Walmart ended its grocery delivery partnerships with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, undercutting the chain’s plans to take on Amazon with quick delivery of food and household items to customers’ homes, Reuters reported. The decision marks an abrupt end to a relationship that Walmart and Uber touted in June 2016.
Uber ended the arrangement as recently as March and told Walmart it would cease delivery operations on June 30. The retailer previously had said Uber was a partner in its plans to deliver groceries to more than 40% of the country. The partnership with Lyft never expanded outside a pilot program in Denver.
Walmart plans to use other delivery service providers like Deliv, Postmates and DoorDash in the four markets where it had partnered with Uber. A Walmart spokesperson told Reuters that the canceled partnerships won’t affect the retailer’s plans to scale grocery delivery and that customers shouldn’t notice any interruption in operations during the transition.
