By WSJ City

Walmart was caught off guard after it began offering to deliver fresh groceries from a store in North Bergen, N.J., earlier this month, only to find orders flooding in from across the Hudson River.

KEY FACTS

   -- Drivers from DoorDash balked at paying the usual $15 toll to cross into 
      Manhattan, store workers said. 
 
   -- One driver was offered $11 to make the trip. Some orders were never 
      filled. 
 
   -- "We never would have gone in with the intention that this would work with 
      $11," said a Walmart spokesperson. 
 
   -- "We offered additional incentive to drivers to finish the orders that 
      came in," she said. 
 
   -- The spokesperson said the company then stopped offering deliveries to 
      Manhattan after a few days.

Why This Matters

The mistake shows the hurdles Walmart and other large grocers face as they race to expand fresh-food delivery and gain an edge in one of the fastest-growing e-commerce segments.

Despite Walmart's resources and more than 1.5m US workers, it mainly relies on a patchwork of independent companies to expand its delivery services as quickly, broadly and cheaply as possible. For drivers at those delivery firms, the economics of shuttling Walmart's and other grocers' orders don't always make sense.

A fuller story is available on WSJ.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 15, 2019 05:34 ET (09:34 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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