A look at the fight between six rapid grocery delivery startups in NYC, which raised $5.5B+ since 2020; sources: some are averaging a loss of $20+ per order
Jokr, Getir and Buyk are piling on freebies to build up a customer base in New York City — Since Hayoung Park moved to Manhattan last year … Tweets: @lpolgreen , @fka_tabs , @preetika_rana , @bmorrissey , @peter_atwater , @sub8u , @eliotwb , @ben_kaplan , @dannydougherty , @jensmithwsj , @doubleljsquared , @kevinroose , @kevinroose , and @hypervisible Tweets: Lydia Polgreen / @lpolgreen : I'm old enough to remember what happened the last time we did this. Kozmo anyone? https://twitter.com/... Rusty Foster / @fka_tabs : Kids born the day Kozmo dot com shut down will be legal to drink in 2 more months https://www.wsj.com/... Preetika Rana / @preetika_rana : Fast delivery, quick losses Fridge No More spent $70 to acquire an average customer, an investment on which it lost $78 loss for every customer who stayed for 10 months 🤯 My latest w/ @eliotwb https://www.wsj.com/... Brian Morrissey / @bmorrissey : What's crazy is NYC is probably the city that needs this the least https://twitter.com/... Peter Atwater / @peter_atwater : LOL - If this were a movie, they would call it “Webvan 2: Revenge of The Dead” https://twitter.com/... Subrahmanyam Kvj / @sub8u : Fast delivery, super fast burnout. Same whether in India or the US. “Fridge No More spent $70 on advertising to win the average customer, an investment that resulted in a $78 loss for every customer that stayed in the 10 months through September” https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... Eliot Brown / @eliotwb : At least 6 companies are competing to hand deliver $6 ben and jerry's pints and toothpaste in 20 mins in NYC, some without any delivery fee or minimum order btw they're burning gobs of cash every order https://www.wsj.com/... Ben Kaplan / @ben_kaplan : The grocery-delivery business is seeing the same kind of loss pressures that ride hailing (Uber, Lift) industry also struggled with. They are also receiving tons of investment (and likely high valuations) with businesses clearly in the red. https://www.wsj.com/... Danny Dougherty / @dannydougherty : It increasingly feels like everyone wishing to be “the Uber of [x]” is doing it on monkeys' paws https://www.wsj.com/... Jennifer Smith / @jensmithwsj : “The economics are brutal,” said Damir Becirovic, a principal at venture-capital firm Index Ventures, which hasn't invested in any of the startups. Via @eliotwb @Preetika_Rana https://www.wsj.com/... Laura Landry Forman / @doubleljsquared : My favorite summary quotes from this great @eliotwb and @Preetika_Rana story on rapid delivery: “The economics are brutal” and “It's the same story.” @WSJ https://www.wsj.com/... Kevin Roose / @kevinroose : Founders still out here doing the “sure the margins are terrible, but we'll make it up on volume” shtick like it's 2013, amazing stuff https://twitter.com/... Kevin Roose / @kevinroose : 10-minute delivery apps, last vestige of the millennial lifestyle subsidy: “Some of the companies are averaging a loss of over $20 per order” https://www.wsj.com/... @hypervisible : Startups mount massive losses—in some cases $20 per order—trying to become the dominant instant delivery company. https://www.wsj.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Rapid grocery delivery entered New York amid a delivery-market playbook that had already prioritized expanding supply and growth over profits, as seen in the earlier battle among major food-delivery platforms. Jokr, Getir, Buyk and their peers are applying that approach to instant groceries with customer giveaways despite reported per-order losses.
The strategy matters because later coverage records that many pandemic-era rapid-delivery companies retreated or shut down when the economics failed, while Gopuff’s subsequent rise-and-fall account similarly ties its reversal to fading pandemic demand. The NYC contest is therefore an early view of a heavily funded market testing whether convenience can outrun fulfillment costs.
First-order effects
- Jokr, Getir, Buyk and the other NYC contenders must fund freebies and customer acquisition while some operators average losses above $20 per order.
- Fridge No More’s reported $70 average acquisition cost and $78 loss per customer make repeat purchasing, rather than initial sign-ups, the immediate constraint on its New York expansion.
Second-order effects
- Each startup’s giveaways pressure rivals to match promotions or risk losing customers, extending losses across a market where at least six companies are chasing the same city.
- Investors that supplied more than $5.5B since 2020 face a sharper divide between operators that can retain customers after incentives and those whose growth depends on continued subsidy.
Third-order effects
- The later retrenchment of rapid-delivery startups indicates that rapid grocery is likely to consolidate around businesses able to make dense local fulfillment work without persistent promotional spending.
- The episode extends the delivery sector’s recurring tension between growth-led market capture and high operating costs, shifting the durable advantage toward capital endurance and repeat-demand economics.
The trend: Rapid grocery delivery is becoming a test of whether venture-funded local fulfillment can transition from incentive-led customer acquisition to sustainable repeat economics.