its bicycle couriers, in order to deliver larger grocery orders when needed.

Growth plan for meal delivery services

Several British supermarket chains have already taken up partnerships with meal delivery services: Just Eat, which recently merged with Takeaway.com, has partnered up with Asda, with Just Eat delivering products from about a hundred basic categories at home within 30 minutes. The acquisition of Ocado by Marks & Spencer should also be considered in light of the growing popularity of e-commerce for food.

Deliveroo, which recently received a 575 million dollars investment from Amazon, announced its plans to expand its services with the delivery of new products earlier on, including groceries. On the Belgian market, CEO Mathieu de Lophem confirmed those ambitions back in 2018 at the RetailDetail Food Congress.