Martie Raises $7M to Deliver Discount Groceries
Grubhub reveals 2023's top dishes, Morgan Olson cuts van assemblers, NRF retracts shrinkage study
Evidently there’s still VC money to be had, as Martie founder Louise Fritjofsson just hauled in cash to disrupt the healthy grocery game. Plus, Grubhub’s revealed the top menu items of the past year; can you guess what they are? And we’ve got some bad news at both the NRF and Morgan Olson.
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Today:
Martie Raises $7M for Discount Grocery Delivery
Van Maker Morgan Olson Cuts Staff
Chart Time | Shrinkage Numbers Found Shady
Grubhub’s Top Dishes of 2023
GROCERIES | Martie Aims to Deliver Discount Health Food
A new online grocer just had its grand reveal — LA-based Martie — with a focus on discounted health food. The company, founded by Sweden-born Louise Fritjofsson, announced it raised $7 million from Upfront Ventures and Day One Ventures. The company aims to stock about 500 shelf-stable SKUs at a time, focusing on familiar brands like Justin’s, Annie and Kettle, before expanding into adjacent categories like personal care and home goods. Right now the emphasis is on slower speed delivery, coming via carrier in three to five days. The company claims its average order saves customers $54, as compared to a traditional store. The startup is also taking a page out of Instacart’s recent monetization playbook, and baking ad sales into the revenue structure from the start.
The Big Picture: Everybody loves discounts, but making those savings big enough to be worth the wait can be a tricky proposition. We’ve seen other online discounters struggle: Marc Lore’s Jet.com was shut down after it got bought by Walmart, bulk retailer Boxed.com went belly up earlier this year. And in an era where comparison shopping is easier than ever, it’s worth asking if Martie’s prices are that much lower than those you can find one click away? Perusing its groovy homepage we see Justin’s Vanilla Almond Nut Butter for $5.99. While Martie claims the “elsewhere price” is $11.99, it appears to actually be $7.49 at select Targets. Or maybe you want $2.19 sour cream Kettle chips; are those 21 cent savings enough to get you to switch from Amazon? Perhaps the real question is, how soon are you planning to make your lunch?
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VEHICLES | Delivery Van Maker Morgan Olson Cuts 908 Jobs
Morgan Olson may not be a household name, but it manufacturers the aluminum-bodied step vans that do the rounds for the likes of FedEx, UPS, Aramark, W.B. Mason, and Canada Post. Despite that impressive roster of clients, the company is still struggling with reduced demand for its vehicles; the company is laying off 908 workers across three plants in Tennessee, Michigan and Virginia; the latter factory just opened in 2020, and was projected to create 700 jobs in lieu of a closed IKEA. None of the plants are being fully idled; Morgan Olson hopes it can rehire the affected workers once parcel delivery demand picks back up.
The Big Picture: Morgan Olson is owned by Houston-based JB Poindexter & Co, which also controls vehicle brands like Reading Truck, EAVX, Morgan Truck Body, and Leer Group; many of those subsidiaries have also had cutbacks in recent months. While the company blames waning delivery demand impacting its largest customers, the problem may be closer to home… its vehicles look like they haven’t been updated in decades, making it harder and harder to go head-to-head against brands like Rivian and Brightdrop that not only offer lower running costs through electrification, but pack the inside of the cab with all sorts of doodads that enable workers to be more efficient themselves.
CHART TIME | Retail Theft Numbers Retracted
The National Retail Federation has been making a big stink lately, about a supposed spike in retail theft. But an investigation by Retail Dive finds that the lobbying org has been conflating all sorts of shrinkage, the vast majority of which is not external theft, and in general been quite messy with its numbers. The NRF has since gone on to retract its claim that nearly half of the industry’s $94.5 billion in missing merchandise was due to organized theft; experts say the true number is likely closer to 5%.
3PD | Grubhub’s 2023 Delivered Shows Few Surprises
At the end of the year, each 3PD puts out a “year in review” of some sort, and today it’s Grubhub’s turn. The deliverer is claiming this year’s big differentiator was a surge in spice, with 53 million items ordered with spicy add-ons. Top dishes with heat were spicy potato soft tacos, spicy chicken sandwiches, spicy tuna rolls, hot and sour soup and drunken noodles. The rest of the report is pretty unsurprising… finding that consumers liked items like: Diet Coke, iced coffee, classic cut french fires and (*drum roll*) cheese pizza. The company does note that pickle orders surged 89% YoY — we suppose that pairs well with the hot food.
The Big Picture: Other 3PDs find ways to make the data a bit more exciting: Deliveroo focuses on which new dishes are “trending” as a way to avoid highlighting the same foods year over year, while DoorDash focused on pairings. But instead of waiting until the end of the year to turn this data into lazy infographics, the 3PDs could do a much better job of making this information actionable (and monetizing it.) Imagine if restaurateurs’ customer insight dashboards included live data on what kind of menu items were surging in popularity, allowing operators to respond in real time and tap into trends. That would drive real value to not only the restaurant, but to the 3PDs and the end customers as well.
A Few Good Links
Instacart partners with Sharebite for workforce pantry orders and meal allowances. Would you drink the Doritos Nacho Cheese liquer? European delivery stocks stuck in $50 billion rut. GM to supply Autocar with hydrogen fuel cells. Republicans in Congress try to undo NLRB joint employer rule. Taco Bell tests frozen coffee and shakes. Wendy’s trials drive-thru AI. As CosMc launches, stroll through memory lane of past McDonald’s offshoots. Terminal wants to be “Plaid of trucking.” Sodexo scores U.K. gov’t contracts. COP28 climate talks falter. SBF was the “worst” witness, says defense counsel. Amazon drone delivery exec steps down. Millennials like shopping on their phones. Investors wanna buy Macy’s. Interview with DOT’s multimodal office head Allison Dane Camden. Feds seek 11 years behind bars for fraudulent truck startup Nikola’s founder.
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