Postmates to Help Walmart Deliver Groceries the 'Last Mile'
Walmart and Postmates have teamed up to delivery groceries in Charlotte, N.C., with the aim of expanding Walmart's grocery delivery service to include 40% of U.S. households.
The pilot partnership is the latest move in the race to control online grocery shopping and delivery. The e-commerce giant Amazon led the charge last year when it purchased the grocery chain Whole Foods in December.
The new deal with Postmates will enable Walmart to overcome logistical hurdles that make local delivery difficult, said Dan Mosher, Postmate's senior vice president and merchant lead.
The delivery company has 160,000 couriers delivering products for 270,000 business in the U.S. and Mexico City.
Mosher said Monday in an interview on Cheddar that Walmart's position as one of the largest and most popular grocery stores in the United States made it an attractive partner for Postmates, which is fighting off challenges from well-funded delivery rivals.
One of the most vexing issues for retailers ー even the behemoth Walmart ー has been figuring out the proper logistics for the "last mile" of delivery, said Mosher.
Postmates is well positioned to help Walmart, he said, by relying on the delivery company's fleet of couriers and "an algorithm that is improving every day."
"We're doing things like batching orders and this is something that Walmart is really going to benefit from," said Mosher. "Going into those locations and picking up one, two, and three orders, and being able to really use software to drive down the cost and make that work financially."
Postmates has been feeling the pressure from rivals including DoorDash, which received an investment of $535 million last month led led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group. That investment could be used for DoorDash's international expansion.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/new-power-couple-alert-postmates-and-walmart-team-up).
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
Sinead O’Sullivan breaks down Taylor Swift’s genius marketing for The Life of a Showgirl, which just set the record for most albums sold in a single week.
Markets are emerging from a turbulent Q3. Horizon’s Mike Dickson shares insights on interest rates, small caps, and where investors should look in Q4 and beyond
Bambu Ventures's Kyle Pretsch dives into Lemonaid’s $10M buyout, down from 23andMe’s $400M price tag, and what’s next after Chrome Co.’s dramatic pivot.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
Grove Collaborative’s CEO shares how the company is reinventing everyday goods with sustainability at the core and working toward a plastic-free future.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens shares plans for affordable housing, community-led growth, and why private and public grocery stores could be key to food equity.
