DoorDash Launches Virtual Convenience Stores

Introducing DashMart, DoorDash’s virtual convenience chain for serial milk forgetters. DashMarts are dark stores stocking roughly 2,000 grocery and household items for 30-minute delivery across eight cities.

• Each DashMart will carry a mix of national food brands and local CPDs (consumer packaged delicacies) for order through the DoorDash app.
• Ideally, DashMart will replace trips to IRL stores for high frequency or forgotten one-off purchases, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu told CNBC.

Well, isn’t this convenient?

During quarantine, DoorDash has collected delivery partners the way I’ve collected jigsaw puzzles. 1,800 convenience stores and pharmacies joined DoorDash's delivery network in April.

DashMart’s different. With its launch, DoorDash is one of the first major delivery services to source and manage its own delivery inventory—which is a higher margin biz than playing middleman to 7-Eleven.

Long-term, I predict DashMart will...

• Become an attractive wholesale outlet for new CPG brands based in its current cities.
• Encourage rival delivery services, like InstaCart or Postmates, to bypass big box deals and open their own dark stores.