*By Amanda Weston*
Grocery chain Kroger launched a new delivery service Wednesday to compete with industry giants Amazon and Walmart.
[Kroger Ship](https://ship.kroger.com/) offers more than 50,000 products to online shoppers in Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville, and Nashville. The chain aims to lure new customers with curated options, free shipping for orders over $35, and discounts.
Online shopping accounts for about 2 percent of the American food-and-beverage market, but it's rapidly expanding.
"When you look at all these new channels in the industry, they are growing extremely, extremely fast," Yael Cosset, Kroger's chief digital officer, said Thursday in an interview with Cheddar.
This isn't Kroger's first attempt at online delivery. The grocery chain has offered delivery service from almost half its 2,800 stories through Instacart.
The new service represents the chain's ambition to make shopping easier for its customers ー and help keep its brick and mortar businesses stable.
"The direct interaction with some of the fresh assortment ー produce, meat, seafood, cheese ー experiential engagement is still very important to them," he said. "They do, however, still want the convenience and simplicity that a digital engagement can offer."
Kroger is going up against Amazon, a formidable competitor, [which sold](https://www.wsj.com/articles/kroger-to-launch-grocery-delivery-service-1533117720) about $650 million worth of food items in the second quarter, up 40 percent from 2017.
As for Kroger Ship's future, Cosset said digital partnerships will also play a major role in growth.
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/kroger-introduces-kroger-ship-delivery-service).
Biden wants the ultra-rich to close the deficit in his new budget proposal, a judge rules Trump's aide must turn over election emails, and Chrome users need to do an update. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Tuesday, March 29, 2022.
Marjorie Margolies, an Emmy-winning journalist and former Congressperson, was on assignment as a reporter in South Korea in 1970 when she adopted 7-year-old Lee Heh. She was the first American ever to adopt a child from another country while unmarried. Cheddar News sat down with Margolies, and her son Vu Pham, as she recounted her story.
A recent survey from tech giant HP shows that while women are very interested in advancing their careers, men are still promoted at a much higher rate. Managing Director of North America at HP Stephanie Dismore joined Cheddar News to discuss the data and how changes brought on by the pandemic helped — and hurt — women in the workforce. "This whole idea of hybrid working is a challenge, but it's also an opportunity. And ideally what it can do for women is provide extreme flexibility, and it gives them an opportunity to really be very vocal about what they need and how they can contribute the best in the environment that they're in," she said. "However, at the same time, while women are applying and wanting to advance their careers. COVID actually had the reverse effect. And if you look at other studies, one in four women actually took a step back from their careers or exited the workforce altogether."
Marshall Mayer, the co-founder of the Let's Buy an Island crowdsourcing campaign, joined Cheddar News to discuss purchasing of the Coffee Caye Island off the coast of Belize, building it into its own micronation, and what challenges he's faced in this process. "First of all we recognize where we are. We know we're in Belize, we're not, you know, we have no ambitions beyond the fun of this project," he said. "When it comes to actually creating this sort of thing, most of the people that started this project myself included are dedicated world travelers. We love going to sort of the unique and strange around the world and getting to know interesting cultures and interesting areas."
The hit show 'Snowfall' about the cocaine epidemic in 1980s Los Angeles returned for a fifth season in February, and Angela Lewis, who plays Aunt Louie on the show, joined Cheddar News to talk about the love that she has received for her role and her approach towards it. "I think the biggest thing that I do is I have to be confident," she said. "You cannot play a character like Louie without — you can't play her shrinking away from anything. You can't play her being insecure about whatever it is you might be insecure about." Lewis also touched on her advocacy for Black maternal health that had been sparked by her own pregnancy.
