Doordash Adds Grocery Delivery From Major Chains in the Midwest and California

Well, this might take one item off your weekend to-do list. On Friday, DoorDash announced that it had partnered with three grocery chains to launch grocery delivery through the DoorDash app. The new service will be rolling out in parts of California and in five cities in the midwest, with plans to expand throughout the country in the next several weeks.

In California, delivery will be available in the Bay Area, the Central Coast, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, and San Diego, and customers can place their orders through Smart & Final. In Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee, residents can choose from either Fresh Thyme or Meijer. According to DoorDash, it will add Hy-Vee, D'agostino, and Gristedes to its platform "in the coming weeks," which will bring its delivery services to the literal doorsteps of more than 75 million people.

"DoorDash provides another convenient way for customers to get the value, selection and quality that Smart & Final offers, especially at a time when some are looking to limit trips outside their homes," Navin Cotton, Smart & Final's Director of Digital Commerce, said in a statement. "DoorDash's on-demand grocery service is a nice addition to our online shopping options and with delivery in under an hour, we know Smart & Final customers are going to appreciate it."

DoorDash says that the new service will allow its customers to select from more than 10,000 items from the participating stores, and that everything will be available on-demand and delivered within an hour. (So no waiting until, like, 10 p.m. on Wednesday night to get the cream cheese that you ordered over the weekend.) The participating grocery stores are also available through DashPass, the app's subscription service — and both new and previous DashPass members can get $15 off the next grocery or convenience store order that they place during the week of August 24.

In July, Uber announced the launch of its own grocery delivery service, the cleverly named Uber Grocery. The service debuted in "select cities" in Latin America and Canada, before rolling out to Miami and Dallas. Uber said that it planned to expand its grocery availability to additional customers and additional retail partners in the near future.

Just over a week later, Instacart filed a lawsuit against Uber's grocery delivery partner Cornershop, alleging that it had stolen its product images and other intellectual property. "The lawsuit makes clear that Cornershop is engaging in a systematic effort to illegally steal Instacart's proprietary catalog while attempting to conceal that theft for its own commercial benefit," Instacart said in a statement. "In light of the egregious behavior exhibited by Cornershop, we believe this legal action is necessary to protect our business and retail partners from Cornershop's ongoing theft."

An Uber spokesperson shrugged the accusations off. "Cornershop will be responding to this complaint but won't be deterred in bringing grocery delivery to more customers in the U.S.," the company told Food & Wine at the time.

So good luck, to DoorDash! If it gets through the next two weeks without any kind of legal battle (other than the one it's already in with the city of San Francisco), then it's probably ahead of the game.