DoorDash to stop delivering Walmart orders in September

TL;DR

• DoorDash will stop accepting orders from Walmart next month.
• Both parties confirmed the end to their partnership.
• Walmart plans to buy the third-party company behind its crowdsourced Spark Delivery program.

A report from Insider cites that DoorDash and Walmart have ended their partnership which will become effective in September after the 30-day notice that the former sent will end. The decision is evidently mutual with the respective spokesperson of each company validating it through statements published on The Verge.

Walmart’s Spark Delivery

DoorDash’s decision is not surprising in any case since Walmart has been working on its crowdsourced delivery platform called Spark for years now. Walmart has even announced the intention to buy the third-party company, Delivery Drive, behind its Spark Delivery program.

The Spark service was rolled out in select cities in 2018 but immediately expanded in other states after a couple of years. It works when a user orders groceries online from Walmart and then an independent driver enrolled through the platform will accept it and pick up the grocery from Walmart before dropping at the designated address. Overall, Spark has a similar crowdsource system to Uber.

While Walmart is now out in the picture, DoorDash has formed a new alliance with Meta. DoorDash will deliver orders made from the Facebook Marketplace. The pilot program launched by the two companies only caters for eligible orders. It requires that the items should fit on a car trunk and the delivery address should be within the 15-mile (24 km) distance from the pickup point.