Trader Joe’s has decided to nix its longtime delivery program in New York, according to Business Insider.
The retailer does not plan to add delivery in other markets, either, and it has cited costs as the reason.
Obviously, this move comes during a time when Walmart, Kroger and other retailers are investing heavily in online order fulfillment, in part to compete with Amazon and its burgeoning grocery aspirations. Instacart’s value has ballooned to more than $7 billion as supermarkets feel the need to have pickup and delivery as options for their shoppers.
With a desirable private brand and strong customer service (according to Newsweek), however, Trader Joe’s plans to go a different direction.
In its recent report ranking retailers by both financial performance and emotional connection to shoppers, dunnhumby wrote about Trader Joe’s as an example of how it is possible for a supermarket to go against the grain of the dominant trend of adding online options.
“Trader Joe’s is a prime example of a retailer making trade-offs in order to deliver superior value ... ” dunnhumby wrote in the report. “With its small format, lack of digital shopping and limited national brand offering, the retailer focuses on speed of in-store shopping and having a rich private brand offering.
“This bricks and mortar-only, private brand approach minimizes costs and keeps prices low, allowing them to pad margins and reinvest in customer service, product quality and in-store experience,” dunnhumby wrote. “This strategy sacrifices reaching customers through a growing digital channel and breadth of assortment — particularly in non-food items — and therefore Trader Joe’s loses on one-stop shop-ability and convenience. However, this loss is also their gain, since it allows them to be excellent at what matters most to their customers.”