Kroger said yesterday that its pure-play e-grocery service, Kroger Delivery, now is serving "customers in South Florida with the opening of a new spoke location in Miami. The 60,000-square-foot spoke facility, in collaboration with the Fulfillment Center in Groveland, FL, will serve as a last-mile cross-dock location that efficiently expands Kroger Delivery's ability to serve more customers."
Kroger said that "this expansion represents an extension of a partnership between Kroger and Ocado, a world leader in technology for grocery e-commerce. In 2018, the companies announced a collaboration to establish a delivery network that combines artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, and automation in a bold new way, bringing first-of-its-kind technology to America. Through the hub-and-spoke delivery network, the organization now serves customers in Central Florida, Tampa, Jacksonville, and now South Florida, without traditional brick-and-mortar stores."
- KC's View:
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I've said from the beginning that Kroger's willingness to expand its e-grocery infrastructure so it can serve markets in which it does not have stores is one of the most interesting and potentially consequential things it has done.
We know about Florida. We know about Texas. But I'm still curious to see where in the northeastern US it plans to roll its pure-play e-grocery service out. The northeast is a big place in terms of having different markets, and it depends on real estate availabilities and which entities Kroger wants to compete with. I tend to think of upstate and western New York, because while it would put Kroger in competition with Wegmans, it also might set Kroger up to eventually acquire Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops as way of bolstering a digital initiative with some bricks and mortar. But that's just an uninformed guess on my part.
