Kroger customers can now have restaurant-style meals delivered to their door as the supermarket partners with the cloud-kitchen platform ClusterTruck.
"As we're growing, we were starting to think about strategic partnerships and folks that can take our software platform to the next level," Chris Baggott, CEO and co-founder of ClusterTruck, told Cheddar Thursday. "Kroger — being a Midwestern company like ClusterTruck — they were a natural [fit]."
Cincinnati-based Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., is launching the service in four cities. ClusterTruck was founded in one of them — Indianapolis.
Kroger's Business Development Leader Ethan Grob says that his company is trying to capitalize on the larger industry trend of delivery-only restaurants.
"If you've been to a restaurant recently, you see third-party delivery people lining up to deliver these restaurant orders, which can take away from the in-store restaurant experience," Grob said. "Restaurants are increasingly looking to take that food preparation out of their main kitchens and into these ghost kitchens or dark kitchens."
And that's exactly what Kroger's found in ClusterTruck.
"We've built a profitable model by being vertically-integrated, and leveraging software and machine learning to control every aspect," Baggott said, citing ClusterTruck's drivers and food cooked in-house.
"We're really tied tight with Kroger on this," Baggott said of his Midwestern neighbor. "We're very invested in being successful with this together."
Cheddar News checks in on what to look out for on The Day Ahead as earnings season continues with TJX Cos., Target and Take Two Interactive among those reporting on Wednesday. April housing starts data is also set to be released while Netflix will hold its upfront presentation virtually amid a continued writers' strike.
Billy McFarland, who served four years in prison for the failed Fyre Festival in the Bahamas that saw investors lose millions, is back. McFarland joined Cheddar News to explain a new Fyre Festival he is planning along with a Broadway musical, both in the works.
Retail sales saw a modest uptick in April as inflation eased somewhat as consumers look toward the summer season to spend some more. Mario Payne, financial planner for Toams Financial, joined Cheddar News to provide some guidance on how to work up a responsible summer budget plan.
Dryden Pence, chief investment officer with Pence Capital, joined Cheddar News to discuss Tuesday's market session and touched on what the Federal Reserve may decide on at its next meeting as inflation continues to play a role and consumer spending remains firm.
Stellantis is telling owners of nearly 220,000 Jeep Cherokee SUVs worldwide to park them outdoors and away from other vehicles because the power liftgates can catch fire even when the engines are off.
After years of explosive growth during the pandemic, Home Depot’s revenue during the first quarter fell short of expectations and the company cut its profit and sales outlook for the year
