With its statewide investment in infrastructure, Amazon could someday cut into that with its potential to deliver more items to Floridians’ homes than Publix. While Publix seeks to compete in the e-commerce game by delivering through Instacart, Amazon and Walmart have been heavy players in this arena, selling the most groceries via e-commerce across in the United States.
Publix continues to field other threats to its business, including Kroger Delivery, which without any brick-and-mortar stores, rolled into the state last year with home delivery service for central Florida. The No. 1 sales leader in store-bought groceries later announced plans to open another hub in South Florida.
Amazon does not publish any breakdown of its fresh food sales from the rest of its sales figures; however, Talbott said, “They are still tiny,” in terms of grocery sales in Florida that he estimated at $10 billion. “They don’t publish specific data on grocery so it’s difficult to gauge overall impact on the business from a financial standpoint,” Talbott said. “But my guess is that Publix is much larger in Florida and probably larger overall in fresh food that is perishable.”
“What makes the Uptown Boca Amazon Fresh different from the other 18 Amazon Fresh stores now open nationwide is what appears to be a drive-thru,” Acosta wrote in her Sept. 7 report. With the announcement of two Amazon Fresh stores in addition to Whole Foods, Amazon will gain more in-person retail space for groceries. As the in-person retail space at Amazon increases, that could help them gain customers, Talbott explained.
“I don’t think either of these entities will have the breadth of assortment that Publix offers,” Talbott said. “They are both working hard to use their stores as ‘warehouses’ with curbside and instore pickup.” Otherwise, Instacart delivery at Publix starts at $3.99 for same-day orders of $35 or more with a minimum purchase of $10. However, additional fees can be assessed for one-hour deliveries, deliveries under $35 as well as alcoholic beverages and extra heavy orders.
Publix first partnered with Instacart in 2016 to launch same-day delivery in as little as one hour. Since then, Publix and Instacart have expanded the partnership and introduced curbside pickup from nearly all stores; alcohol delivery and pickup in select states including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia; EBT SNAP payments across all store locations; and Publix Quick Picks – a 30-minute virtual convenience delivery offering.
“Over the years, we’ve worked to build one of the largest grocery catalogs in the world on behalf of our retailer partners – allowing retailers to gain important data and unmatched insights on their customers’ preferences and shopping habits,” reports Instacart. “We send retail partners daily transaction logs detailing 100% of transaction information. Among the data are the customer’s name, email address, loyalty care but only if the customer chooses to opt-in to share their data.
“My understanding without Instacart coming out and saying it is, that my interpretation is they are going in a different direction, and they don’t want to hurt their relationships with the grocery stores,” Yanez said. “If the fulfillment is through third party, that’s fine in the short run,” Talbott said. “Other side of pandemic Publix needs to see if consumer behavior is permanently changed with many more customers preferring delivery or pick-up.”