DoorDash Now Offers 10-Minute Deliveries

Orders in NYC will come from “DashMart,” a warehouse that hires employees instead of gig workers.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—DoorDash has announced 10- to 15-minute deliveries to customers in New York City, according to Fast Company. DoorDash says it will deliver from “DashMart,” a warehouse in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood that will stock more than 2,000 grocery items, household goods and prepared foods. DoorDash said that more DashMart locations will be coming over the next few months in New York and other cities.

The fast deliveries from DashMart will be available through DashCorps, a new DoorDash company that hires full- and part-time employees, which is different than DoorDash’s traditional business model that relies on gig workers. DashCorps employees will reportedly earn $15 an hour plus tips and can qualify for benefits, reports Fast Company. Other delivery startups that offer fast delivery credit their use of employees rather than gig workers for their ability to offer such speedy service.

“It’d be very difficult for us to guarantee 10-minute grocery delivery if we didn’t have people on staff,” said Adam Wacenske, the head of U.S. operations at Gorillas, a German delivery company.

Ultra-fast delivery companies are displacing trips to convenience stores, gas stations and small supermarkets in some metropolitan markets because of their quick delivery speeds—and the fact that products are delivered to a customer’s location with the touch of button. These companies are built on the theory that there is no such thing as too fast when it comes to delivery.

Gopuff is specifically targeting the convenience-store customer with its virtual on-demand convenience store. The company aims to provide its customers with a wider and more eclectic range of products than they’d find in a convenience store, and it delivers orders to customers in 30 minutes or less. Orders are fulfilled through its warehouses across the U.S. from the “dark convenience store.”

In order to meet the customer’s need for delivery, many convenience stores are turning to third-party delivery providers, but partnering with these companies comes at a cost. According to NACS’ “Last Mile Fulfillment in Convenience Retail” report, only 61% of retailers are satisfied with their third-party delivery partners. Concerns include high fees, little access to consumer data, difficulties delivering age-restricted products and service and operational issues. Read more about these challenges and what c-stores are doing to make delivery work for their businesses in “Delivering Convenience” in the December 2021 issue of NACS Magazine.