PedidosYa launches dark grocery store in Uruguay

Contxto – Many grocery delivery platforms boast getting goods delivered to your doorstep in one to two hours. But Uruguayan PedidosYa wants to do so in 20 minutes. With its service, “Market,” it recently set up a dark grocery store in the Tres Cruces neighborhood in Montevideo.

No cashiers, just PedidosYa’s shoppers shifting through the warehouse to quickly find the requested items. They then hand the products off to the courier and they’re delivered to the final consumer. 

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PedidosYa also intends to open two new warehouses in other parts of Montevideo within a month. By the end of 2020, the platform hopes to have set up five of these dark grocery stores.

Likewise, users can already find the platform’s Market service in Chile and Argentina.

Grocery delivery competition coming in hot

This dark grocery store concept emerged through PedidosYa’s parent company, German Delivery Hero which acquired the Uruguayan startup back in 2014.

Now PedidosYa intends to expand this model throughout the Latam countries where it operates. So perhaps we’ll soon hear of its launch in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Panama, or the Dominican Republic.

Essentially only two competitors remain in the last-mile food delivery market in Uruguay: PedidosYa and Colombian Rappi. Undoubtedly this new addition is the startup’s latest attempt to oust the unicorn in speed and service.

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Rappi and Chilean-Mexican Cornershop have designated shoppers at commercial retailers to complete users’ grocery orders. But PedidosYa’s approach differs in that the warehouses belong to it. That of course does come with its own set of cash-burning implications: paying rent, stock management, contacting product vendors, etc. 

In exchange, it adds a layer of agility to the process of gathering the requested products as there’s no need to deal with lines to reach a cash register. And of course, within the Covid-19 context, the service reduces the risk of spreading the disease.

Looking at the bigger picture, Delivery Hero is really giving Rappi a run for its money. Both within its native Colombia and throughout the region.

Related articles: Tech and startups from Uruguay!

-ML