Uber Teams Up With Southeastern Grocers on Delivery
Uber has teamed up with Southeastern Grocers to bring grocery delivery to customers across the state of Florida.
This marks Uber’s first major grocery retailer partnership in Florida after the company integrated its platform in July with Cornershop, an on-demand grocery delivery service that it acquired last October.
For Southeastern Grocers (SEG), this will give shoppers in the Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville markets another e-commerce option. It's unclear how this partnership affects already established arrangements with Shipt and Instacart for delivery in those markets.
“Our customers and communities count on us to adapt quickly to their shifting needs, and right now they need easy and safe access to their groceries more than ever before," said Adam Kirk, SVP/marketing for SEG. "Our home state of Florida has been on the front lines of the pandemic--we're eager to roll out a cutting-edge service to support them both for today and into the future."
Cornershop is one of the largest grocery delivery services in Latin America, with service available in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. It also has a major presence in Canada.
“Uber believes that people should be able to get to the places they need to go, grab food from their favorite local restaurants, and get daily essentials with the tap of a button,” said Raj Beri, Uber’s global head of grocery. “Grocery delivery is a priority we’re pursuing at Uber-speed across the country, and in partnership with SEG, Floridians can now turn to the Uber app to get the things they need from the supermarkets they know and love.”
Cornershop’s network provides a large assortment of items ranging from all-purpose flour to flower arrangements. The company offers both scheduled and on-demand delivery options, with contactless delivery also an option.
In July, Instacart filed a lawsuit against Cornershop over allegedly stealing thousands of its copyrighted and licensed images, along with product descriptions and pricing data.
"Today, Instacart filed a lawsuit against Cornershop after the company failed to comply with a cease and desist demanding it stop stealing our catalog and using our misappropriated intellectual property," said Instacart in a statement to CNN Business. "The lawsuit makes clear that Cornershop is engaging in a systematic effort to illegally steal Instacart's proprietary catalog while attempting to conceal that theft for its own commercial benefit."
In a statement, Uber framed Instacart's lawsuit as an attempt to stifle new competition.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based SEG, and its subsidiaries Bi-Lo LLC and Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., are privately held companies that own and operate regional grocery store chains Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixie Stores, Fresco y Más, and Harveys Supermarket in the southeastern United States, with 550 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company is No. 13 on Progressive Grocer’s 2020 PG 100 list of the top grocers in the United States.
