Getting groceries at home: 2 companies open warehouses to deliver all across Boise
Two companies looking to cash in on home delivery of groceries have opened small warehouses, one in Boise and one in Garden City.
Philadelphia-based Gopuff announced Monday that it has begun delivery from a 5,000-square-foot space at 5160 W. Overland Road, in the Hillcrest Shopping Center. That followed the recent opening of a 7,114-square-foot delivery warehouse run by San Francisco-based DashMart at 3840 W. Chinden Blvd. in Garden City.
For both companies, this is their first foray into operating grocery delivery warehouses in Idaho. DashMart, founded in 2020, is a division of DoorDash, which has delivered food from Boise-area restaurants for several years.
Neither warehouse is open to the public. Customers place orders online or through phone apps, and drivers pick up the items at the warehouses and deliver them to a home or office.
“Customers from the West Bench to Southeast Boise and everywhere in between can order their everyday essentials and have them delivered in about 30 minutes,” Gopuff said in a press release.
Gopuff charges a flat $1.95 delivery fee per order. Dash Mart, which also offers delivery within about a half-hour, charges 99 cents for delivery, plus a 15% service fee — and, for orders of less than $10, a $2.50 small-order fee.
A random check of prices offered by both companies showed that they’re higher than what you’d find at grocery stores but comparable with convenience stores. A 2-liter bottle of Coca Cola, which sells at Fred Meyer in Boise for $2.19, was listed on Gopuff and DashMart for $3.49. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, listed at Fred Meyer for $4.99, was $5.99 at both Gopuff and DashMart.
A half-gallon of Horizon organic reduced-fat milk, listed for $4.99 at Fred Meyer, was listed for $5.49 at Gopuff. DashMart does not carry that variety.
Fred Meyer charges $9.95 for delivery.
Separately, DoorDash delivers more than 40,000 items from Albertsons stores, including fresh and prepared foods, grocery items, flowers and convenience items. Those orders are placed on Albertsons’ website or the Boise grocer’s smartphone app.
DoorDash, founded in 2013 by a group of Stanford University students, took over those deliveries after Albertsons laid off hundreds of workers earlier this year and idled its own trucks that had been used for home grocery delivery. The DashMart store will be used to deliver goods from DoorDash’s own inventory and ordered through its app.
Both Gopuff and DashMart are seeking employees. Gopuff is looking to hire warehouse workers to receive shipments, pick items for orders, clean, and interact with delivery drivers; and is also seeking delivery drivers, who are independent contractors. DashMart is seeking warehouse pickers, a shift lead and an operations manager.
Gopuff was founded in 2013 by Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev while they were students at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The pair started out selling snacks and hookah supplies, which gave the company its name.
Gopuff also operates 166 BevMo! liquor stores in California, Washington and Arizona. Last fall, Gopuff bought the privately held chain for $350 million. The purchase came a month after Gopuff raised $380 million in an investment round that valued the company at $3.9 billion.
In June, Gopuff bought Liquor Barn, a Kentucky company that operates 23 stores in the Bluegrass State.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
