Ace Hardware taps Uber Eats for last-mile delivery
Ace Hardware partnered with Uber Eats to deliver home improvement supplies from 3,700+ stores on-demand. This expands Uber Eats beyond food into retail categories, competing with DoorDash's retail fulfillment services.
Major retailers are turning physical stores into fulfillment centers with gig delivery, creating faster local competition for Amazon/Walmart sellers in home improvement categories. Monitor your Buy Box share and delivery promise competitiveness in hardware, gardening, and repair supplies.
Physical retailers are weaponizing store networks for ultra-fast delivery, forcing online marketplaces to compete on speed rather than just selection and price.
Check Business Reports > Detail Page Sales and Traffic for home/garden ASINs -- if conversion drops, review delivery speed vs local competition.
Audit your FBA inventory levels in home improvement categories to maintain Prime delivery advantage over new local competitors.
Bottom Line
Local stores with gig delivery threaten online marketplace dominance in home categories.
Source Lens
Industry Context
Useful background context, but lower-priority than direct platform, community, or operator intelligence.
Impact Level
medium
Local stores with gig delivery threaten online marketplace dominance in home categories.
Key Stat / Trigger
3,700+ Ace Hardware stores now offer Uber Eats delivery
Focus on the operational implication, not just the headline.
Full Coverage
Ace Hardware has teamed up with Uber Eats to provide on-demand or scheduled delivery of gardening and home repair supplies from more than 3,7000 stores. The company announced last week that customers can use the Uber Easts app to shop from their neighborhood store and arrange delivery. The majority of Ace stores are independently owned and operated.
The partnership is the latest example of Uber Eats (NYSE: UBER) expanding its business model beyond food delivery into everyday retail categories, including home improvement, beauty and electronics.
Competitor DoorDash has also moved into the retail delivery space using its own neighborhood warehouses to forward stock goods from retailers, who use the DoorDash app to sell goods to consumers..
The Uber partnership also shows how retailers are increasingly relying on stores as fulfillment centers and their own dedicated delivery services to increase convenience and sales. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.
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push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); Target, for example, uses self-owned delivery service Shipt to provide same-day and next-day delivery from stories. Walmart uses its own delivery app to match gig drivers with store orders ready for shipping to a buyer’s doorstep.
“Whether they’re tackling a last-minute project or planning ahead, our customers now have greater access to fast, flexible solutions for getting the products they need delivered right to their doorstep,” said Bill Kiss, head of digital at Ace Hardware, in a news release. Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves. com. RELATED STORIES: Amazon to scale up drone delivery in 2026, CEO says DoorDash offers fulfillment service for retailers window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.
defineSlot('/21776187881/fw-responsive-main_content-slot3', [[728, 90], [468, 60], [320, 50], [300, 100]], 'div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0'). defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps. banner1). addService(googletag. pubads()); googletag. pubads(). enableSingleRequest(); googletag. pubads(). collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag. enableServices(); }); googletag. cmd.
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Original Source
This briefing is based on reporting from Freightwaves. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
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